Linux Foundation introduces TRACE standard for AI runtime evidence

The Linux Foundation has introduced TRACE, an open standard for AI runtime evidence designed to make AI activity more transparent, auditable and trustworthy. The specification combines existing IETF and IRTF standards into a hardware-backed, cryptographically verifiable record that links the runtime environment, software executed, policies applied, data classifications and tools used by an AI agent.

TRACE was developed by confidential computing vendor OPAQUE with support from AMD, Intel, Microsoft and the Technology Innovation Institute. It uses AMD’s Secure Encrypted Virtualization technology and is intended to be portable across cloud providers, confidential computing environments and sovereign infrastructure.

The Linux Foundation will provide vendor-neutral governance for the specification, with the technical workstream hosted by the Coalition for Secure AI. The reference library has recorded nearly 135,000 PyPI downloads within 10 weeks of its introduction at the Confidential Computing Summit in June 2026.