SMPTE AG 28
Administrative Guideline

Document Library — Repo Spec (Structure)

Draft - Tue Mar 17 2026 01:10:45 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Copyright © 2026, Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced, by any means whatsoever, without the prior written permission of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers.

Warning: This document is an unpublished work under development and shall not be referred to as a SMPTE Standard, Recommended Practice, or Engineering Guideline. It is distributed for review and comment; distribution does not constitute publication. Recipients of this document are strongly encouraged to submit, with their comments, notification of any relevant patent rights of which they are aware and to provide supporting documentation.

Table of contents🔗

  1. Foreword
  2. 1 Scope
  3. 2 Conformance
  4. 3 Normative references
  5. 4 Terms and definitions
  6. 5 Concepts
    1. 5.1 Standards document repository
    2. 5.2 Suite
    3. 5.3 Document
      1. 5.3.1 General
      2. 5.3.2 Short name
    4. 5.4 Version
      1. 5.4.1 General
      2. 5.4.2 Short name
  7. 6 Structure
    1. 6.1 General
    2. 6.2 Suite directory
    3. 6.3 Document directory
    4. 6.4 Version directory
  8. Additional elements

Foreword🔗

The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) is an internationally-recognized standards developing organization. Headquartered and incorporated in the United States of America, SMPTE has members in over 80 countries on six continents. SMPTE’s Engineering Documents, including Standards, Recommended Practices, and Engineering Guidelines, are prepared by SMPTE’s Technology Committees. Participation in these Committees is open to all with a bona fide interest in their work. SMPTE cooperates closely with other standards-developing organizations, including ISO, IEC and ITU. SMPTE Engineering Documents are drafted in accordance with the rules given in its Standards Operations Manual.

For more information, please visit www.smpte.org.

This Standards Administrative Guideline forms an adjunct to the use and interpretation of the SMPTE Standards Operations Manual. In the event of a conflict, the Operations Manual shall prevail.

1 Scope🔗

This administrative guideline specifies the structure of the standards document repository, which is the canonical collection of documents published by the SMPTE standards community.

2 Conformance🔗

The following keywords have a specific meaning in the context of this document:

3 Normative references🔗

The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.

4 Terms and definitions🔗

No terms and definitions are listed in this document.

5 Concepts🔗

5.1 Standards document repository🔗

The standards document repository is collection of documents and suites.

5.2 Suite🔗

A suite is a collection of related documents.

A suite is associated with the following metadata:

root
Root number of the suite
title
Title of the suite.

No two suites shall have the same root.

EXAMPLE —⁠ SMPTE ST 377-1 and SMPTE ST 377-4 belong to the suite of document with a root number of 377 and the suite title of Material Exchange Format (MXF).

5.3 Document🔗

5.3.1 General🔗

A document is a collection of versions.

A document is associated with the following metadata:

type
Standard, Recommended Practice, Engineering Guideline, Overview, or Registered Disclosure Document
Number
Number of the document.
title
Title of the document.
state
Active, Withdrawn or Stabilized
statement
If the state is Withdrawn or Stabilized, the statement contains the date the state last changed and, if the state is Withdrawn, additionally contains text explaining the reasons for the withdrawal.
icsNumbers
If present, contains a set of one or more ICS numbers for the document, as specified in International Classification for Standards (ICS).
notes
If present, contains informative notes about the document in the context of the standards document repository.

No two documents shall have the same short name, as specified at 5.3.2.

When a document is part of a suite, the number of the document is the part number.

NOTE —⁠ The complete title of a document is usually styled as the title of the suite followed, if the document is a part, by the title of the part separated by an em-dash

5.3.2 Short name🔗

The short name doc-short-name of a document is:

doc-short-name = type [ root-number "-" ] document-number
type = %s"st" | %s"rp" | %s"eg" | %s"ov" | %s"rdd"
root-number = 1*digits
document-number = 1*digits

EXAMPLE —⁠ The short name of SMPTE ST 428-24 is st428-24.

5.4 Version🔗

5.4.1 General🔗

A version is a document at a given stage and at a given point in time.

A version consists of:

  • a main prose element;
  • zero or more additional elements;
  • zero or more media;

A version is associated with the following metadata:

stage
Stage of the version: working Draft, Committee Draft, Final Committee Draft, Draft Publication or Publication.
approved
Year, month and day of the month that the version is approved.
main
List of alternative renderings of the main prose element. Each alternative consists of a path relative to the version directory and a media type. One of the alternatives shall have a media type of text/html or application/pdf. No two alternatives shall have the same media type.
elements
List of additional elements. Each element consists of a path relative to the version directory, a media type and a title. No two elements shall have the same title.
media
List of media, e.g. illustrations, photos, etc. Each media consists of a path relative to the version directory and a media type.
deprecated designations
List of deprecated designations, if any, that the version was previously cited as, e.g., ST 12:1999 was previously cited as ST 12M-1999.
amends
If present, contains (i) the version-short-name of the version that is amended and (ii) the amendment number.
doi
If present, contains a DOI number for the version, as specified in .
isbn
If present, contains an ISBN number for the version, as specified in .
notes
If present, contains informative notes about the version in the context of the standards document repository.

No two versions shall have the same version-short-name as specified at 5.4.2.

5.4.2 Short name🔗

The short name version-short-name of a version is:

version-short-name = approved [ %s"-am" amend ] "-" stage
approved = yyyy mm dd
yyyy = 4*digits
mm = 2*digits
dd = 2*digits
amend = 1*digits
stage = %s"wd" | %s"cd" | %s"fcd" | %s"pub"

EXAMPLE 1 —⁠ 20230607-wd

EXAMPLE 2 —⁠ 20130107-am1-pub

6 Structure🔗

6.1 General🔗

The standards document repository contains zero or more directories, each corresponding to either a suite directory or document directory.

EXAMPLE —⁠ 
├─ eg43/
|  ├─ 20091023-pub/
├─ st377/
|  ├─ 20040922-pub/
├─ 377/
|  ├─ st377-1/
|  |  ├─ 20110607-pub/
├─ 428/
|  ├─ st428-4/
|  |  ├─ 20230628-cd/
├─ 429/
|  ├─ st429-2/
|  |  ├─ 20110923-pub/
|  |  ├─ 20130116-am1-pub/

6.2 Suite directory🔗

A suite directory corresponds to a single suite.

The name of each suite directory shall be the root number of the suite, in lowercase.

Each suite directory contains one or more document directories, each corresponding to a single document.

A suite directory shall contain one file named manifest.json, the suite manifest, that conforms to the JSON Schema at Element a. Figure 1 illustrates a document manifest.

{
  "root": 429,
  "title": "D-Cinema Packaging"
}
Figure 1 — Sample manifest.json of a suite directory.

All items of the suite directory, other than the suite manifest itself, shall be one or more document directories.

6.3 Document directory🔗

A document directory corresponds to a single document.

The name of each document directory shall be the short name of the document, in lowercase.

Each document directory contains one or more version directories, each corresponding to a single version.

A document directory shall contain one file named manifest.json, the document manifest, that conforms to the JSON Schema at Element b. Figure 2 illustrates a document manifest.

{
  "type": "st",
  "part": 2,
  "title": "DCP Operational Constraints",
  "state": "active",
  "icsSet": [
    "37.060.99"
  ]
}
Figure 2 — Sample manifest.json of a document directory.

All items of the document directory, other than the document manifest itself, shall be version directories.

6.4 Version directory🔗

A version directory corresponds to a single version.

The name of each version directory shall be the short name of the version, in lowercase.

A version directory shall contain one file named manifest.json, the version manifest, that conforms to the JSON Schema at Element c. Figure 3 illustrates a version manifest.

{
  "stage": "cd",
  "timestamp": "2023-05-04",
  "main": [
    {
      "mediaType": "text/html",
      "path": "index.html"
    },
    {
      "mediaType": "application/pdf",
      "path": "SMPTE ST 429-16 D-Cinema Packaging — Additional Composition Metadata and Guidelines.pdf"
    }
  ],
  "elements": [
    {
      "title": "XML schema document that combined all schema definitions specified herein",
      "file": {
        "mediaType": "text/xml",
        "path": "elements/st0429-16-2014.xsd"
      }
    }
  ]
}
Figure 3 — Sample manifest.json of a version directory.

All items of the version directory, other than the version manifest itself, shall be referenced from the version manifest.

EXAMPLE —⁠ 
├─ 429/
|  ├─ st429-2/
|  |  ├─ manifest.json
|  |  ├─ 20230628-cd
|  |  |  ├─ manifest.json
|  |  |  ├─ index.html
|  |  |  ├─ media
|  |  |  |  ├─ figure-1.png
|  |  |  |  ├─ figure-2.png
|  |  |  |  ├─ figure-3.png
|  |  |  |  ├─ figure-4.png
|  |  |  |  ├─ figure-5.png
|  |  |  ├─ static
|  |  |  |  ├─ smpte-icon.png
|  |  |  |  ├─ smpte-logo.png
|  |  |  ├─ SMPTE ST 429-2 D-Cinema Packaging — DCP Operational Constraints.pdf

Additional elements🔗

The following are the non-prose elements of this document:

  1. a. JSON Schema for the suite manifest file (normative). file: <suite.schema.json>.
  2. b. JSON Schema for the document manifest file (normative). file: <document.schema.json>.
  3. c. JSON Schema for the version manifest file (normative). file: <version.schema.json>.