1998年，Richard Szary、Wendy Duff和Daniel Pitti等人开始致力于制定EAC，旨在制定一个标准，用于编码和交换有关档案脉络的控制档信息。 该标准将为基于档案规范记录国际标准——组织、个人、家庭 (ISAAR(CPF)) 的规范记录交换提供通行标准，并可以与档案编码描述格式标准(EAD)同时使用。 EAD实现了国际档案著录标准（总则）(ISAD(G))的机读表达，新标准将实现 ISAAR(CPF) 的机读表达。 作为平行标准将保留和加强档案著录信息在档案指南中呈现的基本二元性。
单独的标准将为消除在使用EAD中发现的一些实操问题铺平道路，EAD已被开发为一种综合解决方案，用于编码独立的档案指南——一种独立的信息展示模型——它保存了关于档案记录的所有形式的描述性数据。 由于某一实体创作或与其相关的文献均有可能存在于多个全宗或数据库中，故需要大量重复性工作以记录同一实体。 此外，这些重复的工作可能会导致极大的数据不一致，这会为需要查找、解读文献的用户与为实体描述创建、完善、维护、参考记录档案馆员双方带来困扰与难题。
耶鲁大学于1998年主办了一次国际会议。会议由Richard Szary组织，由数字图书馆联合会资助。会议的目标是计划资助和开发基于 ISAAR（CPF）的编码标准。
2001年，在Gladys Krieble Delmas基金会的资助下，第二个国际工作组在多伦多举行会议。这次会议产生了多伦多原则，这些原则形成了拟议标准。该小组还为该标准制定了目标，制定了文档类型定义 (DTD) 的更广泛参数，并成立了一个工作组来起草完整的语法。DTD于2004年实现了Beta版发布，并开始了漫长的测试阶段，应用了于多个欧洲和美国项目。根据该测试平台的结果，美国档案工作者协会的档案脉络工作组于2007年成立，以推进这项工作、创建标准版本，并在Schema和元素字典中进行了机读表达版的制作。在Gladys Krieble Delmas基金会、艾米利亚-罗马涅大区的IBC（Instituto per I beni articulturei e naturali）、博洛尼亚国家档案馆、OCLC 研究中心和澳大利亚国家图书馆、EAC工作组的支持下，2008年5月工作组在意大利博洛尼亚举行了为期三天的会议，为现有的EAC-CPF标准奠定了基础。后续工作通过电子邮件和电话会议持续进行，最终草案在2009年8月至11月进行了审查，于2010年3月完成架构并发布。工作组感谢在其开发阶段国际社会的档案馆员、图书馆员和其他信息专业人员对Schema的付出、审查和测试。 2011年，工作组解散，SAA委员会批准成立档案脉络技术小组委员会 (TS-EAC)。2015年，EAD和EAC-CPF技术小组委员会合并为档案编码标准技术小组委员会 (TS-EAS)，负责EAD和EAC-CPF的持续维护。
档案描述包括有关文献的内容、知识和物理属性信息，以及有关其创建和使用的背景信息。文献创建和使用的脉络信息通常是复杂的和多层次的，可能涉及个人、家庭、组织、社会、职能、活动、业务流程、地理位置、事件和其他实体。这些实体中主要是负责创建或使用文献的组织、个人和家庭（CPF实体），通常是组织或个人。通过有关这些CPF实体的信息，用户可以更全面地了解和解读文献，因为他们将了解CPF实体操作、创建和/或使用文献的脉络。关于这些CPF实体的信息可以用作描述数据中的一个组件，将脉络信息完全集成到描述系统中，就像档案馆传统上所做的那样，或者作为一个独立的系统，链接到其他关注内容的描述系统或揭示平台、体系。
档案脉络编码-组织，人物，及家庭（EAC-CPF）主要描述以各种方式创建、保存、使用、负责和/或与记录相关的个人、家庭和法人团体。 随着时间的推移，其他类型的脉络信息涉及实体可能会在更大的EAC著录系统下实现，但目前其主要目的是标准化关于CPF实体的描述编码，以便在电子环境中共享、发现和揭示此信息。它支持将有关一个CPF实体的信息链接到其他CPF实体，以揭示/发现文献创作实体之间的关系以及与文献和其他脉络实体的描述的链接。
EAC-CPF是一种用于个人、组织和家庭的档案脉络信息的信息交换架构，从而交换符合ISAAR（CPF）的规范的著录数据。ISAAR（CPF）文件中：“确定了可以包含在档案规范记录中的信息类型，并提供有关如何在档案描述系统中部署此类记录的指导。” ISAAR（CPF）还指出，“通过计算机网络成功自动交换档案机构信息取决于参与交换的数据库库采用合适的信息格式。档案脉络编码(EAC) 就是这样一种信息格式 支持在万维网上交换符合ISAAR（CPF）档案规范的数据”（ISAAR（CPF），2004，第12页）。EAC-CPF提供了一种机制来实现ISAAR（CPF）的完整表达，但它也可能包含一些ISAAR（CPF）未包含的附加元素或技术内容。
根据2001年的多伦多原则，以下内容为该schema的开发原则： 定义和用途- 档案脉络信息：包括描述档案材料被创建、维护和使用的背景的信息。此脉络包括但不限于作为记录创建者、用户或主体的组织、个人和家庭（CPF实体）的身份和特征，以及它们之间的关系。
- 关于CPF实体的脉络信息不是描述其他信息资源的数据，而是描述实体的数据，这些实体是这些信息资源（例如，文献）产生的背景的一部分。
- 在档案信息系统中记录有关CPF实体的脉络信息直接支持对记录的更完整描述和理解，以及基于流传历史的跨时间和域检索的揭示方式。
- 关于CPF实体的脉络信息也具有作为独立的信息资源的价值，与其在支持记录的描述、检索和解读方面的用途不同。
- 该schema还旨在支持有关CPF实体的脉络信息的交换和共享，尤其是在数据库库拥有具有共同脉络信息的资产或利益的情况下。
结构和内容- 关于CPF实体的脉络信息的每个实例都描述了一个单一的组织、个人或家庭。
- 该模型提供了一个框架，在该框架可以在范围与深度方面全面记录CPF实体的相关脉络信息，但建议用于描述实体的最小单元该模型将适当为记录其他元素的使用对应的著录标准。
- 该模型定义了一组元素，用于描述CPF实体以及这些元素之间的关系结构。 该结构支持关于CPF实体的脉络信息的发现、导航和揭示，以及将这些信息链接到所描述的资源或其他脉络涉及的实体，例如根据EAD、MARC及其他类似编码标准
- 该模型支持将脉络涉及实体的描述链接到这些实体的数字或其他展示平台中揭示。
技术问题- 该模型表示为XML语言，以保障平台独立性和信息的可移植性。该模型也可以使用其他方法来实现。
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EAC began with a 1998 effort by Richard Szary, Wendy Duff, and Daniel Pitti to envision a standard for encoding and exchanging authoritative information about the context of archival materials. This standard would provide a communication standard for the exchange of authority records based on the International Standard for Archival Authority Records—Corporate Bodies, Persons, Families (ISAAR(CPF)) and would parallel the standard for encoding archival record finding aids that was found in Encoded Archival Description (EAD). As EAD enabled the practical expression of the General International Standard Archival Description (ISAD(G)), the new standard would enable the expression of ISAAR(CPF). A parallel standard would preserve and strengthen the essential duality that characterizes archival description when it is presented in archival finding aids.
A separate standard would pave the way to eliminating some practical problems found in the use of EAD, which had been developed as a comprehensive solution for encoding standalone finding aids—the dominant presentation model—which held all forms of descriptive data about archival records. Since materials by or about a single entity might be found in many fonds or many repositories, there is much redundant effort in recording information about the same entity. In addition, these duplicative efforts can result in great inconsistency, which bedevils both users, in finding and interpreting materials, and archivists, in creating accurate and complete references to such entities.
Yale University hosted an international meeting in 1998. The meeting was organized by Richard Szary and funded by the Digital Library Federation. The goals of the meeting were to plan the funding and development of an encoding standard based on ISAAR(CPF).
In 2001, with financial assistance from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, a second international working group met in Toronto. This meeting produced the Toronto Tenets, the principles that gave shape to the proposed standard. The group also established goals for the standard, mapped out the broader parameters of the Document Type Definition (DTD), and established a working group to create a fully formed syntax. The DTD achieved its Beta distribution in 2004, beginning a long testing phase as it was applied in several European and U.S. projects. Informed by the results that emerged from this testbed, the Society of American Archivists' Encoded Archival Context Working Group was formed in 2007 to carry this work forward to the creation of a standard version, and expression in a schema and Tag Library. With the support of the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the IBC (Instituto per I beni artistici culturali e naturali) of the Regione Emilia-Romagna, the Archivio di Stato di Bologna, OCLC Research, and the National Library of Australia, the EAC Working Group met for three days in Bologna, Italy in May 2008 to lay the foundation of the existing EAC-CPF standard. On-going work via electronic mail and conference calls continued the work started in Bologna. A review period of the final draft was offered between August and November 2009, and the completed schema was released in March 2010. The Working Group is indebted to archivists, librarians and other information professionals throughout the international community for their input, review, and testing of the schema during its development phase. In 2011, the Working Group was disbanded and SAA Council approved a charge to form the Technical Subcommittee for Encoded Archival Context (TS-EAC). In 2015 the Technical Subcommittees on EAD and EAC-CPF were merged to form the Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS), responsible for the ongoing maintenance of EAD and EAC-CPF.
Archival description includes information about the content, intellectual and physical attributes of the archival material, as well as information about the context of their creation and use. The contextual information of the creation and use of material is often complex and multi-layered and may involve individuals, families, organizations, societies, functions, activities, business processes, geographic places, events, and other entities. Primary among these entities are the corporate bodies, persons and families (CPF entities) responsible for the creation or use of material, usually organizations or persons. With information about these CPF entities, users can understand and interpret the records more fully since they will know the context within which the CPF entities operated and created and/or used the material. Information about these CPF entities can be used either as a component within descriptive approaches that fully integrate contextual information into descriptive products, as archives have traditionally done, or as an independent system that is linked to other descriptive systems and products that focus on content.
Encoded Archival Context – Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families (EAC-CPF) primarily addresses the description of individuals, families and corporate bodies that create, preserve, use, and are responsible for and/or associated with records in a variety of ways. Over time, other types of contextual entities may evolve under the larger EAC umbrella, but currently its primary purpose is to standardize the encoding of descriptions about CPF entities to enable the sharing, discovery and display of this information in an electronic environment. It supports the linking of information about one CPF entities to other CPF entities to show/discover the relationships amongst record-creating entities and the linking to descriptions of records and other contextual Entities.
EAC-CPF is a communication structure for archival contextual information for individuals, corporate bodies and families and thereby supports the exchange of ISAAR(CPF) compliant authority records. ISAAR(CPF) determines the types of information that could be included in an archival authority record and provides guidance on how such records may be deployed in an archival descriptive system. ISAAR(CPF) also notes that [s]uccessful automated exchange of archival authority information over computer networks is dependent upon the adoption of a suitable communication format by the repositories involved in the exchange. Encoded Archival Context (EAC) is one such communication format which supports the exchange of ISAAR(CPF) compliant archival authority data over the World Wide Web (ISAAR(CPF), 2004, p. 12). EAC-CPF provides a mechanism for enabling the full expression of ISAAR(CPF), however it may also contain some additional elements or technical content not contained within ISAAR(CPF).
Based upon the Toronto Tenets, established in 2001, the following have informed the development of the schema:
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