Proof Artifact Classes

Current WitnessOps artifact names, authorities, and status across live docs, app surfaces, and retained-reference material.

This page is the artifact-class naming contract for operators, approvers/reviewers, and integrators. Use it to keep artifact names consistent across public docs, /verify, /api/verify, and retained-reference verifier/corpus material.

Quick reference links

1. Problem this page solves

Artifact labels drift fastest at the boundaries between execution, verification, and review. This page prevents drift by defining the current class names, ownership authorities, status labels, and where each class is used.

2. Who uses this reference and expected outcome

After this page:

operators can map run outputs to the correct artifact class names
reviewers/approvers can separate live/public classes from retained-reference-only classes
integrators can avoid promoting internal or corpus-only terms into public contracts

3. Current artifact classes (authoritative)

Artifact class	Current authority	Status label	Where it appears now	Contract note
`receipt`	WitnessOps receipt contract	`live / public`	Receipts, Receipt Spec, How to Verify a Receipt, `/verify`, `/api/verify`	Atomic proof statement for governed events in the current public lane.
`proof bundle`	WitnessOps bundle + verification contract	`live / public`	Evidence Bundles, How to Verify a Receipt, `/verify` explanatory copy	Portable package for receipt-linked trust artifacts. `/verify` v1 does not accept bundle uploads.
`manifest`	Bundle-verification lane (`MANIFEST.json`)	`current verifier / bundle term`	Evidence Bundles, Receipt Spec verification model	Inventory and digest anchor inside a proof bundle.
`verification result`	Verification contract + verify response contract	`live output term`	How to Verify a Receipt, Receipt Spec, `/api/verify` responses	Output semantics are `valid`, `invalid`, `indeterminate` at contract level (details below).
`witness record`	Retained-reference verifier/corpus vocabulary	`retained-reference / corpus class`	Retained-reference fixtures/corpus vocabulary and internal taxonomy surfaces	Not a first-class live/public artifact class for operator-facing docs.
`runtime trace`	Retained-reference verifier/corpus vocabulary	`retained-reference / corpus class`	Retained-reference fixtures/corpus vocabulary and internal taxonomy surfaces	Keep as retained-reference terminology unless a live lane freezes it.
`proof-object`	Retained-reference verifier/corpus vocabulary	`retained-reference / corpus class`	Retained-reference fixtures/corpus vocabulary and internal taxonomy surfaces	Do not equate this class with generic prose "proof object" without an explicit lane freeze.
`delivery record`	Control-plane delivery lifecycle (`witnessops-control-plane`)	`planned, not live`	Internal delivery lifecycle code/tests	Not a public proof-artifact class in the current docs contract.
`acknowledgment`	Control-plane post-delivery lifecycle (`witnessops-control-plane`)	`planned, not live`	Internal delivery lifecycle code/tests	Delivery-state term, not a frozen live/public artifact class.

4. Status semantics and verification-result semantics

Artifact-class status labels

Status label	Meaning	Interpretation boundary
`live / public`	Current class name for public docs and operator/reviewer-facing surfaces	Safe to use in current public documentation and route-level explanations
`live output term`	Current public output vocabulary from verification-facing surfaces	Use for result reporting; do not expand beyond stated verification scope
`current verifier / bundle term`	Active term inside bundle-verification structure	Treat as bundle-contract vocabulary, not a generic runtime-event label
`retained-reference / corpus class`	Observed in retained-reference verifier/corpus material	Do not present as guaranteed live/public class behavior
`planned, not live`	Name appears in internal/planning lanes but is not frozen publicly	Must be marked non-live; not a public contract claim

Verification-result status semantics

For verification output interpretation:

valid: required checks for the declared scope passed
invalid: one or more proof-bearing checks failed
indeterminate: external trust requirement was declared but could not be established locally

Current /api/verify v1 for supported receipt inputs is receipt-first and returns deterministic receipt-lane verdicts, while malformed/unsupported input classes are reported separately (FAILURE_INPUT_MALFORMED, FAILURE_INPUT_UNSUPPORTED).

5. Explicit scope limits and non-claims

This page is a naming and status reference only. It does not:

freeze a full, universal proof-object ontology
widen /verify v1 into full bundle-upload or artifact-byte revalidation claims
promote retained-reference/corpus-only terms into live/public operator contracts
replace Verification, Receipt Spec, or Threat Model
expose internal-only proof implementation detail through operator-facing surfaces

6. Operator and reviewer crosslinks

Operator lane

Reviewer / approver lane

7. Next-page handoff

Next, read the FAQ for common interpretation questions before applying this taxonomy in reviews or operator reports.