provared 0.2.0 → 0.3.0

package/docs/guide.md

@@ -0,0 +1,736 @@
+# The Provared guide
+
+Everything about the format, the library, the checker, the stub writer beside an agent and what a record does and does not prove, in one document. The [README](../README.md) is the short version: install, a first record, and where things are.
+
+*Evidence, not a verdict.* A record shows what was signed and by which keys. People decide what it means.
+
+## Status
+
+**Version 0.3.0, a draft.** Published as it is, by one author in their
+own time; fixes as time allows. The format may still change, so do not
+rely on a draft record staying checkable.
+
+The core of the format is also written as an individual Internet-Draft
+at the IETF:
+[draft-izmaylov-agent-permission-receipts](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-izmaylov-agent-permission-receipts/).
+An Internet-Draft is a working document, not a standard.
+
+## The four parts
+
+| Part | What it is | In this draft |
+|---|---|---|
+| **Slip** | A short permission a person signs with a passkey: which agent, which actions, what limits and conditions, with whom, from when until when, and why | Built |
+| **Stub** | A signed receipt for each action, pointing back to its slip, countersigned by the other side where possible, and approved by the person where the slip asks for it | Built |
+| **Seal** | The stubs chained together and gathered under one top fingerprint, signed by whoever keeps the book and time-stamped by an outside service | Built. A public place where seals are kept is not |
+| **Show** | One page shown to a checker with proof that it is in the book, and when the book was sealed, with the names it does not need kept covered | Built. Only a slip's names and purpose can be covered so far |
+
+## What is here
+
+| Folder | What it holds |
+|---|---|
+| `spec/provared-format.md` | The format, described exactly |
+| `docs/threat-model.md` | Who might attack a record, what each part protects, and what it does not |
+| `src/` | The library: the checker, the writers for every kind of record, the stub writer beside an agent and the connector for an agent's tools. No outside code |
+| `bin/provared-check.mjs` | The checker for the command line |
+| `bin/provared-headers.mjs`, `net/` | A command that fetches the chain of Bitcoin block headers from nodes you name, so that a block time-stamp can be checked with no node of your own. The only code here that makes a network request. Experimental |
+| `page/` | The checking page and the demonstration page |
+| `demo/` | The demonstration: an invented office agent works under a permission and goes outside it four times |
+| `samples/` | A sample record, written once, that the tests keep checking |
+| `tools/` | Three small tools: one wrote the sample record, one writes the checking page as a single file, one writes the shared test files |
+| `test/` | The tests |
+| `test-vectors/` | Shared test files: records and values, each with the answer this library gives. Another implementation of the format can be tested against them |
+| `python/` | The Python version, `pip install provared`, which gives the same answers. See its own [README](../python/README.md), and its examples with three agent frameworks in `python/examples/`, and small packages for two of them in `python/integrations/` |
+| `site/` | The pages at [prova.red](https://prova.red/): what a record proves, with the checker's answer for the sample record, and a worked example. Published with GitHub Pages by `.github/workflows/pages.yml`, which also serves the checking page at `prova.red/check/` and as one file. The pages load nothing from anywhere and keep nothing about a reader |
+
+The npm package holds `src/`, `bin/`, `net/`, `spec/`, `docs/`,
+`samples/` and the checking page. The tests, the shared test files, the
+demonstration, the tools and the Python version are in the repository
+only.
+
+## Install
+
+```
+npm install provared
+```
+
+You need Node.js 24.7 or later. There are no dependencies. Node.js marks
+its ML-DSA and SLH-DSA as experimental and may print a warning about
+them; the command-line checker does not repeat it.
+
+```js
+import { checkBook, openRecorder } from 'provared';               // the whole library
+import { checkBook } from 'provared/check';                       // the checker alone, as a page uses it
+import { createPasskey } from 'provared/passkey-browser';          // a passkey, in a browser
+import { developmentRecorder } from 'provared/dev';               // a stand-in for a passkey, for development only
+```
+
+The checker for the command line is `provared-check`:
+
+```
+npx provared-check record.jsonl --issuer <the thumbprint of the passkey you trust>
+npx provared-check --sample     # the sample record, naming the stand-ins it was made with as trusted
+```
+
+The examples below import from the package by name. In a copy of the
+repository, import from `./src/index.js`, `./src/check.js`,
+`./src/passkey-browser.js` and `./src/dev.js` instead.
+
+## A stand-in for a passkey, for development
+
+A slip is signed by a person with a passkey, in a browser. To try the
+library without one, `provared/dev` gives a **development stand-in**: an
+ordinary key made in this process's memory that returns the same three
+values a passkey returns, so that every record it signs checks exactly
+as a real one would. It is not a passkey, and no person confirmed
+anything. So that such a record is never mistaken for a person's, the
+issuer's name in every slip it signs ends with " (development)",
+whatever name you give, and its page address is `http://localhost`,
+which the format allows for development only. The checker prints that
+name beside the slip.
+
+```js
+import { developmentPasskey, developmentRecorder, developmentSlip } from 'provared/dev';
+
+const { recorder, issuerKeys } = await developmentRecorder({ actions: ['provared.message.send'] });
+// the stub writer, opened under a slip signed by the stand-in; issuerKeys is its thumbprint, for a checker
+
+const made = await developmentSlip({ actions: ['supplies.order'], limits: [{ action: 'supplies.order', max: 200, unit: 'GBP' }] });
+// made.slip, made.slipFingerprint, made.book (the slip alone), made.issuerKeys, made.agent (keys and privateKeys), made.passkey
+
+const passkey = await developmentPasskey();
+// passkey.key, and passkey.sign(challenge) for a prepared slip, approval or cancellation
+```
+
+`developmentSlip` takes the members of a slip as `prepareSlip` does, and
+fills in the issuer (its key, page address and marked name) and the
+agent's keys; by default the slip runs from a minute ago for one day,
+holds no limits and names no other party, and its purpose says that it
+is for development. [examples/first-record.mjs](../examples/first-record.mjs)
+is a whole first record in one file. In Python the same is
+`provared.dev` (`development_passkey`, `development_slip`,
+`development_recorder`), with the writer as `.writer`.
+
+## Try it
+
+These need a copy of the repository. You need Node.js 24.7 or later.
+Nothing is installed: there are no dependencies.
+
+**Run the tests.**
+
+```
+npm test
+```
+
+**Check the sample record from the command line.**
+
+```
+npm run check -- samples/office-supplies.jsonl
+```
+
+It prints each entry, then its answers: is the record intact, was
+everything checked on this device, did the agent stay within its slip, is
+it time-stamped in a way you trust, and was it checked against keys you
+named. Here you named none, so it is not a pass, whatever else it shows;
+the fingerprints that come with the sample are given below.
+In the sample the agent goes outside its slip four times: an order the
+supplier never confirmed, an order above 60 pounds that the person was
+not asked to approve, a total of 230 against a limit of 200, and a
+deletion that the slip forbids. The checker says where.
+
+**Make the checking page as one file.**
+
+```
+node tools/make-single-page.mjs
+```
+
+It writes `provared-check.html`: the checking page, its style, the
+checker and the sample record in one file, copied in unchanged. Open it
+in a browser straight from the disk; it needs no server. The file allows
+itself no request of any kind: its content security policy lets nothing
+be loaded from anywhere. The tool prints the file's SHA-256 fingerprint,
+so that a copy can be compared with it. (Tried on 8 October 2026 in the
+three browser builds this repository is tested with.) The file for
+version 0.3.0 is attached to the release on GitHub; it is the same
+file, byte for byte, as for version 0.2.0, because nothing the page
+holds changed. Its SHA-256 fingerprint is
+`7e142fa119458ce00c5fdd6e1cafc75cb3bb4672624157a0a0ef4624f92812ae`.
+
+**Run the demonstration in a browser.**
+
+```
+npm run demo
+```
+
+Then open `http://localhost:8787`. You sign a permission with a passkey,
+the agent works and stops once to ask your approval of one order, and the
+page shows where the agent went outside the permission. Everything in it
+is invented: nothing is bought, sent or deleted. The checking
+page on its own is at `http://localhost:8787/check`. It takes a record
+file, the fingerprints you already trust (keys, time-stamp services,
+blocks), and what you were handed with the record: the person's own
+copies of cancellations, and disclosures for covered fields. All of it is
+read in the browser and sent nowhere.
+
+## What a slip can say
+
+- **What the agent may do**: a list of action names. Use names of your
+  own, or names from the shared list in the format description, section
+  16, such as `provared.order.place`, so that another organisation's
+  checker knows what is meant.
+- **Limits**: a total, a limit on each single action, a number of
+  actions, and a total or a number within any period.
+- **Conditions**: that the other side must countersign an action, and
+  that the person must approve an action with their passkey, always or
+  above an amount.
+- **Stated rules**: kinds of action the agent must never do, such as
+  `destroys`, and rules of conduct, such as "never claim to be a human
+  being". A checker compares the first with the stubs. The second is the
+  person's signed instruction: no check can show that the agent kept it.
+- **With whom**: the services the agent may deal with, and their keys.
+
+The other side has a voice of its own. A service can sign a **refusal**
+("this agent asked for something outside its slip, and we refused") and
+its **terms for agents** (which actions it accepts). Both are shown as
+what the service said.
+
+## The seal and the outside time-stamp
+
+Whoever keeps the book seals it from time to time: they sign its top
+fingerprint and its number of entries, with three signatures (Ed25519,
+ML-DSA-87 and SLH-DSA-SHA2-256s). An outside time-stamp service then
+states when that seal existed, in the standard form of RFC 3161.
+
+- After a seal by a recorder you named (`--sealer`, or `sealKeys`),
+  nothing before it can be changed, added or removed without the seal no
+  longer fitting. A seal by keys you did not name shows only that someone
+  sealed the book as it now stands.
+- With a time-stamp from a service you trust, the entries before the seal
+  existed by the time the service states. An entry dated later than that
+  is reported.
+- **You say whom you trust.** This format names no time-stamp service.
+  You give the checker the fingerprint of the certificate of each service
+  you trust; a time-stamp from any other service is shown, and not
+  counted. In the same way you can give the fingerprint of the key set of
+  the recorder you expect.
+
+- **A second clock that rests on no signature.** Beside a time-stamp
+  from a service, a seal can carry a **block time-stamp**: proof that
+  its fingerprint was written into a block of a public blockchain (the
+  open proof format OpenTimestamps, and the Bitcoin blockchain). The
+  chain is used purely as a clock: no coin, no wallet, no account and no
+  payment is involved. It stays good even if every signing method of
+  today is broken. You name the blocks you trust by their fingerprints
+  (`--block`, or `blocks`). A block's time is right only to within about
+  two hours, and the checker says so. The tests use made-up blocks. Two
+  complete proofs that others had published, one made by hand and one
+  made by public calendar services, were checked once with this reader
+  against the real blocks they name (5 October 2026): each led to its
+  blocks, and each was refused with another block or with its file
+  changed by one bit.
+
+```
+npm run check -- samples/office-supplies.jsonl --stamp-service <fingerprint> --sealer <fingerprint>
+```
+
+The fingerprints for the sample are in
+`samples/office-supplies.expected.json`. The sample's time-stamp service
+is made up, as its passkey is.
+
+### Knowing that a block is part of the chain
+
+**Experimental.** `provared-headers` is new in version 0.1.0 and may
+change. It is the only part of Provared that connects to the internet,
+and it does so only when you run it.
+
+A block time-stamp counts only for a block you trust to be part of the
+Bitcoin blockchain. You need not run a Bitcoin node of your own, or trust
+anyone who lists blocks, to know that:
+
+```
+provared-headers --node <host:port> --node <host:port>
+provared-check record.jsonl --headers block-headers.bin --issuer <thumbprint> --sealer <fingerprint>
+```
+
+`provared-headers` fetches the chain of block headers (about 78 MB, a
+few minutes the first time) from the Bitcoin nodes you name, and from no
+one else, and keeps it in a file. It checks every header on your device,
+by the rules every Bitcoin node applies, from the chain's first block:
+each names the block before it, carries the work its target asks for,
+follows the rule for the difficulty, and states a time that the rules
+allow. The chain must also hold, at their places, ten blocks known to be
+part of it, which are written into the library, and after the last of
+them no target may be more than four times easier than that block's. A
+second node, on another network, must hand back the latest six blocks
+itself. A node can refuse to answer, but cannot have a false header
+kept. A chain file someone else hands you is only as good as they are:
+fetch your own. Run it again later and it
+fetches only the newer headers. Name your own node if you have one
+(`127.0.0.1:8333`); a file of nodes, one `host:port` to a line, can be
+given with `--nodes-file`. The nodes you name see your device's address,
+and a node named by its name is looked up by your device's own name
+service.
+
+`provared-check --headers` checks that file again, in full, on your
+device, and makes no request. A block time-stamp then counts if its block
+is in the chain with at least six blocks after it. The checker says, for
+each block time-stamp, what the chain shows. In the library:
+`checkHeaderChain` and `blocksInChain`.
+
+## Cancelling a slip
+
+The person who signed a slip can end it early with the same passkey, and
+have the cancellation time-stamped at once. Every stub after it is then
+reported as outside the slip. With a time-stamp on the cancellation, a
+stub counts as made before it only if an outside time-stamp shows that
+it existed by then: an agent cannot escape a cancellation by writing an
+earlier time into a stub. If the person cancelled more than once, every
+cancellation counts, in whichever order they stand in the book.
+
+The person should keep their own copy of a cancellation, with its
+time-stamp. Whoever keeps the book could leave the cancellation out, or
+put a later time-stamp in its place. Handed to the checker beside the
+book (`--cancellation <file>`, or `cancellations`), the person's copy
+counts all the same: the checker says whether the book holds it, and
+reports every stub that no outside time-stamp shows to have existed
+before it.
+
+A cancellation shows when the person signed it, not that the agent's
+side was told. So the agent's side can **acknowledge** it: a short
+record, signed with the agent's own keys, that says "this cancellation
+was handed to us at this time". The stub writer signs one whenever the
+person's cancellation of its slip is handed to its `add`, once for each
+cancellation, writes it into the book after the cancellation, and hands
+it back for the person to keep. Handed to the checker with the person's
+copy (as `acknowledgements` in the same file), it shows which stubs the
+agent made after it was told, which passes it handed on after it was
+told, and whether a cancellation that the book leaves out had been
+handed over. Both dates in that comparison are the agent's own word. An
+acknowledgement that does not check is reported, and the cancellation
+itself is still used.
+
+## Who stands behind a name
+
+A name in a record is a label. An organisation can stand behind one with
+a **vouching record**: "this key belongs to this name". It can vouch for
+a person's passkey, an agent's keys, a service's keys and a recorder's
+keys, and can later **withdraw** the statement. You tell the checker
+which organisations you trust (`--voucher`, or `vouchers`), and it then
+shows a name as "vouched for by" that organisation instead of "a label,
+not checked". The vouching record must be in force for the whole of the
+slip's time. Provared does not decide who anyone is: it records who
+vouched.
+
+A slip can also state the fingerprints of the agent's program and
+settings, as the person approved them. That is a statement, not proof of
+what ran.
+
+## Covered fields
+
+A slip can be written with its names and its purpose covered: the person's
+name, the agent's name, the services' names and the purpose. What is
+signed then holds a fingerprint in place of each. To let a reader see a
+field, hand over its **disclosure**; to keep it hidden, do not. The
+signature, the chain and the tree check either way, and a disclosure
+cannot be made for a value that was not signed. A disclosure that does
+not fit is refused and said to be, and the slip is checked as it would
+be without it: what a slip is does not depend on what is handed over
+with it. Nothing that a checker
+compares can be covered: not an action, a limit, a condition, a service
+or a key. So every reader checks the same slip.
+
+```js
+const prepared = await prepareSlip(fields, { cover: ['issuer.name', 'purpose'] });
+prepared.disclosures; // keep these beside the slip
+
+await checkBook(book, { disclosures: { [fingerprintOfTheSlip]: theDisclosuresYouWereHanded } });
+await makeShow(book, [0, 3], { disclosures: { 0: theOnesThisReaderMaySee } });
+```
+
+The method is the standard "Selective Disclosure for JSON Web Tokens"
+(RFC 9901), which digital identity wallets also use. The standard's own
+worked example is one of the tests. A slip uses less than the standard
+allows: no covered item of a list, no decoy fingerprints, and
+disclosures written in one canonical form.
+
+## Passing a slip on
+
+A slip can say that its agent may hand part of its permission to a helper
+agent, and how many times in a row (`passes`: from 1 to 10). The agent then
+signs a **pass** that names the helper's keys, what the helper may do,
+its limits and its times. A helper's stubs name the pass, are signed with
+the helper's keys, and are compared with the pass, with every pass above
+it, and with the slip the person signed. The totals of the slip, and of
+each pass, take in everything done under them, so passing on cannot
+widen a permission. A pass the slip does
+not allow is reported, with every stub under it.
+
+## The check before acting
+
+`checkBefore` answers, before an action: would this be outside the slip?
+It uses the same comparison as the checker, so it refuses everything the
+checker would report afterwards. In one case it refuses more: an action
+that would add to a period which a stub dated after it already
+overfills; the checker reports that against the later stub. The software
+around an agent can call it and stop the action.
+
+```js
+import { checkBefore } from 'provared';
+
+const answer = await checkBefore(
+  textOfTheBookSoFar,
+  {
+    slip: fingerprintOfTheSlip,
+    action: 'provared.order.place',
+    amount: { unit: 'GBP', value: 80 },
+    with: 'supplier',
+    approval: theSignedApprovalIfTheSlipAsksForOne,
+  },
+  { issuerKeys: ['the thumbprint of the passkey you trust'] },
+);
+
+answer.allowed;   // true only if the record so far is sound, fully checked, and the action is inside the slip
+answer.breaches;  // why not, in the checker's own codes
+answer.problems;  // why the question could not be answered with a yes
+answer.needs;     // what the slip asks to go with it: 'approval', 'countersignature'
+```
+
+It must be told whose passkey it trusts: a slip signed by any other key
+allows nothing. Where the slip asks for the person's approval, the action
+is allowed only if the signed approval is handed over. Where the slip
+asks for a countersignature, `needs` says so: the action is inside the
+slip only if the other side then countersigns it.
+
+It is a help, not evidence: nothing in a record shows that it was called.
+
+## Beside an agent
+
+`openRecorder` puts the two things an agent's software must do into one
+call: ask first, and write the receipt after.
+
+```js
+import { openRecorder } from 'provared';
+
+const recorder = await openRecorder({ book, slip, privateKeys, issuerKeys });
+
+const outcome = await recorder.act(
+  { action: 'provared.order.place', amount: { unit: 'GBP', value: 45 }, with: 'supplier' },
+  async () => placeTheOrder(),            // taken only if the answer is yes
+  { countersign: askTheSupplierToCountersign },
+);
+
+outcome.done;      // false: the action was outside the slip, was not taken, and nothing was written
+recorder.book();   // the book, with the new stub in the agent's chain
+await recorder.check();   // what the record shows as it stands, as checkBook would answer
+```
+
+If taking the action fails with an error, no stub is written; the caller
+must deal with whatever part of the action did happen. `record` writes a
+stub without asking, for an action that was taken some other way: the
+record is of what happened, inside the slip or not.
+
+The writer's calls wait for one another, so two actions asked for at the
+same moment are taken one after the other, each against the book as the
+one before left it. A countersignature that the other side hands back is
+checked before it goes into the book; one that does not check is left
+out, the stub stands one-sided, and `stub.countersignature.problem` says
+why. `add` puts an entry that someone else made (a seal, a cancellation,
+a refusal) into the book only if the book still passes its check with
+it, and it is not dated ahead of the clock. The other side is given 30
+seconds to countersign (`countersignWithin`); after that the stub is
+written one-sided. Where the slip asks for a countersignature, `act`
+takes the action only if it is given a way to ask for one. Before an
+action is taken, its stub is written and checked with the whole book, so
+that the receipt is known to fit. `act` takes an action now: a date
+handed to it must be within 300 seconds of the writer's clock (`now`).
+Nothing is written that is dated more than 300 seconds ahead of that
+clock. What the writer is handed (the request, an approval, what the
+other side hands back) is copied when it is handed over, and the copy is
+what is checked and written. `record` hands a stub to the other side
+only once it has passed the check of the whole book. The function
+that takes the action must not call the writer. Use one writer for one
+chain: two writers on two copies of a book know nothing of each other.
+
+The writer reads its book once, when it is opened, and then carries it
+on: each new line is read by itself, and no signature is checked twice.
+So the time an action takes grows only slowly with the length of the
+book. Measured on one computer on 4 October 2026, with countersigned
+stubs: 9, 14 and 23 thousandths of a second for one action after 400,
+1,600 and 6,400 stubs. (Before the book was carried on: 2.0 seconds
+after 400 stubs and 7.7 after 1,600.) Opening the writer still reads
+the whole book: about one second for every 450 stubs. Every line
+is tried on a reader split off the book's own before it joins the book,
+so an entry that does not fit, or an error part of the way through a
+call, leaves the writer's view of its book exact. `recorder.check()`
+gives the checker's answer for the book as it stands, without reading
+it again. `before` waits its turn with the other calls. What the writer
+is told to trust (`options`) is read once, when it is opened, and
+fixed.
+
+A cancellation that the person signed is never lost in `add`. If it
+cannot be added as it was handed over (a faulty time-stamp beside it, a
+member that cannot be written as a line, such as a list with a gap in
+it), the writer adds the cancellation with its time-stamps, or with
+those of them that pass their check, or by itself. If it cannot be added even so (it is dated ahead
+of the clock), the writer keeps it, allows nothing more under the slip,
+and writes it into the book, at its next call, once the clock has
+reached its date. In both cases `add` fails, and the error says what was
+done. (Where the clock fails, the error is the clock's own; the
+cancellation is held all the same, as `cancellations()` shows.) A
+cancellation that the writer keeps lives only in that writer:
+`recorder.cancellations()` hands back what it holds, each with the
+acknowledgement the writer signed for it, and so does an acknowledgement
+that still waits to follow its cancellation into the book. Keep that
+with the book, and hand it in again (`options.cancellations`, an empty
+list included) when you open a writer again; a writer opened from the
+book alone knows nothing of it. Read `recorder.book()` and
+`recorder.cancellations()` together, with nothing awaited in between,
+so that the two you keep belong to the same moment. A cancellation given in that way is written into the book once
+its date has come, and stops the writer from the start. A copy that
+the writer holds takes the time-stamps handed over with it later: each
+is judged by itself, those the writer counts come first, and a copy
+holds four at most. The writer is stopped before it reads its clock, so
+a clock that fails then does not lose the cancellation, nor the sound
+time-stamps, nor the acknowledgements handed over with it. A clock that
+gives anything but a time counts as a clock that failed. An
+acknowledgement that is handed over with a cancellation is taken as the
+agent's own only if it checks by itself, and only the first such one is
+taken: the writer never puts a second one of the agent's own with a
+copy (a copy given at opening that already holds two is handed back as
+it was given). A copy holds four
+acknowledgements at most; the writer's own is always among them, and
+where the copy already holds four, the last of the others gives way to
+it. A writer that is stopped
+takes no action, but `record` still writes the stub of an action that
+was taken all the same: the record is of what happened, and a checker
+reports such a stub.
+
+### The agent's tools
+
+An agent acts by calling tools: functions that its software offers it.
+`recordTools` puts each tool behind the stub writer, so that no call is
+forgotten. The agent's software calls the tools as before.
+
+```js
+import { openRecorder, recordTools } from 'provared';
+
+const recorder = await openRecorder({ book, slip, privateKeys, issuerKeys });
+const tools = recordTools(recorder, {
+  placeOrder: {
+    action: 'provared.order.place',          // the name the slip uses for it
+    with: 'supplier',
+    amount: (order) => ({ unit: 'GBP', value: order.total }),
+    run: (order) => sendTheOrder(order),     // run only if the slip allows it
+    countersign: (stub) => askTheSupplierToCountersign(stub),
+  },
+  readStock: { action: 'provared.data.read', run: (query) => lookUpStock(query) },
+});
+
+await tools.placeOrder({ item: 'paper', boxes: 5, total: 45 });
+```
+
+A call that the slip does not allow throws `NotTaken`, with the answer
+of the check before acting, and the tool is not run. Where the slip asks
+for the person's own approval, a tool's `approve` function is asked for
+it once. By default the stub of a call names one document,
+`arguments`: the fingerprint of the call's arguments, written in one
+form (RFC 8785). So the record fixes exactly what was asked for without
+holding it; `argumentsFingerprint` works the same fingerprint out again.
+The arguments must be JSON: a list with a gap in it, or with a named
+member, or a member that is `undefined`, is refused, and the tool is
+not run. A fingerprint of arguments
+that are few and easy to guess can be guessed. What a tool is, and what
+it is called with, is copied when it is handed over; each function a
+tool is described by gets a copy of the arguments of its own, and is
+called by itself, without `this`: it is not handed the description and
+cannot change it. What `amount`, `with` and `details` give is
+copied too, so a function that keeps what it gave cannot change it
+afterwards. `amount` and `with` must give their value at once,
+not a promise. The numbers `0` and `-0` share a fingerprint, as RFC
+8785 writes both as `0`. If `onStub` fails, its error is passed on,
+though the tool has run and its stub is in the book. `recordTools`
+names no agent software, and works with any function.
+
+## How signing works
+
+- **The person** signs a slip with a passkey. A passkey signs a short
+  value handed to it; that value is the SHA-256 fingerprint of the slip's
+  exact signed bytes, so the signature covers the whole slip.
+- **The agent and the service** each sign with two keys at once: Ed25519,
+  which is today's kind, and ML-DSA-87, which is quantum-safe. A record
+  counts only if both signatures check. A forger must break both.
+- **The passkey signature is of today's kind only**, because no device
+  offers a quantum-safe passkey yet.
+- **Whoever keeps the book** signs each seal with three keys: the same
+  two, and SLH-DSA-SHA2-256s, which rests only on fingerprint functions.
+- **Browsers are only now adding ML-DSA, and have no SLH-DSA.** Where a
+  browser lacks a method, the checking page says that those signatures
+  were not checked, and does not show a pass. Node.js checks all of them.
+
+## Using the library
+
+```js
+import { checkBook } from 'provared/check';
+
+const result = await checkBook(textOfTheBook, {
+  issuerKeys: ['the thumbprint of an issuer key you already trust'],
+});
+
+result.summary.intact;        // no problem found, and every signature checked
+result.summary.problemFound;  // was a problem found in the record?
+result.summary.fullyChecked;  // was every signature checked on this device?
+result.summary.withinSlips;   // every stub compared with its slip, none outside it
+result.summary.firstBreach;   // the first entry that shows the agent outside its slip
+```
+
+Type declarations come with the library (`src/types.d.ts`), so an editor
+can check how it is called.
+
+**A book that grows.** `checkBook` reads a whole book each time. To
+follow a book as lines are added to it, open a checker once and carry it
+on. It reads each new line against what it worked out from the lines
+before it, and checks no signature twice. Its answer is the answer
+`checkBook` gives for the same text; a test compares the two at every
+length of a book that holds every kind of entry.
+
+```js
+import { openChecker } from 'provared/check';
+
+const checker = await openChecker(textOfTheBookSoFar, { issuerKeys });
+await checker.add(newLines);            // whole lines, each ending with a line feed
+const result = await checker.result();  // the same shape as checkBook returns
+```
+
+What the checker is told to trust is fixed when it is opened. Each answer
+is a copy of its own.
+
+The checker never throws for a bad record. A failed check is a normal
+answer with a named reason. It keeps two things apart:
+
+- **problems**: reasons the record cannot be relied on (a changed entry, a
+  signature that does not fit, a broken chain);
+- **breaches**: what a sound record shows about the agent (an action the
+  slip does not allow, a limit passed).
+
+### What the checker returns
+
+| Member | Meaning |
+|---|---|
+| `size`, `root` | How many entries the book holds, and its top fingerprint |
+| `problems` | Problems with the book as a whole |
+| `entries` | One for each line: `index`, `kind` (`slip`, `stub`, `refusal`, `terms`, `seal`, `cancellation`, `acknowledgement`, `vouching`, `withdrawal`, `pass` or `unreadable`), `fingerprint`, `verified` (`all`, `some` or `none` of its signatures confirmed here), `problems`, `breaches`, `notes`, the signature states, and `content`. Where a time-stamp you trust on a later seal covers the entry: `existedBy`, the time by which it is shown to have existed. On a seal or a cancellation that passed its check: `stampedAt`, the time its own time-stamps give it |
+| `held` | One for each cancellation handed over beside the book: whether it passed its check and was used, whether the book holds it (`inBook`), the time its time-stamp gives, and the acknowledgements handed over with it (`acknowledgements`: who acknowledged, and when by their own word) |
+| `summary.problemFound` | A problem was found somewhere in the record |
+| `summary.fullyChecked` | Every signature was checked on this device |
+| `summary.intact` | No problem was found **and** every signature was checked. The only answer that is a pass |
+| `summary.methodsMissing` | The signing methods this device lacks, if any, for example `ML-DSA-87` |
+| `summary.withinSlips` | Every stub was compared with its slip, and none is outside it |
+| `summary.firstBreach` | The first entry that shows the agent outside its slip, if any |
+| `summary.counts` | Slips, stubs, countersigned stubs (the countersignature confirmed on this device), one-sided stubs (no countersignature; a stub that was not checked, because its slip failed, is neither), stubs the person approved, refusals, sets of terms, and the other kinds of entry |
+| `summary.sealed` | How far the last time-stamp you trust reaches: how many entries, the time they existed by, and whether a service or a block (`by`) gave it. Otherwise nothing |
+| `summary.limits` | What no check can show, in plain sentences |
+
+A signature state is `valid`, `invalid`, `unavailable` (this device
+lacks the method; never a pass), or `unchecked` (not checked, because
+what it rests on failed its check). Each problem and each breach has a `code`
+in plain words and a `message`. The codes are listed in
+`docs/threat-model.md`, section 8.
+
+The `content` of an entry that has problems, or whose `verified` is
+`none`, is unverified. It is there for whoever must find out what went
+wrong. Never show it as fact: the checking page and the command-line
+checker do not.
+
+Options: `issuerKeys` (the thumbprints of issuer keys you trust),
+`sealKeys` (the fingerprints of the key sets of the recorders you
+expect), `stampServices` (the fingerprints of the certificates of the
+time-stamp services you trust), `blocks` (the fingerprints of the
+blocks of a public blockchain you trust), `vouchers` (the fingerprints of the key
+sets of the organisations whose vouching you trust), `disclosures` (the
+disclosures of covered fields that you were handed), `cancellations`
+(the person's own copies of cancellations), `expectedRoot` and
+`expectedSize` (a top fingerprint and a number of entries you already
+hold a copy of). Give
+them whenever you have them.
+
+The checker reads a whole book into memory. A book of several hundred
+megabytes may be too large for a browser or for Node.js to hold as one
+text.
+
+The command-line checker ends with code 0 (intact, nothing outside the
+slip, and checked against keys you named: the passkey you trust and,
+where the record has a seal, the recorder you expect), 1 (no problem
+found, but the agent is outside its slip, not every signature could be
+checked, or you did not name whom you trust) or 2 (a problem was found,
+or what you gave on the command line could not be used). A value that
+is not a fingerprint is refused, never set aside. The checking page
+gives its green answer on the same terms.
+
+Writing records: `prepareSlip` and `assembleSlip`, `prepareApproval` and
+`assembleApproval` (the person), `writeStub` (the agent), `countersign`,
+`prepareCancellation` and `assembleCancellation` (the person),
+`writeRefusal` and `writeTerms` (the service), `writeVouching` and
+`writeWithdrawal` (an organisation), `writePass` (an agent, to a helper
+agent), `writeSeal` (whoever keeps
+the book; it needs Node.js), `writeBook` and `makeShow`, all from
+`provared`. The library asks no time-stamp service itself: you send
+the seal's fingerprint to the service you choose and put its answer
+beside the seal. In a browser, `createPasskey`, `signSlipWithPasskey`,
+`approveWithPasskey` and `cancelWithPasskey` from
+`provared/passkey-browser`. For a slip with covered fields in a browser:
+`prepareSlip` with `cover`, then `signChallengeWithPasskey` with what it
+prepared, then `assembleSlip`; keep the disclosures it prepared.
+
+## What a record does not prove
+
+- It proves what was recorded, not what was left out. An agent that acts
+  and writes no stub leaves no trace.
+- A one-sided stub (one with no countersignature) proves what the agent's
+  side said, not what the other side did.
+- A refusal proves what the service's side said, not what the agent did.
+- A rule of conduct in a slip is the person's signed instruction. No
+  check can show that the agent kept it.
+- An approval proves that the passkey approved that one action, not that
+  the person read what they approved.
+- It does not show that an action was wise, lawful or wanted.
+- A badly written slip is faithfully recorded as a badly written slip.
+- It does not prove who was holding the device when the passkey signed.
+- A name in a record is a label. Only keys are checked. A vouching
+  record shows which organisation stood behind a name, not how well it
+  checked.
+
+And about time:
+
+- only an outside time-stamp you trust, from a service or a block you
+  named, proves when entries existed. The times inside records are the signer's own word,
+  so a limit within a period rests on the agent's word;
+- after the last seal, the latest stubs under a slip or a pass, or a
+  slip or a pass with all its stubs, can be removed unnoticed, which can hide a stub that shows
+  the agent outside its slip;
+- the last seal, with everything after it, can itself be removed. Only a
+  copy of it, or of its top fingerprint and number of entries, held by
+  someone else shows that;
+- time-stamp services sign with methods of today's kind, which are not
+  quantum-safe.
+
+## What it never does
+
+It never holds money, never starts a payment and issues no token. It
+reports nothing back from the machine it runs on. The checker makes no
+network request. Only `provared-headers`, which you run yourself,
+connects to anything: to the Bitcoin nodes you name, for block headers.
+
+## Not built yet
+
+A public place where seals are kept; covering fields other than a slip's
+names and purpose; connectors for particular agent software (the
+general one, `recordTools`, is built); a compact binary form; the
+recorder service. The checking page cannot yet take a chain of block
+headers: use the command-line checker.
+
+## Licences
+
+Copyright 2026 Pavel Izmaylov.
+
+The code, the pages and the sample files: Apache License 2.0
+(`LICENSE`). The format description and the other documents: Creative
+Commons Attribution 4.0 International (`LICENSE-CC-BY-4.0.txt`).