The VEIL Standard

V · E · I · L — Generative Permission Standard for AI-Assisted Creative Work

VEIL is a portable, signed permission envelope that a creator declares before an AI-assisted generation session begins. It specifies the intensity range the work requires across eight content axes — a ceiling the session must not exceed, and an optional floor the work must not be sanitised below.

VEIL expresses the author's target but never overrides a model's own gating.

VEIL is the generation-side companion to the SHOW Standard (content classification of finished work) and the SCRIPTS Standard (experience rating). Works generated under a VEIL envelope should receive a SHOW rating at or below their VEIL ceilings.

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The context object

A VEIL envelope is a JSON object issued by a platform at the verification tier it can substantiate:

{
  "veil_version": "1.1",
  "context_id": "a1b2c3d4-0001",
  "verified_at": "2026-08-08T09:00:00+10:00",
  "verification_tier": "A",
  "verification_method": "government_id",
  "issuing_platform": "example_platform",
  "creator_id": "creator-0001",
  "jurisdiction": "AU",
  "axes": {
    "S": { "floor": 0, "ceiling": 5 },
    "H": { "floor": 2, "ceiling": 5 },
    "O": { "floor": 2, "ceiling": 5 },
    "W": { "floor": 0, "ceiling": 10 },
    "V": { "floor": 0, "ceiling": 5 },
    "E": { "floor": 2, "ceiling": 5 },
    "I": { "floor": 0, "ceiling": 5 },
    "L": { "floor": 1, "ceiling": 3 }
  },
  "lane": "18+",
  "content_type": "fiction",
  "signature": "[HMAC-SHA256 of payload]"
}

Validate against veil-context.schema.json:

# Node
npx ajv-cli validate -s veil-context.schema.json -d my-envelope.json

# Python
pip install jsonschema && python -c "
import json, jsonschema
jsonschema.validate(json.load(open('my-envelope.json')),
                    json.load(open('veil-context.schema.json')))
print('valid')"

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The eight axes

Four axes are imported directly from SHOW; four are VEIL-specific. Axis definitions for S·H·O·W live in the SHOW Standard and are not restated here.

Axis	Name	Source	Range	Governs
S	Spice	SHOW	0–6	Sexual content category and type
H	Heat	SHOW	0–5	Emotional and romantic intensity
O	OMG	SHOW	0–5	Darkness, trauma, moral complexity
W	WTF	SHOW	0–10	Transgression and unconventionality
V	Violence	VEIL	0–5	Physical harm and conflict intensity
E	Explicit	VEIL	0–5	Volume and generative depth of explicit content
I	Identity	VEIL	0–5	Complexity of identity treatment
L	Language	VEIL	0–3	Adult language register

        

Full level tables for V, E, I, L are in the specification.

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Ceilings and floors

Ceiling — the maximum intensity authorised for the session. Floor — the minimum intensity the work requires. Sanitisation below a declared floor is a generation failure, the same as excess above a ceiling. Floors default to 0 (no minimum).

A dark-fiction author declaring O: { "floor": 3, "ceiling": 5 } has established that the work requires OMG at level 3 or above; output flattened to O0 has failed the envelope.

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Verification tiers

Envelopes are issued at the tier the platform can substantiate. Higher tiers unlock higher ceilings.

Tier	Label	Method
U	Unverified	Anonymous / guest
D	Device	Session token / logged-in
C	Platform	Self-declared age, platform trust
B	Soft Verify	Card / age estimation / trust score
A	Hard Verify	Government ID / certified biometric

Per-tier ceiling values are in the specification.

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Standard age profiles

Five ready-to-use profiles in profiles/:

File	Profile	Audience
veil-u13.json	VEIL-U13	Under 13
veil-13.json	VEIL-13	Early YA
veil-16.json	VEIL-16	Upper YA
veil-18.json	VEIL-18	Adult (Tier B)
veil-18v.json	VEIL-18V	Adult (Tier A hard verify)

Each contains the full eight-axis floor/ceiling set from the specification, ready to drop into a platform's persona storage.

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Absolute limits

Two categories sit outside VEIL's scope at every level and every tier: sexual content involving minors and operational harm instruction. These are jurisdictional legal requirements, not platform additions. No envelope places them in scope. See the specification.

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Implementing

Platforms — store a VEIL profile per creator or persona, issue envelopes at your substantiated tier, sign with HMAC-SHA256, rotate context_id per session.

Providers — accept the envelope as a structured prefix or a dedicated parameter, validate the signature before applying above-default ceilings, log context IDs for audit, publish compliance status.

The full implementer section is in the specification.

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Versioning

Current: v1.1 (August 2026). See the specification for history and the v1.2 roadmap.

Licence & attribution

The VEIL Standard · Created by Modern Media Mastery & LMDC · held in trust by r8rly.org · verified on r8rly.com

Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Free to implement and extend. Attribution required; derivatives share-alike. The R8rly platform mark and VEIL certification badge remain protected and require platform certification.

https://r8rly.com/veil