Translation: dev / auditor / spec
The same nouns and verbs, said three ways: the word you'd reach for talking to a developer, the phrase an auditor would actually trust, and the term the spec defines. Use this page when a word feels like it means two different things in two different places on this site — it probably does, on purpose, and this is the decoder.
Nouns
| Concept | Dev | Auditor | Spec |
|---|---|---|---|
| your record | receipt (yours) / capsule | the signed record the producer authored; a self-attested claim until witnessed | capsule (AAC record) |
| the witness artifact | stamp | a Transparency Service's Receipt: the checkpoint was in its log at registration — never a statement about content, and not agreement | RFC 9942 Receipt over the checkpoint (a Signed Statement whose payload is a log head) |
| the log | your log / ledger | the producer's append-only history; tamper-evident by construction | CLL (Checkpointed Local Log, MMR) |
| the commitment | checkpoint (“the 32-byte root”) | one signed value committing the entire history to date | CLL checkpoint (COSE_Sign1) |
| the witnessing party | witness | the party that makes the log checkable by a stranger | Transparency Service (RFC 9943) |
| an action's account | proof (of an action) | the signed membership claim: which records constitute one action | composition capsule |
| foreign bytes brought in | carry / received | someone else's already-signed record, committed as-transmitted | as-transmitted CPB binding |
| the hand-over file | bundle | digests + proofs + stamps; lets anyone check integrity/order/completeness, carries no content | bundle |
| content release | disclose | a deliberate, recorded release of content to a named audience; itself logged | disclosure record |
Verbs
| You type | Dev | Auditor | Spec |
|---|---|---|---|
seal(payload) | “make a checkable record” | mints a signed, logged, cadence-witnessed record | canonicalize (CPB) → sign → append (CLL) → checkpoint |
received(bytes, type=) | “bring in someone else's signed record” | localizes a foreign signed artifact as-transmitted | as-transmitted carry |
compose([...]) | “bind these into one account” | membership claim over cited records; asserts nothing new | composition capsule |
bundle | “the file I hand a stranger” | assembles the offline-verifiable proof package | bundle assembly |
disclose | “share the content, on the record” | releases selected content to an audience + logs the act | disclosure record + payloads |
verify | “check any of it, offline” | recomputes signatures, inclusion, checkpoint-chain consistency; grades honestly | scitt-cose verification |
status | “where's everything on the ladder” | ladder position + witnessing lag per record | ladder + lag render |
report (plugin) | “the number, with the denominator” | coverage with honest denominators; model-assisted rows labeled, never blended | rollup evaluation |
The ladder — two rungs, no more
| Rung | Dev | Auditor | Spec |
|---|---|---|---|
| self-attested | “signed by me” | record integrity by the producer's key alone; no third-party confirmation | attestation_mode=self_attested |
| witnessed | “an independent log registered it” | existence + order + completeness checkable without trusting the producer | registered checkpoint (≥1 valid Receipt) |
There is no third rung. A witness Receipt is not a countersignature, and a witness vouches for nothing about the content. A counterparty's own signature over a shared record is a separate claim described on the bilateral page, not a step on this ladder. A record is self-attested until a Transparency Service its producer does not run has registered its checkpoint and returned a Receipt. On this site “witnessed” and “registered” name that same step. See witness anywhere for how you move a record up this ladder.
The honesty rows
This is the auditor register's spine — the claims this project will not round up, anywhere:
- A witnessed record is not a true record. The stamp attests existence/order/completeness, never accuracy.
- A derived verdict is not an adjudicated one.
verifynever grades up: absence ≠ forgery, unsigned ≠ invalid. - Coverage is the range, not the population.
- Registration ≠ Receipt ≠ agreement. Registration is the act. A Receipt is what the service returns: it proves inclusion in that service's log, not agreement with the content. When a checkpoint carries a consistency proof, this service registers it only if the proof shows it extends the last one it registered for the same log; that check is part of its published Registration Policy. “Anchor” is avoided as a verb (it collides with “trust anchor”).