attestix-go

Offline verifier — in pure Go, no Python runtime, no network — for credentials and delegations issued by the Attestix Python core. Verify Ed25519 W3C Verifiable Credentials, did:key identities, and UCAN delegation chains anywhere Go runs: agent runtimes, MCP servers, Kubernetes admission controllers, CLIs.

This port is verifier-only: it verifies credentials and delegation chains; it does not issue them. Issuance stays in the Attestix Python core (pip install attestix) or Attestix Cloud.

This port is validated, byte-for-byte, against the shared cross-language conformance vectors (spec/verify/v1/vectors.json in the core repo, vendored here as testdata/vectors.json). All vectors pass.

Install

go get github.com/VibeTensor/attestix-go@v0.4.0

import attestix "github.com/VibeTensor/attestix-go"

Verify a credential (10 lines)

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"os"

	attestix "github.com/VibeTensor/attestix-go"
)

func main() {
	vc, _ := os.ReadFile("credential.json")        // a VC issued by Attestix
	res, err := attestix.VerifyCredential(vc)        // resolves the issuer did:key, checks Ed25519 + expiry + revocation
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	fmt.Printf("valid=%v  signature=%v  expired=%v  revoked=%v\n",
		res.Verify(), res.SignatureValid, !res.NotExpired, !res.NotRevoked)
}

Verify() is the AND of SignatureValid, NotExpired, and NotRevoked (plus a structural check) — exactly the reference verdict.

API

Function	Purpose
VerifyCredential(raw []byte) (CredentialResult, error)	Verify a W3C VC; issuer key resolved from the document's did:key.
VerifyCredentialAt(raw, now) / VerifyCredentialWithKey(raw, pub, now)	Explicit verification time / pinned issuer key.
Canonicalize(raw []byte) ([]byte, error)	The Attestix JCS-style canonical UTF-8 bytes (the signed form).
DecodeDidKey(did string) (ed25519.PublicKey, error)	Decode an Ed25519 did:key to its raw 32-byte public key.
EncodeDidKey / VerificationMethod / DidKeyMultibase	did:key helpers.
VerifyDelegationChain(child, parent string, childAtt, parentAtt []string, pub) (DelegationResult, error)	Verify a UCAN parent→child delegation: EdDSA signatures + capability attenuation.
VerifyChainFull(token, pub, now)	Recursive prf chain verification (signature + expiry + cycle detection + attenuation).
VerifyToken(token, pub)	Verify a single UCAN EdDSA JWT (rejects alg:none).

The canonical form is JCS-style, not strict RFC 8785

This is the single most error-prone part of any Attestix port, so it is worth stating loudly: Attestix does not sign over strict RFC 8785. It signs over a practical JCS subset that differs from RFC 8785 in two load-bearing ways:

1. Unicode NFC normalization is applied to every string value and every object key. RFC 8785 explicitly does not normalize. (This port uses golang.org/x/text/unicode/norm.)
2. Number formatting follows Python json.dumps: whole-number floats collapse to integers (1.0 → 1), integers are preserved at arbitrary precision (e.g. 9007199254740993, beyond 2^53, is emitted verbatim), and non-whole floats keep their literal form. Signed payloads should avoid non-trivial floats; the vectors only use integers and 1.5.

Otherwise: keys sorted by Unicode code point, separators "," / ":" with no whitespace, raw UTF-8 output (no \uXXXX escapes). Canonicalize reproduces this exactly — see canonical.go and the canon-001 vector.

Other contract details mirrored here: VC signatures cover every top-level field except proof and credentialStatus; proofValue is base64url with padding; did:key is did:key:z + base58btc(0xed01 ‖ 32-byte key); UCAN tokens are EdDSA JWTs whose signed message is the compact base64url(header).base64url(payload) (base64url without padding), with alg:none rejected and child capabilities required to be a subset of the parent's.

Spec & references

• Core (issuer) implementation: https://github.com/VibeTensor/attestix
• Conformance contract: spec/verify/v1/vectors.json + README.md in the core repo
• Bundle wire-format spec: https://attestix.io/spec/bundle/v1

Run the tests

go test ./...

The suite loads testdata/vectors.json and asserts every conformance vector (canonicalization byte-match, did:key decode, VC verify — valid / tampered / expired, and UCAN chain — valid attenuation / escalation).

License

Apache-2.0 © 2026 VibeTensor