An open-source interoperability standard for tools and content management systems used in media production.

It aims to reduce the integration effort and maintenance overhead of modern CGI pipelines, and pioneer new, standardized asset-centric workflows in content creation tooling.

• 👋 Come chat with us on ASWF Slack or our mailing list.
• 🧰 Get started with the API docs, Manager plugin template, and MediaCreation for post-production workflows.
• 📖 Or see some examples in the OpenAssetIO ecosystem.
• 👀 You can follow the development effort here and the longer term roadmap here.

In modern creative pipelines, data is often managed by an authoritative system (Asset Management System, Digital Asset Manager, MAM, et. al).

It is common for media creation tools to reference this managed data by its present location in a file system.

This not only limits document portability, but strips semantically meaningful information about the identity, purpose or heritage of the data - complicating topics such as loading, version management and distributed computation.

Common workarounds to the restrictions associated with path-based referencing can be fragile and require on-going maintenance as tools and workflows evolve.

OpenAssetIO enables tools to reference managed data by identity (using an "Entity Reference") instead of a file system path.

This allows for any properties of the entity (such as its location or available versions) to be "resolved" on demand, taking into account the current compute environment.

This is achieved through the definition of a common set of interactions between a host of the API (eg: a Digital Content Creation tool or pipeline script) and an Asset Management System (or DAM, MAM, etc.).

This common API surface area hopes to remove the need for common pipeline business logic to be re-implemented against the native API of each tool, and allows the tools themselves to design new workflows that streamline the creation of complex assets.

OpenAssetIO enabled tools and asset management systems can freely communicate with each other, without needing to know any specifics of their respective implementations.

OpenAssetIO is not unique in the ability to resolve identifiers, but it is the first to offer an industry-wide, truly open standard that can be used in any relevant tool or application.

The API has no inherent functionality. It exists as a bridge - at the boundary between a process that consumes or produces data (the host), and the systems that provide data coordination and version management functionality.

The API covers the following areas:

• Resolution of asset references (URIs) into a dictionary of data, grouped into one or more "traits" (providing URLs for access, and other asset data).
• Publishing data for file-based and non-file-based assets.
• Discovery and registration of related assets.
• Replacement/augmentation of in-application UI elements such as browsers and other panels/controls.

The API, by design, does not:

• Define any standardized data structures for the storage or description of assets or asset hierarchies.
• Dictate any aspect of how an asset management system operates, organizes, locates or manages asset data and versions.

The API builds upon the production-tested Katana Asset API, addressing several common integration challenges and adding support for a wider range of asset types and publishing workflows.

The documentation for OpenAssetIO can be found here: https://docs.openassetio.org/OpenAssetIO.

Roadmap details can be found here.

We actively encourage engagement in the project. See various ways to get in touch here.

Within the Media and Entertainment sector, digital content (such as images, models and editorial data) is usually managed by a central catalog. This catalog is commonly known as an "Asset Management System", and forms a singular source of truth for a project.

OpenAssetIO provides an abstraction layer that generalizes the dialog between a 'host' (eg. a Digital Content Creation application such as Maya® or Nuke) and one of these systems - a 'manager' (eg. ShotGrid, ftrack or other proprietary systems).

This project first began in 2013, taking inspiration from the production tested Katana Asset API to make it more suitable for a wider variety of uses. Modern pipelines are incredibly nuanced. Finding a common framework that brings value in this space is challenging to say the least. Prototypes and early production use of OpenAssetIO over the last few years have demonstrated significant developer and artist value.

For example, referencing assets by identity instead of path makes documents more portable and dynamic - identity is not platform specific and can change over time ("vLatest"); and additional metadata carried alongside (or instead of) a path allows DCC parameters to be driven by the asset management system (e.g. an image's colour space); publishing through an asset management system then allows the pipeline a chance to properly ingest assets - such as versioning and making available for review.

We hope the API forms a practical starting point that addresses many real-world use cases, and as an industry, we can evolve the standard over time to support any additional requirements.

OpenAssetIO aligns itself with VFX Reference Platform CY2024.

Windows, macOS, and Linux are all supported platforms.

OpenAssetIO can be used either as a Python package, or as a C++ package with optional Python bindings.

Note Currently, to create non-Python host integrations or manager plugins, one must build from source.

For pure Python projects, OpenAssetIO is available on PyPI, simply run:

Warning PyPI releases are currently x86_64 binary only (no sdist). If you are on an ARM based machine (e.g. Apple Silicon), then you will need to build locally or install an x86_64 version of Python.

python -m pip install openassetio

You may also build all formulations of OpenAssetIO from source, in various combinations and configurations. For detailed instructions, see building.

Note Contributions are very welcome, though the following is important to bear in mind: Similarly to other ASWF projects, compatibility with other software in VFX pipelines is important, and so stability and reliability in the project is maintained by following strict standards. Making a start on contributing to the core library can be daunting at first. While the interfaces from a user perspective are straightforward to use, the core implementation detail is inherently abstract.

Contributions to the core tasks outlined in our roadmap would be very welcome.

If you're interested in the project, please reach out. Also,

• See the contribution guide
• Join our working group meetings

Maya®, is a registered trademark of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries.

OpenAssetIO broadly follows semver. We maintain a compatibility guarantee based on the category of release in question.

• Major releases : May contain source incompatible changes.
• Minor releases : May contain binary incompatible changes.
• Patch releases : Will remain compatible.

OpenAssetIO is a multi-language, multi-headed library, presenting differing interface points for hosts and managers. These interfaces are versioned together under a single OpenAssetIO version. For this reason, it is possible that a breaking OpenAssetIO update may not cause an incompatibility for your particular concern. For information on this, consult the release notes.

During pre-release phases, the project utilizes a reduced form of semver, which looks like v1.0.0-beta.x.y.

During this period, one may assume that the x above is synonymous with major version, and the y with minor version, for the purpose of compatibility. This means patch versions will be rolled into minor versions, but you may still consult the release notes for specific compatibility information.