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buzz/docs
Tyler d97780b477 docs(nips): comprehensive NIP-FI — core + claimable profiles (EDGE/LIFECYCLE/DELEG/CONF) (#5946)
## What

Comprehensive NIP-FI against `main`: one normative core plus four
separately
claimable profiles, replacing the single-document structure of #3726
(which was
based on #1485's branch, not `main`). Six documents, 1,975 lines, docs
only.

- **`NIP-FI.md` (core, 632 lines)** — issuer-qualified identity `(iss,
sub)`,
independent Nostr proof, client-attached assertion, partial bijection
with
durable tombstones, atomic final admission, bounded leases, private
denials
  with a closed response vocabulary, retire/revoke/rotate, two contract
identities (`assertion_policy_id`, `transport_contract_id`), per-policy
  `skew` / `maximum_assertion_age` / `maximum_status_age` with missing
configuration denying, a closed token-class rule (`at+jwt`,
`nip-fi+jwt`,
  named compatibility; ID tokens always deny), declared freshness class
  (`offline-jwt` | `current-status`), server-declared body authorization
  relevance (NIP-98 payload-binding fix, including a `payload` tag on an
irrelevant-body operation), BCP 14, "equivalent" defined over identity /
bounds / provenance classes, a compact non-normative worked wire
example,
  and a non-normative comparison with DPoP, mTLS-bound tokens, and HTTP
  Message Signatures. FI-INV-01..16 are normative core text. The
behavioral-oracle table lists exactly 30 oracle IDs, one per row, with
no
  shorthand.
- **`NIP-FI-EDGE.md`** — trusted-edge surface: the
`trusted-proxy-hmac-v2`
envelope + canonicalization, or a private authenticated-edge adapter
under a
reviewed contract; `authorization_domain_id` derivation (exact 16 RFC
9562
UUID bytes); `proof_transport_code` registry (0x01 NIP-42, 0x02 NIP-98;
  0x03 Git smart-HTTP and 0x04 Blossom reserved pending their transport
contracts; 0x05–0x7f unassigned pending published stable specifications)
  + extension procedure; body-acquisition bounds; three normative test
vectors. An independent Nostr proof (the NIP-98 event in
`Authorization`,
  which reaches the verifier byte-identical, or the NIP-42 event after
connect) is the only decision input outside the MAC; absent or
incomplete
  provenance on an edge-required route is `missing_evidence`,
  present-but-failing provenance is `evidence_rejected`.
  Header-trust-without-provenance is nonconformant.
- **`NIP-FI-LIFECYCLE.md`** — provision / disable / re-enable /
administrative
expiry (`binding_not_after`) / pending-replacement lineage, one
conformance
trace per privileged transition; every binding-creating transition
declares
whether it continues or establishes a grant; a private-condition table
for
  CONF enumeration agreement.
- **`NIP-FI-DELEG.md`** — delegated agents; explicit temporal boundaries
matching core's inclusive-`nbf`/exclusive-`exp` idiom, with the
delegated
`skew` configured by this profile; lease deadline anchored to the lease
  issue instant; strict path separation — a delegated request carries no
assertion or provenance field, so it cannot traverse an edge-provenance
  route and uses ingress on which NIP-FI-EDGE is not required.
- **`NIP-FI-CONF.md`** — conformance evidence: an immutable claim tuple
  including the governing document revision and exit fixture digest; the
  complete 16-row denial-fixture enumeration with three mechanical
  enumeration-agreement checks; mutation adequacy with a countable
  denominator — one retained killed mutant per literal oracle-table row
(30 core + 6 EDGE + 11 LIFECYCLE + 7 DELEG + 4 CONF = 58), rows selected
structurally by their first cell, never by section title, with the
release
gate and CONF's own oracle rows stated in the same listed-oracle terms
and
  a mutant defined for CONF's own report- and suite-subject oracles; an
  interoperability exit test compared over signing inputs (per-transport
NIP-01 serialization for the NIP-98 and NIP-42 proofs; decoded protected
header and claims as JSON values for the assertion), with a shared exit
  fixture pinning complete pre-signature header/claim JSON and complete
unsigned event fields for both transports, and mandatory negative
controls.
  `FI-CONF-INTEROP-EXIT` is `deferred` with reason
`no-independent-implementation` until a second independent
implementation
  exists; the canonical fixture is editor-authored at
`docs/nips/fixtures/nip-fi-conf-exit.json` and is **not in this PR** —
until
it is published a claim records `pending-canonical-fixture`, valid only
  while the exit test is deferred. Explicit not-applicable dispositions,
including `offline-jwt` deployments for the two current-status oracles
and
  absence of a revocation-bounded external capability projection for
  `FI-TRACE-CAPABILITY-REVOCATION`.
- **`NIP-FI-MODEL.md`** — non-normative companion; defines no
requirement or
  conformance claim and is not claimable.

## Why

The prior draft rated 9 (soundness) / 6 (minimalness) / 7 (elegance) /
7 (correctness) in adversarial + comparative review. This restructure
keeps the
two-invariant spine untouched, makes everything else a claimable
profile, and
collapses five stacked versioning mechanisms into two contract
identities.

Mutation adequacy counts one mutant per literal oracle-table row — a set
two
implementers enumerate identically — instead of "each normative
requirement,"
which had four defensible readings.

Resolved product calls (owner-approved):
1. Enrollment/denial posture is private — boolean enrollment discovery,
TOFU
extension claim not self-advertised, `key_mismatch →
authorization_denied`
   joins the denial anonymity set, and replayed evidence is classed
   `authorization_denied` so resubmission reveals nothing about commit.
2. Revocation honesty — only `current-status` deployments may advertise
an
   unconditional residual-revocation bound; `offline-jwt` advertises
unbounded/unknown. Access tokens keep RFC 9068 `at+jwt`; `nip-fi+jwt` is
   reserved for a separately minted Buzz assertion.

## Acceptance bar

- Nothing in core is deletable without losing a stated core guarantee.
- From the core document plus the CONF exit fixture, a second
implementer can
produce a valid request equal over the request compared object (signing
  inputs), and a byte-exact public denial per class — no reference
  implementation.
- Every oracle-table row ships a retained killed mutant satisfying only
the
  entry it was selected for.
- Both deployment profiles (trusted proxy = EDGE, client-held OIDC =
core
  client-attached) pass the same lifecycle conformance suite.

## Status

Ready at head e720a5cda. Every revision below is on this branch: the
2026-08-17 and 2026-08-18 review laps (Wren, Dawn, Perci, Sami, Mari,
Quinn)
closed at 513e03b06, 17d455a9b, and 4f913a813; the 2026-08-20 external
line-by-line review (R1–R10, R12) closed across 56e74141e..772ba7a72;
the
2026-08-20/21 adversarial lap (#6437) squash-merged as b8db13d88; the
round-3
external review (R13, R14), the DELEG×EDGE composition note, and three
terminology nits closed at e720a5cda; R11 is this description. Oracle
census: 58 (30 core, 6 EDGE, 11 LIFECYCLE, 7 DELEG, 4 CONF).

Known follow-ups, filed after merge and out of scope here: adapter-only
edge
deployments and FI-EDGE claimability; an EDGE private-condition table
for
CONF's enumeration-agreement check; an enumerable definition of the
positive/negative oracle sets used by the global mutation controls;
NIP-OA's clock-free verification versus NIP-FI-DELEG's wall-clock
expiry.

Supersedes #3726 as the spec vehicle; #1485 remains the design-history
anchor.

---------

Signed-off-by: Eva <011987e296fd5006292d2f930b574be47c7801048d1983c46c425d3c95f0cffd@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
Signed-off-by: Max <d8473ee32b973aa31a21a65adddcc4b69cc2a8a4dee8121ecd51926e0cddbc02@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
Signed-off-by: Perci <5a968df9a7494b4e019b9ecf739e088ba61097b4312124e9a88ae5b42e3f5f3e@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
Signed-off-by: Wren <5217c5c2f7bfb4333e46d17c98a9255a52dadee18dcd43a43536b95e6776dfa0@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
Signed-off-by: Dawn <c6237ef84fa537c78dcee78efd2d4e59f728859c7f194da42ac51ededfa0be05@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
Signed-off-by: Tyler Longwell <tlongwell@squareup.com>
Signed-off-by: Meli <5aaa86bce934fc3445fc254aab560a40923f10252f92107e665073dede0e04d3@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
Co-authored-by: Eva <011987e296fd5006292d2f930b574be47c7801048d1983c46c425d3c95f0cffd@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
Co-authored-by: Max <d8473ee32b973aa31a21a65adddcc4b69cc2a8a4dee8121ecd51926e0cddbc02@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
Co-authored-by: Perci <5a968df9a7494b4e019b9ecf739e088ba61097b4312124e9a88ae5b42e3f5f3e@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
Co-authored-by: Wren <5217c5c2f7bfb4333e46d17c98a9255a52dadee18dcd43a43536b95e6776dfa0@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
Co-authored-by: Dawn <c6237ef84fa537c78dcee78efd2d4e59f728859c7f194da42ac51ededfa0be05@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
Co-authored-by: Meli <5aaa86bce934fc3445fc254aab560a40923f10252f92107e665073dede0e04d3@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
2026-08-21 17:18:24 -04:00
..
2026-07-21 17:16:23 +00:00