AICC — HACP, CMI001, and the tools that still support it
The pre-SCORM interoperability rules, still worth knowing because HACP crosses domains where SCORM cannot.
Written and maintained by the scorm-tools.com editor. 7 listed tools state support.
What AICC is
The Aviation Industry Computer-Based Training Committee wrote the interoperability rules that SCORM later absorbed. Formed in 1988 to stop aircraft manufacturers shipping mutually incompatible training systems, it published a series of guidelines and recommendations; the ones that still come up are AGR-006, for file-based course-to-management-system communication, and AGR-010, for web-delivered courses.
What people usually mean by "AICC support" is HACP, the HTTP AICC Communication Protocol. The course posts form-encoded messages to a URL the management system supplied and receives plain-text, INI-style responses. Because that is a server-to-server exchange rather than JavaScript reaching into a parent window, HACP content can be hosted on a different domain from the LMS without the cross-origin problems SCORM runs into — which is why some hosting and dispatch products still offer it.
AICC’s data model is the direct ancestor of SCORM’s: CMI001 defined the lesson status, score and core elements SCORM 1.2 went on to reuse. The committee dissolved in 2014, handing its unfinished successor work — what became cmi5 — to ADL. Nothing new is being written for AICC, there is no active certification, and support is slowly being dropped. Treat it as a compatibility target for content that already exists, not as a choice for new work.
Versions and what changed
| Version | Released | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| AICC formed | 1988 | Founded by aviation training buyers and suppliers to define common CBT interoperability rules. |
| AGR-006 | c. 1993 | File-based CMI interoperability: the course and the management system exchange data through files. |
| AGR-010 | c. 1998 | Web-based CMI, introducing HACP — the HTTP protocol most "AICC-compatible" products implement. |
| CMI001 v4.0 | 2004 | The consolidated interoperability guidelines, and the data model SCORM 1.2 built on. |
| Committee dissolved | 2014 | AICC closed. Its successor work moved to ADL and became cmi5. No body now certifies AICC conformance. |
Who says so
We link to the specification and to other people's registries. We do not run a conformance programme and we do not issue badges of our own: a claim here is registry-verified only when an official registry says so, and otherwise it is marked as the vendor's statement or as our own check on a date.
Specification
Registry
- No active registry
AICC dissolved in 2014 and no organisation certifies AICC conformance today. Every AICC claim on this site is therefore vendor-stated or editor-checked; none can be registry-verified.
Tools that support AICC
Grouped by what the tool does, and within each group ordered by how well the claim is evidenced: registry entries first, then facts we checked ourselves, then the vendor's own statement.
Players, runtimes & debuggers
| Tool | Evidence | Licence | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moodle SCORM activity (mod_scorm)The SCORM player inside Moodle — the most exercised open-source runtime there is | editor-checked— source, opens in a new tab Checked | GPL-3.0-or-later | Open source |
Testing, validation & conformance
| Tool | Evidence | Licence | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| PrismUnzips a SCORM, AICC, cmi5 or xAPI package and runs axe-core over every page in it | editor-checked— source, opens in a new tab Checked | MIT | Open source |
Packagers, SDKs & libraries
| Tool | Evidence | Licence | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| SCORM Cloud API v2 clientsRustici's generated client libraries for the SCORM Cloud REST API, in six languages | editor-checked— source, opens in a new tab Checked | Apache-2.0 | Open source |
| eLearning Module ParserJava library that detects and parses SCORM, AICC, cmi5 and xAPI packages into typed metadata | vendor-stated— source, opens in a new tab Checked | Apache-2.0 | Open source |
LMS & LMS plugins
| Tool | Evidence | Licence | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chamilo LMSFull open-source LMS with SCORM 1.2 and AICC learning paths and a bundled LTI plugin | editor-checked— source, opens in a new tab Checked | GPL-3.0 | Open source |
| MoodleThe most widely deployed open-source LMS, and the SCORM behaviour most content gets tested against | editor-checked— source, opens in a new tab Checked | GPL-3.0-or-later | Open source |
| Totara LearnMoodle-derived enterprise LMS, GPL-licensed but distributed only through a paid subscription | vendor-stated— source, opens in a new tab Checked | GPL-3.0 | On application |
Choosing between them
AICC or SCORM?
SCORM, unless you are maintaining existing AICC content or you specifically need HACP’s cross-domain behaviour. AICC has no active steward, no certification and shrinking support.
Why would anyone still choose HACP?
Because it works across origins. A course served from a vendor’s domain can report to an LMS on another domain without the window-hierarchy access SCORM depends on. Modern dispatch products solve the same problem differently, and are listed under distribution.
Questions people ask about AICC
What is HACP?
The HTTP AICC Communication Protocol: the course sends form-encoded POSTs to a URL supplied at launch and parses plain-text responses. It is the web-era part of AICC and the part still implemented.
Is AICC still supported by LMSs?
By many of the older and larger ones, yes, and by fewer new ones every year. The listings below record what each product states, and when we last checked it.
What is the difference between AICC and SCORM 1.2?
They share a data model lineage. The difference is transport: AICC/HACP talks over HTTP between servers, SCORM 1.2 talks through a JavaScript object in the browser. That single difference decides which one can cross domains.
Can I convert AICC content to SCORM?
Usually, because the data models are close relatives. Converters are listed under converters and migration; the awkward part is normally the launch and the manifest, not the tracking data.
Who maintains AICC now?
Nobody. The committee dissolved in 2014. Its successor project moved to ADL and became cmi5, which is where new work went.