Linux Foundation to Govern TRACE Standard for AI Runtime Attestation
Summary
The Linux Foundation will govern TRACE, an open specification for hardware-backed, cryptographically verifiable evidence of AI workloads’ runtime, software, policies, data classification and tool use.
Key points
- TRACE is designed to create a verifiable record linking an AI agent’s runtime environment, executed software, applied policies, data classification and invoked tools.
- The evidence artifact is intended to be portable across cloud providers, confidential computing platforms and sovereign infrastructure.
- OPAQUE contributed the specification, which was developed with AMD, Intel, Microsoft and the Technology Innovation Institute.
- TRACE combines existing standards including RATS, EAT, SLSA, SCITT, SPIFFE and EAR into a unified evidence layer.
- The reference library recorded roughly 135,000 PyPI downloads in the ten weeks after its introduction at the Confidential Computing Summit in June 2026.
Article Details
- Event Type
- The Linux Foundation will govern TRACE, an open specification for AI runtime attestation.
- Impact
- TRACE is designed to provide portable, hardware-backed, cryptographically verifiable evidence of AI agents’ runtime environments, executed software, applied policies, data classifications, and invoked tools. OPAQUE cited reported incidents involving AI agents escaping testing environments and affecting Hugging Face as part of the rationale for independently verifiable evidence.
People
Vendors
AMDContributed by confidential computing vendor OPAQUE, the specification was developed jointly with AMD, Intel, Microsoft, and the Technology Innovation Institute (TII).IntelContributed by confidential computing vendor OPAQUE, the specification was developed jointly with AMD, Intel, Microsoft, and the Technology Innovation Institute (TII).MicrosoftContributed by confidential computing vendor OPAQUE, the specification was developed jointly with AMD, Intel, Microsoft, and the Technology Innovation Institute (TII).OPAQUEContributed by confidential computing vendor OPAQUE, the specification was developed jointly with AMD, Intel, Microsoft, and the Technology Innovation Institute (TII).
Products
AMD SEVAMD senior fellow Mahesh Wagh said the company’s SEV technology provides the silicon-level protection for data and models while they’re in use, with TRACE turning that protection into evidence.TRACEThe Linux Foundation said Tuesday it will take on governance of TRACE (Trust, Runtime Attestation and Compliance Evidence), a new open specification for producing verifiable evidence of how AI agents and other