Cross-Language Interoperability¶

Since v0.61.0, every push runs a live scenario in which the Python Network Authority and the Go, TypeScript and C# SDKs exchange signed records. The run fails if any two implementations disagree on any protocol decision.

Why it exists¶

Conformance vectors test each implementation in isolation against fixed inputs. They do not show that a record signed at run time by one implementation is accepted by another. Before v0.61 the SDKs’ Verify methods called the NA’s /verify routes, so a “Go verification” only showed that Python verifies its own output.

The failure this guards against is silent divergence. Suppose a verifier canonicalizes non-ASCII text, a float or a large integer differently from the signer. It then rejects valid records, or a fix that relaxes it accepts records it should not. Either way, two sovereigns using different SDKs would reach different trust decisions about the same record.

Offline verifiers¶

The Go, TypeScript and .NET SDKs verify these artifacts locally, using only canonical JSON and Ed25519, with the reason codes of the Python reference:

Artifact	Checks
Agreement	Offerer and responder signatures over the agreed body; expected graph digest
Boundary decision	Signature, expiry, freshness proof, policy binding against the expected policy versions, attestation binding against the expected attestation
Data license policy	Licensor signature
Data access intent	Agent signature, expiry, licensed sources, prohibited classifications, permitted access types, volume cap

They do not check revocation, which needs the issuer’s live state.

Shared vectors¶

conformance/vectors/interop.json (suite interop) holds 25 vectors for these artifacts and for canonical JSON edge cases: astral characters, DEL, big integers and Python float formatting (1e-05, 90.0). Each SDK keeps a copy in its tests, and CI checks that every copy matches the core file.

python conformance/runner.py interop

  PASS  interop  (25/25)

The live scenario¶

Two sovereigns, org-a and bank-a, negotiate an agreement (offer, counter, accept). The NA publishes a boundary policy and makes three decisions: one authorized and one denied by a policy gate, both under the agreement, and one under a membership attestation. It also signs a data license policy. bank-a’s agent then uses the TypeScript SDK to sign one compliant data access intent and one non-compliant intent, and submits both. Python, Go, TypeScript and C# each judge every artifact, including tampered copies, and the verdicts must be identical.

With the core installed and the SDK repositories checked out next to this one:

interop/run_all.sh

[GO VERIFIER] agreement: OK  boundary: OK
[TS SDK] intent: submitted  compliant: true
[CSHARP SDK] intent: verified  compliant: true
...
ALL LEGS PASSED

interop/scenario.md describes each leg, what its failure means, and the expected verdict for every artifact. The workflow is .github/workflows/interop.yml.

For SDK implementers¶

In JavaScript, read signed records with the SDK’s parseJson, not JSON.parse. JSON.parse turns a signed 1.0 into 1, after which the canonical form no longer matches what Python signed.