ObraVera v0.8.0

ObraVera 0.8.0

September 2026

This release changes where ObraVera comes from, and adds the piece that lets a
work be checked by phone rather than only as a file. It asks three things of
you before you start.

---

Before you start

1. Download from here, not Google Drive. This page is ObraVera's new home,
and the Drive links are retired. Each Mac download is signed and notarised, and
the README
shows you how to confirm that for yourself in about ten seconds. It's worth
doing once, so you know what a good result looks like.

Download	For
ObraVera-arm64.dmg	Macs with Apple Silicon (M1 and later)
ObraVera-x86_64.dmg	Macs with an Intel processor
obravera-pilot-kit-windows-amd64.zip	Windows 10/11 (pilot kit; see the guide for installation)
SHA256SUMS	checksums for all three

2. Your API key has been re-issued. It reaches you as a one-time secure
link. Paste the key into API Key Management → API Key, press Save, then
Verify. If it doesn't take, wait a minute and try again rather than
re-copying: the server allows ten attempts a minute, and pressing Verify
repeatedly after a failure is the quickest way to reach that limit. This
version tells you which of those two things happened; earlier versions didn't.

3. If you use folder watching or Quick Apply, restart watching once the new
key verifies. The agent stops when its key stops working. That's by design, so
a queue of files doesn't march into Failed/ one at a time. It doesn't
restart itself, and the app will remind you after the key verifies.

---

New: a work can be checked by phone

Until now, verifying a work meant having the file. This release adds an
acoustic fingerprint to each registration, which lets the phone verifier at
verify.obravera.com recognise a recording made
through a microphone: audio played in a room, captured on a handset.

Works you embed with this version are registered with one automatically.
There's nothing to do.

Works registered before it don't have one, and they can't be recognised
that way until they do. There's a one-time fix, and it doesn't touch your audio:

API Key Management → Add fingerprints to earlier works, then choose the
folder holding your registered works.

ObraVera reads the watermark back out of each file, checks it against what is
registered, and adds the missing fingerprint to the existing record. The
audio is not modified and not re-exported. Copies you have already sent out
keep verifying exactly as they do now. There's no new version of the file and
nothing to redistribute.

If a file doesn't match the work it claims to be, it's refused rather than
attached, and the app tells you which one.

If you no longer have the original file, that work stays verifiable as a
file, exactly as it always has been. Nothing is lost; it simply won't be
recognised over a microphone. That's a supported state, not a fault.

Works in several files (audiobook chapters)

Batch embed treats a batch as one work split across files: all chapters
share one credential. The registry now keeps every chapter's sound, not just
the first one's, so a recording of any chapter can be recognised. Running
Add fingerprints to earlier works on a folder of chapters embedded before
this version adds the missing ones.

Getting a good capture

The phone verifier is a field check. When it doesn't recognise something, the
cause is usually the room rather than the work:

• Hold the phone close to the speaker.
• Record for 40 seconds or more.
• Turn the volume up, and reduce background noise and echo.

File verification on a computer remains the definitive check, and always
was. If a phone check is inconclusive, verifying the file settles it.

---

New: register works you embedded before

API Key Management → Register existing works, then choose a folder.

Works embedded while the server was unreachable, or with an earlier version,
may not be registered, and an unregistered work can't be recognised by phone.
This finds the watermarked files in a folder, asks the server which ones it
already has, and registers the rest. It sends nothing the server already holds.

Only your own works are registered. A file whose signed credential names a
different creator is left alone and listed with whose it is. Registering a work
puts your name on it at verify.obravera.com, so a copy of someone else's work in
your folder mustn't become yours by accident.

---

Changed: the default embed strength is now 15

It was 10. Strength 10 was chosen for file-based verification, before anything
was being recognised through a microphone, and it isn't a good default now.

The cost is measured, not estimated: −3.53 dB SNR against strength 10,
consistent across three music sources and one speech source. If you need more
margin, the presets now go up to 20, at a further −2.51 dB.

Files you've already made are unaffected. This changes what new exports
get, not what old ones have.

---

Changed: AudioSeal-only works

AudioSeal-only works are now registered too, so the phone verifier can
recognise them. It can't verify them, though: it checks recordings for
the audiowmark mark, not AudioSeal's. So a phone check of an AudioSeal-only work
says "Recognised, not verified". Choosing AudioSeal-only now shows a warning
saying exactly this, and the app no longer reports it as a full success.

For full verification by phone, choose audiowmark (the default) or both.

---

Also in this release

• The app now tells you when a newer version is available, with a link to
  this page. It never downloads or installs anything. It reads one version
  number at launch and says nothing at all if it can't reach the internet.
  From the next release, that notice is how you'll hear about updates.
• Embedding registers the work, from the app, from batch embed, and from the
  command line (obravera embed, obravera embed-batch; --no-register to
  skip). A server that can't be reached queues the registration and retries on
  the next launch.
• Reports name every file that needs your attention, with the reason, and
  count the audio files skipped because they carry no ObraVera credential.
  Previously a run could say "✓ 0 registered, 7 could not be registered"
  without saying which or why.
• Verification results say what the watermark actually was, not only that
  one was found.
• The folder-watching agent explains itself when it stops. Previously it
  said "Invalid API key" and stopped. It now says what to do about it, and
  distinguishes a rejected key from a server it couldn't reach.
• Quick Apply tells the three apart too. A rejected key, too many attempts
  and an unreachable server used to look identical.
• A stale key could overwrite a newer one. If the app couldn't read your
  keychain at the moment it looked, it could write an older copy of your key
  over the one you'd just saved. Fixed.
• Intel Macs: on a first launch the app could decide audiowmark was missing
  and quietly switch to AudioSeal, and AudioSeal ran 5–12× slower than it
  should on older Intel processors. Both fixed. If audiowmark really is
  missing, the app now says so rather than switching silently.
• Windows: saving an API key could report "Error saving API key to keyring"
  even though the key had been saved. Fixed.
• The phone verifier records enough to explain a failed check afterwards,
  instead of the cause having to be guessed.

---

Open-source components

ObraVera bundles open-source tools, including audiowmark (GPL-3.0-or-later),
FFmpeg and several audio libraries. Each download includes
THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt listing them, their versions and licences. The exact
source code of each is published at
Third-party sources for ObraVera 0.8.0.

---

Known limitations

• The Windows kit is not code-signed. Windows will warn you about it, and
  it's right to: an unsigned download is one your computer can't attribute
  to anyone. Check its checksum against SHA256SUMS, and treat it as
  pilot-only. A signed installer is planned.
• Long files take a while, and the window can look frozen. Embedding runs
  in the foreground, so on a long file macOS may show "Not Responding" while
  it works. It's working: leave it to finish, and don't click Embed again
  while it's busy, because a second click starts a second embed of the same
  file. If that happens, you'll be asked whether to continue embedding a file
  that already has a watermark: answer No. AudioSeal is the slow part,
  especially on older Intel Macs. All of this is being addressed in 0.8.1.
• Single-file embed accepts WAV and MP3. Convert other formats (FLAC, M4A)
  to WAV first.
• French translations of the new messages haven't yet been read by a native
  speaker. If something reads oddly in French, it probably is odd. Please
  tell us rather than assuming it's a term of art.

---

What we would like you to try

1. Attach a fingerprint to one older work, then check it by phone. This is
   the path we most want tested before it goes to everyone.
2. Register existing works on a folder of your own earlier works, and tell
   us if anything is listed that you think should have been registered.
3. Verify one download using the steps in the README, so you've seen a
   good result and would recognise a bad one.
4. Tell us when the update notice appears for the next release, or if it
   doesn't. It's new, and it's the mechanism the next release depends on.

As always, the awkward reports are the useful ones. "This was confusing" has
shaped more of this application than any feature request.

---

Built from `a1f2fe4c81ca1ddbd50df810575143add9...

Third-party sources for ObraVera 0.8.0: addendum 2 (audiowmark, Windows build steps)

Addendum to third-party-sources-0.8.0, which is immutable and can't take new files.

The Windows audiowmark in ObraVera 0.8.0 was built from unmodified audiowmark 0.6.5, as the 0.8.0 notices say. But the build guide published in that release (2026-03-10-Audiowmark_Win_x64_eng_build_guide.md) describes version 0.6.2 and a source edit that was not made. This addendum gives the steps actually used, the toolchain recorded inside the shipped binaries, and how that was checked.

• audiowmark-0.6.5-windows-BUILD-STEPS.md
• SHA256SUMS

Questions: brady@obravera.com

Third-party sources for ObraVera 0.8.0: addendum 1 (audiowmark, macOS)

Addendum to third-party-sources-0.8.0, which is immutable and can't take new files.

The audiowmark in both ObraVera 0.8.0 macOS downloads is audiowmark 0.6.5 with one ObraVera modification, to src/wmget.cc: for short files it reports where each watermark was found instead of 0:00. The 0.8.0 THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt did not state this.

• audiowmark-0.6.5-obravera-macos-timestamp.patch: the modification. Apply it to audiowmark-0.6.5.tar.zst from the 0.8.0 source release.
• audiowmark-0.6.5-obravera-macos-BUILD-RECORD.md: how to apply it, how the binaries were built, and how they were checked.
• SHA256SUMS.

From ObraVera 0.8.1, audiowmark on macOS is built from the unmodified source. Questions: brady@obravera.com

Third-party sources for ObraVera 0.8.0

Source code of the GPL/LGPL components bundled in ObraVera 0.8.0. See BUILD-NOTES.md and THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt in each download.

Addenda (2026-10-11):

• addendum-1: the audiowmark in the 0.8.0 macOS downloads carries one ObraVera modification, not listed here. Its patch and build record are in that addendum.
• addendum-2: the Windows audiowmark was built from unmodified 0.6.5. The build steps actually used replace the guide in this release, which describes 0.6.2.