@openvtc/trust-tasks 0.12.9 → 0.12.11

package/src/vtc/community/profile/show/0.1/payload.ts

@@ -13,10 +13,21 @@ export interface Ext {
   [k: string]: unknown | undefined;
 }
 export interface VTCCommunityProfileShowResponsePayload {
-  profile: CommunityProfile;
+  profile: CommunityProfileView;
   ext?: Ext;
 }
-export interface CommunityProfile {
+/**
+ * The community's profile as read, including the immutable `communityDid` an update cannot set.
+ */
+export interface CommunityProfileView {
+  /**
+   * The community's own DID — the identifier every credential it issues names as `issuer`, and the one a member's credential binds them to. Immutable: set when the community is created and not settable through an update.
+   */
+  communityDid: string;
+  /**
+   * When the community was created. Immutable, like `communityDid`.
+   */
+  createdAt?: string;
   name: string;
   description?: string;
   logoUrl?: string | null;
@@ -102,7 +113,8 @@ export const PAYLOAD_SCHEMA = {
       ],
       "properties": {
         "profile": {
-          "$ref": "#/$defs/CommunityProfile"
+          "$ref": "#/$defs/CommunityProfileView",
+          "description": "The community's profile as read, including the immutable `communityDid` an update cannot set."
         },
         "ext": {
           "$ref": "#/$defs/Ext"
@@ -119,16 +131,28 @@ export const PAYLOAD_SCHEMA = {
         "pattern": "^[a-z][a-z0-9-]*(\\.[a-z0-9-]+)+$"
       }
     },
-    "CommunityProfile": {
-      "$anchor": "communityProfile",
-      "title": "CommunityProfile",
+    "CommunityProfileView": {
+      "$anchor": "communityProfileView",
+      "title": "CommunityProfileView",
       "type": "object",
       "additionalProperties": false,
+      "description": "A community profile **as read**: every member of CommunityProfile, plus the immutable identity a reader needs and an update must never set.\n\nCommunityProfile is the update-facing view and omits `communityDid` on purpose, so that a patch cannot re-point a community's identity. That is right for a payload and wrong for a response: a client holding a profile has no other way to learn which DID to verify that community's credentials against, and `community/profile/show` returning the update-facing view left the one member a consumer most needs undefined.\n\nSo reads get this and updates keep CommunityProfile. The split is the point — the immutability of `communityDid` is enforced by it being absent from the payload, not by prose asking implementers not to honour it.",
       "required": [
+        "communityDid",
         "name",
         "language"
       ],
       "properties": {
+        "communityDid": {
+          "type": "string",
+          "minLength": 1,
+          "description": "The community's own DID — the identifier every credential it issues names as `issuer`, and the one a member's credential binds them to. Immutable: set when the community is created and not settable through an update."
+        },
+        "createdAt": {
+          "type": "string",
+          "format": "date-time",
+          "description": "When the community was created. Immutable, like `communityDid`."
+        },
         "name": {
           "type": "string",
           "minLength": 1
@@ -234,7 +258,8 @@ export const RESPONSE_PAYLOAD_SCHEMA = {
       ],
       "properties": {
         "profile": {
-          "$ref": "#/$defs/CommunityProfile"
+          "$ref": "#/$defs/CommunityProfileView",
+          "description": "The community's profile as read, including the immutable `communityDid` an update cannot set."
         },
         "ext": {
           "$ref": "#/$defs/Ext"
@@ -251,16 +276,28 @@ export const RESPONSE_PAYLOAD_SCHEMA = {
         "pattern": "^[a-z][a-z0-9-]*(\\.[a-z0-9-]+)+$"
       }
     },
-    "CommunityProfile": {
-      "$anchor": "communityProfile",
-      "title": "CommunityProfile",
+    "CommunityProfileView": {
+      "$anchor": "communityProfileView",
+      "title": "CommunityProfileView",
       "type": "object",
       "additionalProperties": false,
+      "description": "A community profile **as read**: every member of CommunityProfile, plus the immutable identity a reader needs and an update must never set.\n\nCommunityProfile is the update-facing view and omits `communityDid` on purpose, so that a patch cannot re-point a community's identity. That is right for a payload and wrong for a response: a client holding a profile has no other way to learn which DID to verify that community's credentials against, and `community/profile/show` returning the update-facing view left the one member a consumer most needs undefined.\n\nSo reads get this and updates keep CommunityProfile. The split is the point — the immutability of `communityDid` is enforced by it being absent from the payload, not by prose asking implementers not to honour it.",
       "required": [
+        "communityDid",
         "name",
         "language"
       ],
       "properties": {
+        "communityDid": {
+          "type": "string",
+          "minLength": 1,
+          "description": "The community's own DID — the identifier every credential it issues names as `issuer`, and the one a member's credential binds them to. Immutable: set when the community is created and not settable through an update."
+        },
+        "createdAt": {
+          "type": "string",
+          "format": "date-time",
+          "description": "When the community was created. Immutable, like `communityDid`."
+        },
         "name": {
           "type": "string",
           "minLength": 1

package/src/vtc/community/profile/update/0.1/payload.ts

@@ -49,14 +49,25 @@ export interface Ext {
   [k: string]: unknown | undefined;
 }
 export interface VTCCommunityProfileUpdateResponsePayload {
-  profile: CommunityProfile;
+  profile: CommunityProfileView;
   /**
    * Names of the profile members this update actually changed, in the wire spelling. Empty when the submitted values all matched what was already stored. Lets a caller distinguish a no-op from an applied change without diffing the returned profile against the one it sent.
    */
   fieldsChanged?: string[];
   ext?: Ext;
 }
-export interface CommunityProfile {
+/**
+ * The community's profile as read, including the immutable `communityDid` an update cannot set.
+ */
+export interface CommunityProfileView {
+  /**
+   * The community's own DID — the identifier every credential it issues names as `issuer`, and the one a member's credential binds them to. Immutable: set when the community is created and not settable through an update.
+   */
+  communityDid: string;
+  /**
+   * When the community was created. Immutable, like `communityDid`.
+   */
+  createdAt?: string;
   name: string;
   description?: string;
   logoUrl?: string | null;
@@ -187,7 +198,8 @@ export const PAYLOAD_SCHEMA = {
       ],
       "properties": {
         "profile": {
-          "$ref": "#/$defs/CommunityProfile"
+          "$ref": "#/$defs/CommunityProfileView",
+          "description": "The community's profile as read, including the immutable `communityDid` an update cannot set."
         },
         "fieldsChanged": {
           "type": "array",
@@ -211,16 +223,28 @@ export const PAYLOAD_SCHEMA = {
         "pattern": "^[a-z][a-z0-9-]*(\\.[a-z0-9-]+)+$"
       }
     },
-    "CommunityProfile": {
-      "$anchor": "communityProfile",
-      "title": "CommunityProfile",
+    "CommunityProfileView": {
+      "$anchor": "communityProfileView",
+      "title": "CommunityProfileView",
       "type": "object",
       "additionalProperties": false,
+      "description": "A community profile **as read**: every member of CommunityProfile, plus the immutable identity a reader needs and an update must never set.\n\nCommunityProfile is the update-facing view and omits `communityDid` on purpose, so that a patch cannot re-point a community's identity. That is right for a payload and wrong for a response: a client holding a profile has no other way to learn which DID to verify that community's credentials against, and `community/profile/show` returning the update-facing view left the one member a consumer most needs undefined.\n\nSo reads get this and updates keep CommunityProfile. The split is the point — the immutability of `communityDid` is enforced by it being absent from the payload, not by prose asking implementers not to honour it.",
       "required": [
+        "communityDid",
         "name",
         "language"
       ],
       "properties": {
+        "communityDid": {
+          "type": "string",
+          "minLength": 1,
+          "description": "The community's own DID — the identifier every credential it issues names as `issuer`, and the one a member's credential binds them to. Immutable: set when the community is created and not settable through an update."
+        },
+        "createdAt": {
+          "type": "string",
+          "format": "date-time",
+          "description": "When the community was created. Immutable, like `communityDid`."
+        },
         "name": {
           "type": "string",
           "minLength": 1
@@ -326,7 +350,8 @@ export const RESPONSE_PAYLOAD_SCHEMA = {
       ],
       "properties": {
         "profile": {
-          "$ref": "#/$defs/CommunityProfile"
+          "$ref": "#/$defs/CommunityProfileView",
+          "description": "The community's profile as read, including the immutable `communityDid` an update cannot set."
         },
         "fieldsChanged": {
           "type": "array",
@@ -350,16 +375,28 @@ export const RESPONSE_PAYLOAD_SCHEMA = {
         "pattern": "^[a-z][a-z0-9-]*(\\.[a-z0-9-]+)+$"
       }
     },
-    "CommunityProfile": {
-      "$anchor": "communityProfile",
-      "title": "CommunityProfile",
+    "CommunityProfileView": {
+      "$anchor": "communityProfileView",
+      "title": "CommunityProfileView",
       "type": "object",
       "additionalProperties": false,
+      "description": "A community profile **as read**: every member of CommunityProfile, plus the immutable identity a reader needs and an update must never set.\n\nCommunityProfile is the update-facing view and omits `communityDid` on purpose, so that a patch cannot re-point a community's identity. That is right for a payload and wrong for a response: a client holding a profile has no other way to learn which DID to verify that community's credentials against, and `community/profile/show` returning the update-facing view left the one member a consumer most needs undefined.\n\nSo reads get this and updates keep CommunityProfile. The split is the point — the immutability of `communityDid` is enforced by it being absent from the payload, not by prose asking implementers not to honour it.",
       "required": [
+        "communityDid",
         "name",
         "language"
       ],
       "properties": {
+        "communityDid": {
+          "type": "string",
+          "minLength": 1,
+          "description": "The community's own DID — the identifier every credential it issues names as `issuer`, and the one a member's credential binds them to. Immutable: set when the community is created and not settable through an update."
+        },
+        "createdAt": {
+          "type": "string",
+          "format": "date-time",
+          "description": "When the community was created. Immutable, like `communityDid`."
+        },
         "name": {
           "type": "string",
           "minLength": 1

package/src/vtc/endorsements/issue/0.1/payload.ts

@@ -35,6 +35,10 @@ export interface Ext {
 }
 export interface VTCEndorsementsIssueResponsePayload {
   endorsement: Endorsement;
+  /**
+   * The signed VEC just minted. Present only here: handing back the credential is the point of an issue call, and the issuer is the only party that can. Reads carry `endorsement.issued` — the reference — instead.
+   */
+  credential: {};
   ext?: Ext;
 }
 export interface Endorsement {
@@ -54,7 +58,7 @@ export interface Endorsement {
    * The attested claim body, validated against the endorsement type's claimSchema when it declares one.
    */
   claim?: {};
-  issued: IssuedCredential;
+  issued: CredentialReference;
   /**
    * The endorsement's slot on the community's shared Revocation status list. Published, so a foreign verifier can check revocation without contacting this community.
    */
@@ -65,22 +69,18 @@ export interface Endorsement {
   revokedAt?: string | null;
 }
 /**
- * The registry-wide issuance receipt — credentialId, the signed VEC, and expiry.
+ * A pointer to the issued VEC — its identifier and lifetime, not its bytes. `endorsements/issue` additionally returns the credential itself, because that is the one call whose caller has no other way to receive it.
  */
-export interface IssuedCredential {
+export interface CredentialReference {
   credentialId: CredentialId;
-  /**
-   * The issued Verifiable Credential (W3C VC Data Model 2.0), signed by the issuer's key. Opaque to the framework.
-   */
-  credential: {};
   /**
    * When the credential was minted.
    */
   issuedAt?: string;
   /**
-   * When the credential's validUntil falls due.
+   * When it lapses, or null when it does not.
    */
-  expiresAt: string;
+  expiresAt?: string | null;
 }
 
 /** Trust Task type URI. */
@@ -148,12 +148,17 @@ export const PAYLOAD_SCHEMA = {
       "type": "object",
       "additionalProperties": false,
       "required": [
-        "endorsement"
+        "endorsement",
+        "credential"
       ],
       "properties": {
         "endorsement": {
           "$ref": "#/$defs/Endorsement"
         },
+        "credential": {
+          "type": "object",
+          "description": "The signed VEC just minted. Present only here: handing back the credential is the point of an issue call, and the issuer is the only party that can. Reads carry `endorsement.issued` — the reference — instead."
+        },
         "ext": {
           "$ref": "#/$defs/Ext"
         }
@@ -203,8 +208,8 @@ export const PAYLOAD_SCHEMA = {
           "description": "The attested claim body, validated against the endorsement type's claimSchema when it declares one."
         },
         "issued": {
-          "$ref": "#/$defs/IssuedCredential",
-          "description": "The registry-wide issuance receipt — credentialId, the signed VEC, and expiry."
+          "$ref": "#/$defs/CredentialReference",
+          "description": "A pointer to the issued VEC — its identifier and lifetime, not its bytes. `endorsements/issue` additionally returns the credential itself, because that is the one call whose caller has no other way to receive it."
         },
         "statusListIndex": {
           "type": "integer",
@@ -221,34 +226,31 @@ export const PAYLOAD_SCHEMA = {
         }
       }
     },
-    "IssuedCredential": {
-      "$anchor": "issuedCredential",
-      "title": "IssuedCredential",
-      "description": "The receipt for a successfully-minted Verifiable Credential: a stable handle for revocation and audit, the signed credential itself, and when it lapses.\n\nSCOPE — this is an *issuance* receipt, returned by the party that minted the credential. It is not the shape for a *delivery* receipt, where a holder hands an already-issued credential to a party that stores it: such a task returns a receipt naming what was stored (see vtc/members/vmc and vtc/join-requests/accept) and MUST NOT echo the credential back to the party that just sent it. Reaching for this definition on a delivery task is the mistake this paragraph exists to prevent.\n\n`additionalProperties` is false, so a specification needing extra members cannot compose this by `$ref` — `allOf` evaluates each subschema against the whole object and this one would reject them. vta/credentials/issue is that case: its response is this shape plus `supersedes` and `ext`, and it therefore states the members inline while `$ref`-ing the shared CredentialId. That is deliberate, not drift.",
+    "CredentialReference": {
+      "$anchor": "credentialReference",
+      "title": "CredentialReference",
       "type": "object",
       "additionalProperties": false,
+      "description": "A pointer to an issued credential, without the credential itself.\n\nThe counterpart to IssuedCredential, for the far more common case of *reading about* a credential rather than being handed one. A listing that embedded the signed credential in every row would grow with the size of the credentials rather than the number of them — a page of fifty is megabytes — and a reader that only needs to know a credential exists, when it lapses, and how to revoke it does not need the bytes.\n\nThe holder can always fetch the credential itself by `credentialId`, and a verifier can check revocation from the row's status-list slot without either. Reach for IssuedCredential only at the moment of minting, where the caller has no other way to receive what was just made for them.",
       "required": [
-        "credentialId",
-        "credential",
-        "expiresAt"
+        "credentialId"
       ],
       "properties": {
         "credentialId": {
           "$ref": "#/$defs/CredentialId"
         },
-        "credential": {
-          "type": "object",
-          "description": "The issued Verifiable Credential (W3C VC Data Model 2.0), signed by the issuer's key. Opaque to the framework."
-        },
         "issuedAt": {
           "type": "string",
           "format": "date-time",
           "description": "When the credential was minted."
         },
         "expiresAt": {
-          "type": "string",
+          "type": [
+            "string",
+            "null"
+          ],
           "format": "date-time",
-          "description": "When the credential's validUntil falls due."
+          "description": "When it lapses, or null when it does not."
         }
       }
     },
@@ -273,12 +275,17 @@ export const RESPONSE_PAYLOAD_SCHEMA = {
       "type": "object",
       "additionalProperties": false,
       "required": [
-        "endorsement"
+        "endorsement",
+        "credential"
       ],
       "properties": {
         "endorsement": {
           "$ref": "#/$defs/Endorsement"
         },
+        "credential": {
+          "type": "object",
+          "description": "The signed VEC just minted. Present only here: handing back the credential is the point of an issue call, and the issuer is the only party that can. Reads carry `endorsement.issued` — the reference — instead."
+        },
         "ext": {
           "$ref": "#/$defs/Ext"
         }
@@ -328,8 +335,8 @@ export const RESPONSE_PAYLOAD_SCHEMA = {
           "description": "The attested claim body, validated against the endorsement type's claimSchema when it declares one."
         },
         "issued": {
-          "$ref": "#/$defs/IssuedCredential",
-          "description": "The registry-wide issuance receipt — credentialId, the signed VEC, and expiry."
+          "$ref": "#/$defs/CredentialReference",
+          "description": "A pointer to the issued VEC — its identifier and lifetime, not its bytes. `endorsements/issue` additionally returns the credential itself, because that is the one call whose caller has no other way to receive it."
         },
         "statusListIndex": {
           "type": "integer",
@@ -346,34 +353,31 @@ export const RESPONSE_PAYLOAD_SCHEMA = {
         }
       }
     },
-    "IssuedCredential": {
-      "$anchor": "issuedCredential",
-      "title": "IssuedCredential",
-      "description": "The receipt for a successfully-minted Verifiable Credential: a stable handle for revocation and audit, the signed credential itself, and when it lapses.\n\nSCOPE — this is an *issuance* receipt, returned by the party that minted the credential. It is not the shape for a *delivery* receipt, where a holder hands an already-issued credential to a party that stores it: such a task returns a receipt naming what was stored (see vtc/members/vmc and vtc/join-requests/accept) and MUST NOT echo the credential back to the party that just sent it. Reaching for this definition on a delivery task is the mistake this paragraph exists to prevent.\n\n`additionalProperties` is false, so a specification needing extra members cannot compose this by `$ref` — `allOf` evaluates each subschema against the whole object and this one would reject them. vta/credentials/issue is that case: its response is this shape plus `supersedes` and `ext`, and it therefore states the members inline while `$ref`-ing the shared CredentialId. That is deliberate, not drift.",
+    "CredentialReference": {
+      "$anchor": "credentialReference",
+      "title": "CredentialReference",
       "type": "object",
       "additionalProperties": false,
+      "description": "A pointer to an issued credential, without the credential itself.\n\nThe counterpart to IssuedCredential, for the far more common case of *reading about* a credential rather than being handed one. A listing that embedded the signed credential in every row would grow with the size of the credentials rather than the number of them — a page of fifty is megabytes — and a reader that only needs to know a credential exists, when it lapses, and how to revoke it does not need the bytes.\n\nThe holder can always fetch the credential itself by `credentialId`, and a verifier can check revocation from the row's status-list slot without either. Reach for IssuedCredential only at the moment of minting, where the caller has no other way to receive what was just made for them.",
       "required": [
-        "credentialId",
-        "credential",
-        "expiresAt"
+        "credentialId"
       ],
       "properties": {
         "credentialId": {
           "$ref": "#/$defs/CredentialId"
         },
-        "credential": {
-          "type": "object",
-          "description": "The issued Verifiable Credential (W3C VC Data Model 2.0), signed by the issuer's key. Opaque to the framework."
-        },
         "issuedAt": {
           "type": "string",
           "format": "date-time",
           "description": "When the credential was minted."
         },
         "expiresAt": {
-          "type": "string",
+          "type": [
+            "string",
+            "null"
+          ],
           "format": "date-time",
-          "description": "When the credential's validUntil falls due."
+          "description": "When it lapses, or null when it does not."
         }
       }
     },

package/src/vtc/endorsements/list/0.1/payload.ts

@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ export interface Endorsement {
    * The attested claim body, validated against the endorsement type's claimSchema when it declares one.
    */
   claim?: {};
-  issued: IssuedCredential;
+  issued: CredentialReference;
   /**
    * The endorsement's slot on the community's shared Revocation status list. Published, so a foreign verifier can check revocation without contacting this community.
    */
@@ -77,22 +77,18 @@ export interface Endorsement {
   revokedAt?: string | null;
 }
 /**
- * The registry-wide issuance receipt — credentialId, the signed VEC, and expiry.
+ * A pointer to the issued VEC — its identifier and lifetime, not its bytes. `endorsements/issue` additionally returns the credential itself, because that is the one call whose caller has no other way to receive it.
  */
-export interface IssuedCredential {
+export interface CredentialReference {
   credentialId: CredentialId;
-  /**
-   * The issued Verifiable Credential (W3C VC Data Model 2.0), signed by the issuer's key. Opaque to the framework.
-   */
-  credential: {};
   /**
    * When the credential was minted.
    */
   issuedAt?: string;
   /**
-   * When the credential's validUntil falls due.
+   * When it lapses, or null when it does not.
    */
-  expiresAt: string;
+  expiresAt?: string | null;
 }
 
 /** Trust Task type URI. */
@@ -231,8 +227,8 @@ export const PAYLOAD_SCHEMA = {
           "description": "The attested claim body, validated against the endorsement type's claimSchema when it declares one."
         },
         "issued": {
-          "$ref": "#/$defs/IssuedCredential",
-          "description": "The registry-wide issuance receipt — credentialId, the signed VEC, and expiry."
+          "$ref": "#/$defs/CredentialReference",
+          "description": "A pointer to the issued VEC — its identifier and lifetime, not its bytes. `endorsements/issue` additionally returns the credential itself, because that is the one call whose caller has no other way to receive it."
         },
         "statusListIndex": {
           "type": "integer",
@@ -249,34 +245,31 @@ export const PAYLOAD_SCHEMA = {
         }
       }
     },
-    "IssuedCredential": {
-      "$anchor": "issuedCredential",
-      "title": "IssuedCredential",
-      "description": "The receipt for a successfully-minted Verifiable Credential: a stable handle for revocation and audit, the signed credential itself, and when it lapses.\n\nSCOPE — this is an *issuance* receipt, returned by the party that minted the credential. It is not the shape for a *delivery* receipt, where a holder hands an already-issued credential to a party that stores it: such a task returns a receipt naming what was stored (see vtc/members/vmc and vtc/join-requests/accept) and MUST NOT echo the credential back to the party that just sent it. Reaching for this definition on a delivery task is the mistake this paragraph exists to prevent.\n\n`additionalProperties` is false, so a specification needing extra members cannot compose this by `$ref` — `allOf` evaluates each subschema against the whole object and this one would reject them. vta/credentials/issue is that case: its response is this shape plus `supersedes` and `ext`, and it therefore states the members inline while `$ref`-ing the shared CredentialId. That is deliberate, not drift.",
+    "CredentialReference": {
+      "$anchor": "credentialReference",
+      "title": "CredentialReference",
       "type": "object",
       "additionalProperties": false,
+      "description": "A pointer to an issued credential, without the credential itself.\n\nThe counterpart to IssuedCredential, for the far more common case of *reading about* a credential rather than being handed one. A listing that embedded the signed credential in every row would grow with the size of the credentials rather than the number of them — a page of fifty is megabytes — and a reader that only needs to know a credential exists, when it lapses, and how to revoke it does not need the bytes.\n\nThe holder can always fetch the credential itself by `credentialId`, and a verifier can check revocation from the row's status-list slot without either. Reach for IssuedCredential only at the moment of minting, where the caller has no other way to receive what was just made for them.",
       "required": [
-        "credentialId",
-        "credential",
-        "expiresAt"
+        "credentialId"
       ],
       "properties": {
         "credentialId": {
           "$ref": "#/$defs/CredentialId"
         },
-        "credential": {
-          "type": "object",
-          "description": "The issued Verifiable Credential (W3C VC Data Model 2.0), signed by the issuer's key. Opaque to the framework."
-        },
         "issuedAt": {
           "type": "string",
           "format": "date-time",
           "description": "When the credential was minted."
         },
         "expiresAt": {
-          "type": "string",
+          "type": [
+            "string",
+            "null"
+          ],
           "format": "date-time",
-          "description": "When the credential's validUntil falls due."
+          "description": "When it lapses, or null when it does not."
         }
       }
     },
@@ -373,8 +366,8 @@ export const RESPONSE_PAYLOAD_SCHEMA = {
           "description": "The attested claim body, validated against the endorsement type's claimSchema when it declares one."
         },
         "issued": {
-          "$ref": "#/$defs/IssuedCredential",
-          "description": "The registry-wide issuance receipt — credentialId, the signed VEC, and expiry."
+          "$ref": "#/$defs/CredentialReference",
+          "description": "A pointer to the issued VEC — its identifier and lifetime, not its bytes. `endorsements/issue` additionally returns the credential itself, because that is the one call whose caller has no other way to receive it."
         },
         "statusListIndex": {
           "type": "integer",
@@ -391,34 +384,31 @@ export const RESPONSE_PAYLOAD_SCHEMA = {
         }
       }
     },
-    "IssuedCredential": {
-      "$anchor": "issuedCredential",
-      "title": "IssuedCredential",
-      "description": "The receipt for a successfully-minted Verifiable Credential: a stable handle for revocation and audit, the signed credential itself, and when it lapses.\n\nSCOPE — this is an *issuance* receipt, returned by the party that minted the credential. It is not the shape for a *delivery* receipt, where a holder hands an already-issued credential to a party that stores it: such a task returns a receipt naming what was stored (see vtc/members/vmc and vtc/join-requests/accept) and MUST NOT echo the credential back to the party that just sent it. Reaching for this definition on a delivery task is the mistake this paragraph exists to prevent.\n\n`additionalProperties` is false, so a specification needing extra members cannot compose this by `$ref` — `allOf` evaluates each subschema against the whole object and this one would reject them. vta/credentials/issue is that case: its response is this shape plus `supersedes` and `ext`, and it therefore states the members inline while `$ref`-ing the shared CredentialId. That is deliberate, not drift.",
+    "CredentialReference": {
+      "$anchor": "credentialReference",
+      "title": "CredentialReference",
       "type": "object",
       "additionalProperties": false,
+      "description": "A pointer to an issued credential, without the credential itself.\n\nThe counterpart to IssuedCredential, for the far more common case of *reading about* a credential rather than being handed one. A listing that embedded the signed credential in every row would grow with the size of the credentials rather than the number of them — a page of fifty is megabytes — and a reader that only needs to know a credential exists, when it lapses, and how to revoke it does not need the bytes.\n\nThe holder can always fetch the credential itself by `credentialId`, and a verifier can check revocation from the row's status-list slot without either. Reach for IssuedCredential only at the moment of minting, where the caller has no other way to receive what was just made for them.",
       "required": [
-        "credentialId",
-        "credential",
-        "expiresAt"
+        "credentialId"
       ],
       "properties": {
         "credentialId": {
           "$ref": "#/$defs/CredentialId"
         },
-        "credential": {
-          "type": "object",
-          "description": "The issued Verifiable Credential (W3C VC Data Model 2.0), signed by the issuer's key. Opaque to the framework."
-        },
         "issuedAt": {
           "type": "string",
           "format": "date-time",
           "description": "When the credential was minted."
         },
         "expiresAt": {
-          "type": "string",
+          "type": [
+            "string",
+            "null"
+          ],
           "format": "date-time",
-          "description": "When the credential's validUntil falls due."
+          "description": "When it lapses, or null when it does not."
         }
       }
     },