About
We believe in the Right to Spec.
OpenSpec is building an open, source-backed vehicle specification database: model-year facts you can inspect, verify, and improve. It is pre-1.0, intentionally narrow, and not complete across all makes, models, or years.
The Problem
For too long, the most fundamental automotive data (make, model, trim, configuration, options, and comparable attributes) has often been trapped behind walled gardens, inconsistent brochures, and black-box lookups. Independent developers, researchers, journalists, and small teams should be able to work from reviewed, source-backed records instead of starting from scratch every time.
The YouTube reviews, the TikToks, the magazine columns: they're great for getting a feel for a car. But when you need to compare actual spec sheets, option packages, and configuration details line by line across vehicles, the underlying facts should be easier to trace, reuse, and challenge.
How It Works
OpenSpec organizes vehicle data into structured, machine-readable files, one per year/make/model combination. Each file captures trims, configurations, option packages, and detailed attributes like dimensions, powertrain specs, and standard equipment when those facts can be tied back to verifiable sources.
Configuration axes (like cab size, bed length, or drive type) are modeled explicitly, so a 2024 RAM 1500 Crew Cab 4x4 with the 5'7" bed is a distinct, queryable configuration, not a footnote.
Where the source record supports it, OpenSpec also maps VIN patterns to configurations so decoding logic can be reviewed instead of treated as an opaque lookup table.
Current Scope
OpenSpec starts with narrow, high-quality US-market coverage and expands over time. A stub is not coverage, and a visible gap is better than a confident guess. The project prioritizes depth, accuracy, provenance, and reviewability over shallow breadth. International markets, older model years, and broader make/model coverage are incremental work, not launch promises.
Provenance You Can Trace
Every YMM detail file lists its sources: the specific documents, the pages or sections referenced, and when they were recorded. If a horsepower figure traces back to a 2024 Ford Bronco order guide, you can verify that yourself. That traceability is what separates an open database from a different flavor of black box. OpenSpec cites source documents; it does not relicense them.
Open Source, Open Data
The OpenSpec database is licensed under ODbL 1.0 with DbCL 1.0 for database contents. Code and tooling are Apache 2.0 where applicable. OpenSpec does not claim ownership over vehicle facts independently obtained from public sources; the license governs reuse of the OpenSpec database, authored records, provenance structure, and generated artifacts.
Who It's For
- •Enthusiasts comparing trims
- •Independent developers building automotive tools
- •Researchers studying market trends
- •Journalists fact-checking spec claims
If you need inspectable vehicle specification records and can live with pre-1.0 coverage while the database matures, OpenSpec is built for that work.
OpenSpec and Visor
OpenSpec covers canonical, source-backed model-year facts. Visor may separately offer hosted APIs, reliability guarantees, listing normalization, installed-option inference, confidence scoring, market analytics, support, and other proprietary layers outside OpenSpec. OpenSpec is not a full replacement for commercial VIN or vehicle-data products.
Contribute
Most OpenSpec files are initially populated through an AI-assisted pipeline that extracts structured data from source documents like order guides, brochures, and OEM configurators. It's good, but AI output is not a source; it is only a drafting aid.
Contributions must use verifiable public or official sources. Proprietary feeds, paid databases, dealer systems, unknown aggregators, forums, blogs, wikis, and uncited estimates are not acceptable sources. Every edit is reviewed for accuracy, provenance, and source compliance.
Open RepositoryWho's Behind This
OpenSpec was created by the team behind Visor, a car shopping and market intelligence platform. We built OpenSpec because durable vehicle facts should be easier to inspect and reuse. Visor sponsors OpenSpec's infrastructure and development and stewards the public database.