BRS Cohomology of Zero Curvature Systems I. The Complete Ladder Case

We present here the zero curvature formulation for a wide class of field theory models. This formalism, which relies on the existence of an operator $\d$ which decomposes the exterior space-time derivative as a BRS commutator, turns out to be particularly useful in order to solve the Wess-Zumino consistency condition. The examples of the topological theories and of the $B$-$C$ string ghost system are considered in detail.