The Update Framework (TUF)
TUF (The Update Framework) is a CNCF graduated framework for securing software update systems. It provides a specification for how software repositories should be structured and how clients should verify updates to protect against key compromise, rollback attacks, and mix-and-match attacks. TUF is used by many package managers and update systems including PyPI, Sigstore, and various Linux distributions. The framework defines a four-role metadata structure (root, targets, snapshot, timestamp) with threshold signing and delegation capabilities for scalable trust management.
Real signal across most facets with visible, nameable gaps — the contract exists but is thin, or the portal is good while governance and commercial terms are absent.
API Evangelist profiles The Update Framework (TUF) the way a machine reads it — 22 machine-readable artifacts across 7 APIs, pulled from the provider's own public surface and indexed so a developer, an analyst, or an AI agent can evaluate it against every other provider on the network.
Every provider in the network is reduced to the same set of machine-readable artifacts — OpenAPI contracts, event specifications, GraphQL schemas, runnable collections, pricing and rate-limit signals, security posture, OAuth scopes, and the agent surfaces (MCP servers and skills) that let software drive the API on its own. We profile them because the interface is the part of a company you can actually inspect: it is a truer signal of what a provider does than any marketing page. From those artifacts we compute the Kin Score — The Update Framework (TUF) scores 45.6/100 (developing), with a separate agent-readiness read of 7/100 (human only). The full breakdown is below, followed by every artifact we hold — each card links through to its machine-readable definition on apis.io.
Kin Score
This is the API Evangelist rating — a single, repeatable read computed from the artifacts on this page. Green fill is points earned; the red track is points possible, so every bar shows earned-versus-possible at a glance.
Kin Score
How this is scored →scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5
How we profile The Update Framework (TUF)
Each block below is one kind of artifact we hold for The Update Framework (TUF). For each we say what it is and why it earns a place in the profile, then list every one we've indexed — capped at two rows, scroll within the panel for the rest.
APIs 7
Each API is captured as its own OpenAPI definition — every operation, parameter, and response. This is the single most useful machine-readable description of what an API does, and it's what lets us score, lint, mock, and generate against it without asking the provider for anything.
Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.
TUF Repository Specification
The TUF specification defines the structure of update repositories including the root, targets, snapshot, and timestamp metadata files. Each metadata file has a defined schema w...
TUF Python Reference Implementation
The official Python reference implementation of The Update Framework (TUF) specification. Provides a metadata API for reading and writing TUF metadata files, an ngclient API imp...
TUF Go Implementation
A Go implementation of The Update Framework (TUF), heavily influenced by python-tuf's design. Provides metadata, TrustedMetadata, and Updater packages implementing the TUF clien...
TUF Rust Implementation
A Rust implementation of The Update Framework (TUF) specification providing a strongly-typed API for working with TUF metadata, verifying signatures, and implementing the TUF cl...
TUF JavaScript Implementation
A JavaScript/TypeScript implementation of The Update Framework (TUF) for use in Node.js environments and browser-based update systems. Enables TUF-compliant software update veri...
TUF on CI
A TUF repository management and signing tool designed for use in CI/CD pipelines. Enables teams to maintain a TUF repository using GitHub Actions and other CI systems for automa...
TUF Conformance Test Suite
The official TUF client conformance test suite for verifying that TUF client implementations correctly implement the TUF specification, including proper handling of all attack v...
Scroll within the panel for all 7 ·
Pricing Plans 1
Pricing is part of the interface. Machine-readable plans tell you what a tier costs and includes before you commit — one of the six things the Kin Score reads for commercial clarity.
Published pricing tiers and plan structures.
Tuf Plans Pricing
PLANSRate Limits 1
Rate limits are the difference between a demo that works and a production integration that doesn't fall over. Publishing them is an operational-transparency signal — and a hard requirement for any agent that plans its own throughput.
Documented rate limits and quota policies.
Tuf Rate Limits
RATE LIMITSFinOps 1
Cost, billing, and metering signals let a buyer model the financial operations of an API before it's live. We profile them for the same reason we profile pricing: the money is part of the contract.
Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.
Tuf Finops
FINOPSSemantic Vocabularies 1
JSON-LD contexts give the data shared meaning across APIs. We profile them because semantics are what let a machine reconcile 'customer' here with 'customer' somewhere else.
JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.
Tuf Context
JSON-LDSpectral Rules 1
Governance rulesets we run against this provider's specs — the automated checks behind parts of the score. Profiling them makes the quality bar explicit and re-runnable, not a matter of opinion.
The Update Framework (TUF) API Rules
SPECTRALJSON Schema 4
Standalone JSON Schema definitions describe the data models behind the API. We profile them so the shapes are validatable on their own — useful long after a single request is forgotten.
Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.
TUF Root Metadata
JSON SCHEMATUF Snapshot Metadata
JSON SCHEMATUF Targets Metadata
JSON SCHEMATUF Timestamp Metadata
JSON SCHEMAJSON Structure 2
JSON Structure captures the data shapes in a form built for tooling — a complement to JSON Schema that keeps the model machine-legible.
JSON Structure definitions describing this provider's data shapes.
Tuf Root Metadata Structure
JSON STRUCTURETuf Targets Metadata Structure
JSON STRUCTUREExamples 3
Real request and response payloads are what turn a spec from abstract into obvious — and they're one of the twelve things an agent needs to call an API correctly on the first try.
Example request and response payloads for these APIs.
Tuf Root Metadata Example
EXAMPLETuf Targets Metadata Example
EXAMPLESecurity Posture 1
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals — the evidence that a provider takes security seriously enough to document it. We profile it because you can't govern what you can't see.
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.
Resources
Every other property we hold for The Update Framework (TUF) — documentation, portals, status pages, policies, and corporate surface — grouped by the job it does, following the integrator's arc from getting started to running in production.
Get Started 1
Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call
Documentation 6
Reference material describing how the API behaves
Design & Contract 2
Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events
Build 2
SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with
Access & Security 1
Authentication, authorization, and security posture
Operate 1
Status, limits, changes, and where to get help
Company 2
The organization behind the API
Other 1
Properties that don't map to a standard resource type
← All providers · Data indexed from github.com/api-evangelist/tuf · machine-readable index on apis.io