Files
paperspec/registry/README.md
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alexmandClaude a09d158e16 feat: minted keys, VRF seeds, RFC 9162 proofs, history roots, tag URIs and a transparency log
Keys (spec/02 §2.4), the rule paperstack settled on:
- A work key is a Scholar-style citation key, a hyphen and the first four
  Crockford base32 characters of SHA-256("scienting-key/1:" + identity),
  where the identity is the first of doi, arxiv, isbn, pmid, pmcid and
  openalex in same_as, else the folded title, year and family name. A
  collision lengthens the later key by two characters; a key is minted
  once and never recomputed. A document key adds .si, .v<seq> or .<type>
  for versions other than the version of record.
- Every fixture key is now minted (hale2026harmonic-damb,
  okafor2025solvent-acth, writer2027fixed-ynr7.v3, tiny2026tiny-j4qm), so
  every node and record ID was re-minted and the docs rewritten to match.
  The validator checks the document key against the work key and version
  (doc.key.work) and the hash part against the identifier (doc.key.suffix).
  vectors/keys.jsonl pins the cases paperstack's tests pin.

Review:
- Spot-check seeds are ECVRF-EDWARDS25519-SHA512-TAI proofs (RFC 9381),
  implemented in tools/oracle/vrf.py in plain Python and reproduced
  against the RFC's Example 16; the sample ranks by the VRF output. The
  earlier Ed25519 seed could be ground by a dishonest checker.
- RFC 9162 inclusion and consistency proofs (crypto.inclusion_path,
  verify_inclusion, consistency_proof, verify_consistency) with
  scienting-proof/1, vectors/proofs.jsonl and two fixture records.
- document.json carries `history`, the root over the corrections, with
  the empty-tree hash for none (spec/11 §11.5, rule doc.history).
- A provisional transparency log (spec/23): log entries, signed-note
  checkpoints with key hashes as transparency logs share them, the rule
  that a logged revocation beats a self-asserted time, and vectors.
- Reserved signature schemes cose and ml-dsa-65 (spec/08 §8.4).

Identifiers and text:
- urn:scienting: becomes tag:scient.ing,2026: (RFC 4151), since the URN
  namespace was never registered.
- Unicode 16.0 is pinned for normalization and categories (spec/01 §1.4);
  the checker refuses another version.

Checking:
- check.py: keys, proofs, VRF and checkpoint vectors; the proof and
  checkpoint records; a check that every ID and hash the prose quotes
  exists in the fixtures or vectors; three more broken packages
  (history-wrong, key-suffix, key-work).
- stress.py: key, VRF, proof and checkpoint properties.
- Docs: a keys section in the concepts and FAQ, rationale entries for
  keys, VRF, proofs, tag URIs and the Unicode pin, a "Looking ahead"
  section, media-type registration and OCI distribution notes.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-10-14 23:21:57 -04:00

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5.8 KiB
Markdown

# Registry
The registry holds lists that tools read at run time.
Each list is a data file, so a reader, writer, converter or checker loads it instead of copying it into code, and a team can change a list without changing a program.
This page is for newcomers, implementers who need the exact behavior, and experts who want the status of each format.
| File | Holds |
| --- | --- |
| `formats.json` | Every format: its identifier, media type (null for the six that have none), schema, status, chapter and a one-line description. |
| `rules.json` | Every validation rule ID, with what it means and the chapter that defines it. |
| `stamps/scienting-stamps-1.json` | The published rules that recognize the download stamps publishers add to PDFs (see Adding stamp rules), so page fingerprints ignore them. |
| `stages/scienting-stages-default.json` | The rights each processing stage needs, as a default a team may replace. |
## Format status
Each entry in `formats.json` has a `status`.
A `candidate` format is complete, with vectors and fixtures, and ready to implement.
It changes only with a recorded reason and a new or changed vector.
A `provisional` format is complete and expected to change as implementations gain experience, so it may change more freely.
At version 0.1.0, 19 of the 32 formats are `candidate` and 13 are `provisional`.
The third defined value, `reserved`, is unused.
The values are defined in [Chapter 0, section 0.4](../spec/00-introduction.md#04-status), and the stability rules in [Chapter 22, section 22.5](../spec/22-conformance.md#225-stability).
## Registering the media types
The `application/vnd.scienting.*` media types are vendor-tree types, which IANA registers on request without a standards document (RFC 6838 §3.2).
Register each type the formats serve over the web before the first release that other tools read: the zipped package, the anchor, the receipt and the layer first.
Until then the types are unregistered and work as they are; a registration changes no byte of any file.
The JSON-LD context is `application/ld+json` and a checkpoint is `text/plain`, both already registered.
## Rule IDs
A validator checks a package and reports each failure as `path:line: rule: message`, for example:
```text
nodes.jsonl:6: doc.hash.node-hash: node_hash does not recompute
```
A `node_hash` is a hash (a fixed-length value computed from content, so any change to the content changes it) stored with each node of a document.
The line above is the failure that `fixtures/invalid/hash-mismatch/` is built to cause: its sixth node record carries a `node_hash` of all zeros.
A rule's meaning never changes, and a retired rule's ID is never reused, so tools and people can rely on the IDs.
A tool can match on the `rule` field, whose meaning is looked up in `rules.json`, and treat the message as text for people.
[Chapter 22, section 22.4](../spec/22-conformance.md#224-rules) lists the ID prefixes.
Each directory in `fixtures/invalid/` has an `expect.json` that names the rule it breaks.
The reference checker (`tools/check.py`) fails if that rule is not in `rules.json`.
## Adding stamp rules
Many publishers add a line to each PDF they serve, naming the institution and the time of download.
This page calls that line a stamp.
Two downloads of one paper then differ, so a hash of the file cannot match them.
A page fingerprint is a hash of a page's size, its text and its images.
It is computed after removing every line that a stamp rule matches ([Chapter 7, section 7.1](../spec/07-geometry.md#71-page-fingerprints)).
The vectors in `vectors/fingerprints.jsonl` show this: `acs-download-1` and `acs-download-2` differ in the institution and the time on their stamp lines and have the same fingerprint.
Suppose two downloads of one paper differ only in a stamp line that no published rule recognizes.
Record a rule in a file of your own, marked as learned:
```json
{"format": "scienting-stamps/1", "id": "smithlab-learned", "learned": true,
"rules": [{"id": "licensed-to", "pattern": "^This copy is licensed to .+", "where": "margin", "margin": 36}]}
```
Normalized text is the line after Unicode Normalization Form C, with each run of whitespace replaced by one space and the ends trimmed ([Chapter 1, section 1.4](../spec/01-conventions.md#14-text-normalization-for-hashing)).
A rule has an `id`, a `pattern`, and a `where` that is `any` or `margin`.
A `margin` rule matches only lines whose box lies wholly within `margin` points of one page edge (36 when the rule gives none).
Patterns use only syntax that ECMAScript and Python read alike, and match a line's normalized text, with the ASCII letters A to Z compared without case.
The allowed syntax is literals, `.`, `*`, `+`, `?`, `^`, `$`, classes and escaped punctuation.
A page record in `pages.jsonl` lists, in `stamps_removed`, the IDs of the rules that removed lines.
A rule that is too broad hides a real difference between two pages.
A stamp that no rule recognizes splits one edition into two ([Chapter 7, section 7.2](../spec/07-geometry.md#72-stamp-rules)).
## Replacing the stage defaults
A stage is one step of processing, such as conversion or indexing.
Each stage needs certain rights, such as the right to mine text, and a stage runs only when the rights record of the paper allows them.
The stage requirements are configuration, not code, because what a team may do depends on how it holds each paper.
A team copies `scienting-stages-default.json`, adjusts it with its counsel and points its project's settings at the copy.
The file itself calls its contents "proposed defaults from the design, for counsel to set".
In a project, the `settings.stages` field holds the `id` of the stage file in use ([Chapter 20](../spec/20-projects.md)), so a team's copy needs an `id` of its own.
The project format is `provisional`.
[Chapter 14](../spec/14-rights.md) explains how stages are checked.