Announcing Release 2025-12
This set of webpages specifies the first release of the Factory-X data ecosystem bundling Architecture Decision Records for MX-Port Hercules with conforming implementations and adoption guidance.
On Releases
Like every Dataspace, Factory-X is build on the mutual agreement between participants to expose interfaces accordingly to specifications. A release like this one is a snapshot on a timeline of specifications and implementation projects. As such, it bundles Factory-X Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) at certain versions with software at certain versions. Releases use CalVer with YYYY-MM scheme. ADRs use SemVer.
State of the Spec
In the MX-Port Concept Paper (link opens pdf), Factory-X has promised three separate sets of specifications. The ADRs (published and agreed by the consortium) map to one or more of these three "MX-Port Configurations". All ADRs in the 2025-12 release are published in the context of MX-Port "Hercules" that strives for interoperability with the Catena-X Dataspace.
The figure above explains the interconnection between the ADRs. ADR-009 and ADR-012 are exclusively there to hook the underlying technologies (AAS over HTTP and AAS over MQTT) into the extension points of the Dataspace Protocol.
Implementation Report
The Factory-X project collaboratively develops software in the factory-x-contributions Github organization. Its purpose is to bridge the gap between paper and runnable code and thus to inform specification activities with the experience gained. The table below only lists the implementations that are driven from the Factory-X project.
| Conforming Implementation | Artifact | ADRs | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Factory-X EDC | 0.2.1 | ADR-002 0.2.0, ADR-003 0.2.0 | Factory-X EDC implements the APIs specified by the protocols based on the stack from the Catena-X dataspace with extensions and modifications for Factory-X while preserving interoperability. |
| DSP-native Basyx | 0.1.0 | ADR-002 0.2.0, ADR-003 0.2.0, ADR-008 (only the Repository-APIs) | The project extends on the Basyx Java Server SDK and the Dataspace Protocol Lib to ship an AAS-server (ADR-008) that is natively secured with the Dataspace APIs (ADR-002, ADR-003). |
| fa3st-service (Factory-X fork) | security | ADR-008 0.2.0 (Only the Repository-APIs), ADR-011 | The development fork of the FAAAST AAS framework implements a set of features that transcend the current upstream. It is the first implementation of the specification of messaging with AAS as specified in ADR 0011. |
Other full or partial implementations may already exist in commercial or open-source repositories. Certifying such components may in the future be the activity of a Conformity Assessment Body or Certification Program.
Adoption
The published ADRs are all "network-ADRs". They don't (in themselves) solve a particular business problem but lay a common technological foundation. By adopting the aforementioned network-ADRs into use-case-ADRs, ecosystem participants can focus on what drives value: exchanging data to support value-creating business processes. The plumbing is taken care of.