The short answer
Cite the draft for the rules, the DOI for the data. In text: "AER-1 (draft-zambo-aer1-26) specifies a small vocabulary for recording one AI agent tool call as a portable, independently checkable execution receipt." In a reference list, use the BibTeX below. For conformance claims, cite the dataset: "AER-1 Conformance Kit, DOI 10.57967/hf/11245," and name the kit version (v1.5.7) and the corpus counts you relied on (126 vectors, 129 checks), because the corpus can grow and the draft says the published record governs when it does.
Scope, stated once: an agent receipt is a record of one ai agent tool call that anyone can check: it keeps the exact saved bytes and their sha-256 digest, and it proves the result was not changed since it was saved, not that it was right.
Reference 1: the IETF draft
Zambo, B., "AER-1: A Portable Execution Receipt for AI Agent Tool Calls", draft-zambo-aer1-26, IETF Internet-Draft, October 22, 2026. datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-zambo-aer1/26/
@misc{zambo-aer1-26,
author = {Brennan Zambo},
title = {AER-1: A Portable Execution Receipt for AI Agent Tool Calls},
howpublished = {IETF Internet-Draft draft-zambo-aer1-26},
year = {2026},
month = {October},
url = {https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-zambo-aer1/26/},
note = {Intended status: Informational. Expires 25 April 2027}
}
Cite the revision number every time. The receipt format's core rules have been stable across revisions, but sections were added and corrected as independent implementers reported findings, so a claim about a specific section belongs to a specific revision. Revision -26 is the closing revision: the author has ended the sequence, and the kit and packages cite it.
Reference 2: the conformance kit dataset
Zambo, B., "AER-1 Conformance Kit", Hugging Face dataset, DOI: 10.57967/hf/11245. The dataset carries the vector corpus, the runners, and the card that describes them.
@misc{zambo-aer1-kit,
author = {Brennan Zambo},
title = {AER-1 Conformance Kit},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Hugging Face dataset},
doi = {10.57967/hf/11245},
url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/zambodotdev/aer1-conformance-kit},
note = {Kit v1.5.7: 126 vectors, 129 checks}
}
The DOI is the right citation for anything empirical: a pass claim, a vector count, a digest. DOIs resolve to the dataset as published, which is what a reader needs to reproduce your result.
The corpus numbers, as published
- 126 vectors, 129 checks, kit v1.5.7, draft-zambo-aer1-26.
- Evaluated-set digest: sha256:ccaff18aba8f4e70aacf8a469403e9a6f12f025ad39df88079398bbe13100ce8
- Base corpus digest: sha256:b9a740e75c1d01a666d952d6037f9816d791e9bc0bfcef55a4e0d43c02cceb87
- Seven bundled runners (Rust, Go, TypeScript, Python, Java, C#, Swift), each verified against the full corpus, plus independent implementations and verifiers built from the draft text alone.
Every number above is stated by the corpus file itself at zambo.dev/aer1/corpus.json. If the corpus grows, that file's counts and digests are the current ones, exactly as the draft provides: the published record governs. Check there before reusing a number from this page in a citation of your own.
Questions, answered
Which AER-1 revision should I cite?
Cite draft-zambo-aer1-26, posted October 22, 2026. It is the closing revision of the draft: the author has ended the revision sequence, and the packages and conformance kit all cite -26. If you are quoting a specific rule, cite the section number as well, because earlier revisions differ in details even where the receipt format itself did not change.
What is the DOI for the AER-1 conformance kit?
The conformance kit dataset on Hugging Face carries DOI 10.57967/hf/11245. Cite the DOI when you reference the corpus, a conformance result, or a vector count, because the DOI resolves to the dataset as published, while the live corpus at zambo.dev can grow. The draft handles that growth explicitly: when the corpus grows beyond the counts stated in the draft, the published record governs.
Is AER-1 an RFC or a standard?
No. AER-1 is an IETF Internet-Draft, intended status Informational. An Internet-Draft is a working document of the IETF, not an RFC and not a finalized standard, and this page and the draft itself say so. Cite it as an Internet-Draft, with its revision number and date, the way you would cite any draft in progress.
Can I verify the corpus numbers on this page myself?
Yes. The corpus is served publicly at zambo.dev/aer1/corpus.json and states its own counts and digests: 126 vectors, 129 checks, kit v1.5.7, evaluated-set digest sha256:ccaff18aba8f4e70aacf8a469403e9a6f12f025ad39df88079398bbe13100ce8. Recompute the digest from the listed files and hashes and compare; that recomputation, not this page, is the authority.