OAA is an open, portable archive format for original comic art collection data.
This page explains SPEC.md; it does not add requirements.
Specification release 1.0.0 uses manifest schema_version: "1.0".
Release tags use MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH. Manifest compatibility identifiers use MAJOR.MINOR; they are exact identifiers, not strings to sort to decide support. Readers declare the versions they implement. An unsupported version is an unsupported-input result, not proof that the archive is invalid.
Patch releases cannot change archive validity or the manifest version. Compatible optional additions may appear in a later 1.x revision. New required fields, incompatible semantics, and additions to closed base value sets require a new major schema version. Unknown optional fields do not change the meaning of known base fields.
The 1.0 schema lives at schema/1.0/oaa-manifest.schema.json. Its $id identifies the immutable v1.0.0 publication URL. Local validation uses the checked-in file without network access.
The historical 0.1 schema and 0.1 requirements remain unchanged. Release v0.1.2 preserves the complete earlier contract. The reference validator in this checkout implements 1.0 only; 0.1 is reported as unsupported.
Supporting or migrating 0.1 is a separate, optional capability. Changing the version string alone is not a migration. See the migration checklist.