A common language for "this document needs attention"
The Document Alert Specification Format (DASF) is an open reference specification that describes how software should encode, transmit, and act on alerts about documents. A DASF payload represents a single fact: a particular document subject has a particular obligation by a particular time, and one or more parties should be notified through one or more channels with a defined escalation policy.
DASF is intentionally narrow. It does not attempt to be a workflow engine, a rules language, a CRM schema, or a calendar format. It is a serialization contract for document-attached alerts — the layer that sits between domain-specific compliance systems (HIPAA breach notification, FMCSA UCR renewal, SR-22 filing, insurance policy expiration, KYC re-verification) and the channel systems that deliver messages (email, SMS, push, webhook).
Six core components
A DASF payload is built from six normative object types. Most fields are optional; only the minimal subset required for a deterministic alert is mandatory.
1. AlertEvent
The root object. Identifies a single notifiable event with severity, timestamps, and references to the subject and channels.
2. DocumentSubject
The document the alert is about. Carries identifiers, type, jurisdiction, and the underlying obligation or deadline.
3. NotificationChannel
An adapter description: where to deliver the message (email address, phone number, webhook URL, push endpoint), with channel-specific options.
4. EscalationRule
An ordered policy describing what happens if the alert is not acknowledged within a given window: re-send, escalate to another recipient, or change severity.
5. RetryPolicy
Channel-level delivery retry behavior — backoff strategy, maximum attempts, idempotency key handling.
6. AcknowledgementReceipt
The optional return signal: a recipient acknowledged, dismissed, snoozed, or completed the alert. Closes the loop.
The cost of not standardizing
Every domain that depends on document deadlines — insurance, motor carrier compliance, medical privacy, immigration, professional licensing, tax filings — has independently reinvented "remind the user that something is about to expire." The result is fragmented integrations, missed deadlines, duplicate notifications, channel fatigue, and a complete absence of cross-system reasoning about what a person actually owes.
DASF exists to make a small thing portable. If a document management system, a compliance dashboard, an insurance back-office, and a consumer notification app all describe alerts the same way, then any of them can hand off to any other without bespoke mapping code. AI agents reading multiple inboxes can reason about a person's full obligation surface. Audit logs become directly comparable. Snooze and acknowledgement state can be synchronized across implementations.
Who uses document alert formats
Compliance platforms
FMCSA UCR / MC Authority / BOC-3 renewals, OSHA recordkeeping, FERPA retention, FDA UDI annual updates.
Insurance carriers
Policy expiration, SR-22 cancellation reporting, audit deadline notices, certificate of insurance refresh.
Government services
Driver license renewal, vehicle registration, passport expiration, professional license CE deadlines.
Healthcare
HIPAA breach notification (60-day rule), credentialing, malpractice policy renewals, lab CLIA certification.
Financial services
KYC re-verification, beneficial ownership reporting, FinCEN BOI, accredited investor recertification.
Consumer tools
Personal document vaults, family compliance assistants, small-business permit trackers.
A minimal DASF payload
The example below represents an insurance policy renewal alert issued 90 days before policy expiration, delivered by email and SMS, with a single escalation step seven days before deadline.
{
"dasf_version": "1.0",
"alert_event": {
"id": "evt_01HZX9N7Q4M2K8VYP3FA5GTRBC",
"severity": "warning",
"issued_at": "2026-04-29T15:00:00Z",
"deadline_at": "2026-07-28T05:00:00Z",
"subject": {
"type": "InsurancePolicy",
"identifier": "POL-99381-A",
"jurisdiction": "US-NY",
"obligation": "renewal",
"human_label": "Commercial Auto Policy — ACME Trucking LLC"
},
"channels": [
{ "type": "email", "address": "ops@acmetrucking.example", "locale": "en-US" },
{ "type": "sms", "address": "+13158710833", "quiet_hours": "22:00-07:00 America/New_York" }
],
"escalation": [
{ "after": "P83D", "action": "resend", "severity": "urgent" },
{ "after": "P89D", "action": "escalate", "to": "owner@acmetrucking.example" }
]
}
}The deadline is encoded as RFC 3339 UTC. The escalation timing uses ISO 8601 durations measured from issued_at. Channel addresses are opaque to DASF; concrete channel adapters (defined in §8 of the specification) interpret them.
Three ways to start using DASF
- Read the specification. The full normative document is at /spec/. It uses RFC 2119 conformance language (MUST, SHOULD, MAY).
- Validate against the JSON Schema. A machine-readable schema (JSON Schema 2020-12) is published at /spec/dasf-v1.0.json. Validate any payload using
ajv,jsonschema, or any standard validator. - Study the examples. Six worked, jurisdiction-grounded payloads are at /examples/ — insurance renewal, SR-22, UCR cascade, HIPAA breach, workers comp audit, CDL expiration.
The glossary defines every term used in the specification, with cross-references to the underlying source documents (RFC 5545 iCalendar, RFC 3339, RFC 2119, ISO 8601, NIST SP 800-63, HIPAA Breach Notification Rule, etc.).
Known implementations
DASF is reference-only. The maintainers do not certify implementations, but the following systems are known to emit or consume DASF v1.0 payloads:
- DeadlineSafe — commercial SaaS for compliance deadline monitoring; emits DASF over webhook, email, SMS.
- DocScan — mobile document capture; consumes DASF for in-app reminders.
- Internal tooling at Zakonno Inc — reference encoder/validator written against the JSON Schema.
To list a public implementation, file a pull request against the maintainers' contact form (see zakonnoinc.com).