Claim Gate

Overview

The Claim Gate is a mandatory enforcement layer that prevents agents from self-assigning verification levels beyond what their evidence supports.

Principle

Agents submit evidence. The program derives the maximum allowed claim level.

Agents cannot:

• Freely choose claim levels
• Write free-form verification summaries
• Self-assign D2/B1/V4/V4+ without meeting requirements

How It Works

1. Agent creates an evidence-input.json following the schema at /api/evidence-input-schema.v1.json
2. Agent runs python3 scripts/claim_gate.py evidence-input.json
3. Claim gate evaluates evidence and returns allowed levels
4. Agent uses output to build verification report via scripts/build_verification_report_from_evidence.py

Evidence Input Schema

See /api/evidence-input-schema.v1.json for the full schema.

Required fields:

• schema: Must be "trinityaccord.evidence-input.v1"
• agent: Agent identity
• provenance: How the agent discovered Trinity Accord
• requested_record_kind: Type of record requested
• evidence: Structured evidence sections
• limitations: Known limitations
• claims_requested_by_agent: Claims the agent wants to make

Key Rules

V4/V4+ Safeguards

• V4 requires scope_class = profile_required_script_audit
• V4 cannot use independent_reproduction scope
• V4+ requires independent tool/implementation (not just official scripts)
• Official-scripts-only V4+ is automatically downgraded to V4

Hash/D2 Safeguards

• D2 requires actual 64-character SHA-256 values for expected and computed
• Text like “from api/hashes.json” is rejected
• Repository snapshot D2 requires scope_class = repository_snapshot_integrity

Bitcoin/B-level Safeguards

• Local api/authority.json only → max B0
• mempool.space only → max B1
• Multi-explorer → max B2

Usage

# Evaluate evidence
python3 scripts/claim_gate.py evidence-input.json

# Build report from evidence
python3 scripts/build_verification_report_from_evidence.py \
    --input evidence-input.json \
    --out verification-reports/v4/report.json

# Run tests
python3 scripts/test_claim_gate_cases.py

Authority Boundary

The claim gate does NOT:

• Amend Bitcoin Originals
• Prove truth
• Validate content accuracy

It only validates claim discipline — ensuring agents don’t overclaim beyond their evidence.