Verify a receipt¶

Canonical tool: occam_verify

Verify Receipt v1 integrity against a public key you supply — offline signature check, live drift re-check, Merkle citation proofs, and watch history chain verification.

verified means bytes + key, not truth, origin identity, or that the page said what was extracted.

When to use¶

offline (default) — check envelope signature; pass markdown to also check contentHash.
live — re-fetch and report hash drift (context-light; session/playbook not replayed).
prove — emit a compact Merkle proof for one block (needs json_blocks receipt).
citation — verify block + proof against signed root — no page needed; membership only.
history — verify watch change chain (history_verified vs history_chain_ok).

Parameters¶

Parameter	Type	Default	Required	Description
`receipt`	string	—	yes	Transcode `receipt` object, bare signed envelope, or watch `history` array
`mode`	string	`offline`	no	`offline` \| `live` \| `prove` \| `citation` \| `history`
`markdown`	string?	null	no	Markdown to check against `contentHash` (offline)
`public_key`	string?	null	no	PEM public key. Defaults to this host's local key — supply producer PEM for third-party checks
`block_index`	int?	null	prove	Block index for citation proof
`block_text`	string?	null	citation	Block text
`block_selector`	string?	null	citation	Block `source_selector`
`proof`	string?	null	citation	Proof JSON from `prove`
`chunks`	string?	null	live	JSON array of chunk leaf-hashes for staleness report

Returns¶

Verify envelope:

ok: true, signatureValid, contentHashMatch?, keyId, mode
verdict — e.g. verified, wrong_key, signature_invalid, drifted, refetch_failed, citation_verified / citation_invalid, history_verified / history_chain_ok / history_wrong_key / history_invalid
live?, history? — mode-specific detail
timeAnchor? — reported on MCP; does not gate MCP verified (CLI gates on anchor validity)

prove mode returns {ok, keyId, root, leafIndex, leaf, proof[]}.

MCP vs CLI¶

	MCP	CLI `OccamMcp.Core verify`
`public_key` / `--pubkey`	Optional (local default)	Mandatory
`manifest` mode	Not available	`--mode manifest` for dataset exports
`live`, `prove`	Yes	No

Extract-knowledge telemetry objects are not valid input.

Failure codes¶

invalid_receipt, invalid_arguments. See failure codes.

Example¶

{
  "receipt": "{\"signed\":{…},\"blockLeaves\":[…]}",
  "markdown": "# nginx documentation\n…",
  "public_key": "-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----\n…"
}

{ "ok": true, "signatureValid": true, "contentHashMatch": true, "verdict": "verified", "keyId": "k1:…" }