Enterprise Non-Goals
1. Purpose
This document explicitly states what MPLP does NOT provide for enterprise contexts.
These are not "missing features" or "coming soon" — they are deliberate exclusions to maintain MPLP's role as a vendor-neutral protocol standard.
2. Explicit Non-Goals
2.1 Certification Programs
| We Do NOT Provide | Reason |
|---|---|
| MPLP Certification | Not a certification body |
| Certified Vendor badges | No vendor endorsement |
| Certified Runtime lists | Vendor-neutral |
| Certification fees | Not a commercial program |
Implication: Third parties may offer certification programs that reference MPLP. These are not endorsed by MPLP.
2.2 Legal Compliance
| We Do NOT Provide | Reason |
|---|---|
| Regulatory compliance | Not a legal authority |
| GDPR/HIPAA/SOC2 mapping | Legal scope varies by jurisdiction |
| Compliance attestation | Cannot attest on behalf of implementers |
| Legal advice | Not a law firm |
Implication: MPLP conformance does not imply legal compliance. Legal review must be performed independently.
2.3 Commercial Offerings
| We Do NOT Provide | Reason |
|---|---|
| SaaS products | Protocol, not product |
| Managed services | Vendor-specific |
| Enterprise support | Vendor-specific |
| Pricing tiers | Not a commercial entity |
Implication: Commercial MPLP products are built by vendors, not by the MPLP project.
2.4 Implementation Details
| We Do NOT Provide | Reason |
|---|---|
| Deployment architectures | Implementation-specific |
| Infrastructure templates | Cloud-specific |
| CI/CD pipelines | Tooling-specific |
| Scaling guides | Runtime-specific |
Implication: Implementation guidance is provided by SDK documentation, not Enterprise context.
2.5 Vendor Integrations
| We Do NOT Provide | Reason |
|---|---|
| Cloud provider integrations | Vendor-neutral |
| LLM provider integrations | Vendor-neutral |
| Tool integrations | Vendor-neutral |
| Framework adapters | Implementation-specific |
Implication: Integrations are built by SDK authors or vendors, not mandated by protocol.
3. Why These Exclusions Matter
3.1 Protocol Neutrality
MPLP's value comes from being vendor-neutral. The moment we provide:
- Certification → We pick winners
- Compliance mapping → We take legal positions
- Commercial offerings → We compete with adopters
3.2 Longevity
Protocols that stay neutral survive longer:
- TCP/IP didn't sell routers
- HTTP didn't sell web servers
- POSIX didn't sell operating systems
MPLP follows the same model.
3.3 Adoption Breadth
By excluding commercial scope, MPLP can be adopted by:
- Startups building agent products
- Enterprises building internal platforms
- Open source projects
- Academic research
4. What Enterprise CAN Expect
While we exclude commercial offerings, enterprise adopters can expect:
| We DO Provide | How |
|---|---|
| Stable protocol | Frozen specification |
| Evidence model | Schema-validated artifacts |
| Conformance criteria | Criteria for binary evaluation |
| Reference implementation | Open source SDKs |
| Governance framework | Versioning and change control |
5. Related Documentation
- Enterprise Context — Enterprise scope definition
- Conformance Model — What we DO evaluate
- Versioning Policy — Protocol stability
Purpose: Prevent scope creep and maintain vendor neutrality
Key Principle: Protocol, not product