manifest.json — Capsule v0.6

The manifest is the typed metadata sidecar. It is small (~20 fields) and machine-readable. Human-readable narrative lives in program.md, not here.

Schema

{
  "format": {
    "version": "0.6",
    "container": "zip",
    "canonicalization": "JCS-RFC8785",
    "hash_algorithm": "SHA-256"
  },
  "id": "<64-hex>",
  "originator": {
    "public_key": "<64-hex ed25519 raw>",
    "label": "Acme Loan Co."
  },
  "participants": [
    {
      "actor_id": "human:alice@acme.example",
      "role": "originator",
      "label": "Alice (loan officer)"
    },
    {
      "actor_id": "ai:claude-opus-4-7",
      "role": "advisor",
      "label": "AI advisor"
    }
  ],
  "first_event_hash": "<64-hex>",
  "content_index": {
    "files": [
      { "path": "program.md", "sha256": "<64-hex>" },
      { "path": "agents.md", "sha256": "<64-hex>" },
      { "path": "chain/events.jsonl", "sha256": "<64-hex>" },
      { "path": "skills/foo/skill.json", "sha256": "<64-hex>" },
      { "path": "skills/foo/SKILL.md", "sha256": "<64-hex>" }
    ],
    "index_hash": "<64-hex>"
  },
  "skill_trust": {
    "<skill_id>": "signed | unsigned"
  },
  "encryption": null,
  "created_at": "2026-05-07T12:00:00Z"
}

Field rules

format.*: fixed for v0.6 capsules. Readers reject unknown format.version.
id: derived; see "Capsule identity" below. Computed by the writer and checked by the reader.
originator.public_key: 32 bytes of Ed25519 raw public key, lowercase hex. The signers[] of the envelope must include an entry whose public_key equals this value with role originator.
originator.label: free-text, advisory only. Auditors verify the public key, not the label.
participants[].actor_id: must match one of the patterns human:<id>, ai:<id>, system:<id>, capsule:<id>. Not cryptographically bound to a key by default — only originator is.
first_event_hash: 32 bytes of SHA-256, lowercase hex; equals the hash of the first event in chain/events.jsonl.
content_index.files: every file in the capsule except manifest.json itself and (for encrypted capsules) content.enc, which is hashed in the envelope.
- Sorted by path, ASCII order.
- sha256 is over the raw file bytes as stored in the ZIP.
content_index.index_hash: SHA-256 over the JCS-canonical serialization of content_index.files.
skill_trust: per-skill trust assertion (see trust.md). Skills marked signed must have their skill.json covered by an envelope signature; unsigned skills are passed to readers as untrusted content.
encryption: null for plain capsules; for encrypted capsules a small object pointing to the decryption metadata path:
```
{ "metadata_path": "skills/decryption/decryption.json", "cipher": "ChaCha20-Poly1305" }
```
created_at: ISO 8601 UTC; advisory only. Authoritative time-binding is the envelope's signed_at.

Capsule identity

capsule_id = SHA-256(
    "capsule-id-v0.6\x00" ||
    originator_public_key_raw_bytes ||
    first_event_hash_raw_bytes
)

Notes:

All concatenations are raw bytes. No hex strings as inputs.
Domain-separation prefix "capsule-id-v0.6\x00" is 16 ASCII bytes including the trailing NUL, so the prefix has a fixed boundary.
This binds the identity to a public key. Identity squatting on a future ledger requires the squatter to also possess a private key whose public key the squatter wants to claim — not a free win.

What the manifest does not contain

No surface.md pointer (the program is at program.md, fixed path).
No state.json projection (state is computed from the chain).
No plan.md pointer (the plan is a section of program.md).
No skill execution metadata (runtime, entrypoint, command, tool_id are all rejected; skills are instructions, not programs).
No last_sequence counter (read it from the chain).