Overview

The TRAX Restoration Protocol (TRP) is a proposed open, versioned, machine-readable data interoperability and decision-evidence protocol for property restoration and reconstruction. Its unit of value is an auditable decision about a real claim: a defensible baseline, the alternatives considered, the tradeoffs, and the contractor evidence that closes the loop.

TRP is intentionally broader than a carbon calculator. Carbon is one impact domain among several; the protocol also captures mitigation work, waste movement, materials, cost, schedule, resilience and approvals.

Status

This is Draft v3, the first public release. Earlier internal drafts were carbon-only and were never published. Nothing on this site asserts that any product already implements every field described here.

Five core outcomes

1. Measure the attributable impacts of a claim with declared boundaries and documented evidence.
2. Compare repair, replacement, salvage and like-kind-and-quality (LKQ) options on cost, carbon, technical fit, resilience and availability.
3. Decide with transparent constraints, recorded rationale, human approval and clear accountability.
4. Verify what actually happened using manifests, tickets, invoices, readings, photographs and revision history.
5. Exchange normalized results through stable schemas, APIs, webhooks and downloadable reports without requiring another contractor portal.

The claim lifecycle

A claim may span:

first notice of loss → inspection → estimate → mitigation → demolition and salvage → waste movement → repair or reconstruction → inspection and closeout → reporting

Different participants own different evidence. A TRP record must be able to represent missing stages, multiple contractors, multiple estimates, supplements, change orders, partial completion, reopened claims and multiple properties or structures.

Actors

Policyholder or property owner, insurer, third-party administrator, adjuster, estimator, restoration contractor, subcontractor, engineer, architect, material supplier, recycler, hauler, disposal facility, environmental-declaration program operator, data provider and verifier.

A person or company may hold several roles. Actor identifiers and permissions stay explicit.

Non-goals

TRP does not:

• prescribe an insurer’s coverage or settlement decision;
• certify structural engineering equivalence or replace a licensed professional;
• independently verify product claims;
• authorize a carbon offset or net savings against reported emissions;
• grant rights to restricted environmental-declaration datasets;
• force a single emission-factor database;
• define an insurer’s corporate inventory categorization without considering that entity’s actual reporting boundary.

Adoption models

Mode	Contractor burden	Typical use
Server-to-server API	Lowest after setup	High-volume enterprise partners
Event webhook	Minimal	Near-real-time synchronization
File and document ingestion	Low	Estimate PDFs, CSV exports, receipts, manifests
Embedded component	Low	An existing portal with missing capture fields
Mobile QR and ticket capture	Focused	Waste loads and evidence at the point of activity
Batch exchange	Moderate	Scheduled claim portfolios, initial pilots

TRP defines payload semantics, not a mandated transport.