A Proposed Standard for Cognitive Ports

This technical note introduces the concept of Cognitive Ports and proposes the Open Cognitive Ports Specification (OpenCPS), a transport-independent declarative architecture for identifying, documenting, and governing operational capabilities exposed to Large Language Models (LLMs), autonomous agents, and other cognitive consumers. Developed from applied engineering activities at LiiaLabs — Laboratory for Innovation in Artificial Intelligence, the proposal addresses an emerging architectural challenge: the need to catalog and govern cognitive interaction surfaces independently of traditional network endpoints, implementation technologies, and communication protocols. Unlike conventional API endpoints, Cognitive Ports represent governed operational capabilities through stable canonical identifiers, explicit semantic contracts, authorization requirements, operational safety policies, implementation bindings, and controlled execution lifecycles. The proposed OpenCPS architecture is organized into five complementary dimensions: Identity & Classification: Canonical capability identifiers, versioning, ownership, operational categories, and architectural positioning. Semantic Contract: Cognitive-facing descriptions, structured input/output schemas, operational intent, preconditions, and expected effects. Governance, Safety & Authority: Access permissions, cognitive consumer allowlists, tenant and resource-level authorization, data classification, and approval policies. Implementation & Binding: Explicit relationships between canonical capabilities and their implementations across enterprise software, REST/OpenAPI, MCP, OPC UA, Asset Administration Shell (AAS), and embedded systems. Execution & Lifecycle: Controlled preparation, authenticated confirmation, state revalidation, idempotency, reconciliation, observability, and auditing. The architecture distinguishes three operational categories of Cognitive Ports: Perception, Computation & Simulation, and Actuation. For operations with external effects, the paper describes an execution lifecycle based on authorize → prepare → confirm → execute, ensuring that probabilistic cognitive interpretation remains separated from deterministic authorization and execution decisions enforced by the host system. The proposal is grounded in engineering experience and operational components implemented within LiiaLabs' Central API infrastructure. Its extension into a complete open specification, including formal schemas, conformance criteria, and industrial interoperability bindings, remains under development. OpenCPS is presented as a proposed architectural specification, not as an established industry standard or an experimentally validated universal solution. Series: Applied Cognitive Architecture — Article I