block · tlongwell-block · Sep 3, 2026
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+# NIP-BA assurance and compatibility note
+
+Status: draft, awaiting independent redteam. Normative text is
+[`../../nips/NIP-BA.md`](../../nips/NIP-BA.md). This note is evidence, not extra
+normative protocol hidden to improve the word count.
+
+## Sources and scope
+
+This is a separate proposal on main, not a change to runtime behavior or a
+claim that the existing SDK/host conforms:
+
+- Original nine-operation prose: block/buzz#6790,
+  `804ce76c167d0f435cbff65e7e3f4aad720915f6`, `docs/agent-broker.md`.
+- Fifteen-operation Rust contract: block/buzz#6922,
+  `115e7975a11d7d4d95043cb847abd13c1a32f370`,
+  `crates/buzz-sdk/src/broker/{actions,mod.rs,wire.rs,correlate.rs}`.
+- Client integration: block/buzz#6967,
+  `3d2ea5b89adccf980879b9841e9a6b517b588b57`.
+- Buzz-local NIPs from this branch's main base
+  `7a9a5233d9d755e715be0c585cf7850e935d28cf`.
+
+The remote-agent vision presently hands a signing key to the substrate. This
+proposes optional different custody, not a replacement deployment management
+plane. All durable user-visible state remains relay-scoped; the host's retry
+journal is execution safety state, not an alternative source of channel truth.
+
+## Deliberate clarifications beyond editorial compression
+
+The wire names, argument/outcome members, 15 action versions, and numerical
+limits follow #6922. The following need host/client agreement before adoption;
+they are **not assertions of already-implemented behavior**:
+
+1. Retry key includes community as well as principal. Atomic durable admission,
+   in-flight joining, crash fencing, evidence-only reconciliation, and permanent
+   retry tombstones close unspecified safety gaps. Availability/storage cost is
+   intentional: finite retention without a new wire epoch cannot safely permit
+   an old ID to execute again.
+2. Authenticate/authorize release on every retry, including revoked sessions.
+   A retry refusal is attempt-local and must not clear earlier uncertainty.
+   This corrects the original blanket “failed means never happened” wording.
+3. Specify memory core mapping to `profile`, absence/tombstones, exact compact
+   size encoding, and observer partial-acceptance non-identifiability. No prefix
+   guarantee was present in #6922; none is invented here.
+4. Cursor filter binding/invalid-cursor refusal, thread ancestry validation,
+   exact unsigned integer syntax, and current membership are explicit host
+   obligations. They are not all enforced by the baseline SDK deserializer.
+5. Clarify publication acknowledgement, partial lifecycle/watchdog effects,
+   sorted changed-field subset, ambiguous-name refusal, and creation not implying
+   a booted runtime.
+6. Remove false claims that NIP-46 cannot inspect intent or that closed string
+   schemas prevent all secret transmission. Storage reads intentionally return
+   decrypted application content.
+
+Remaining flexibility is explicit: deployment resource limits, initial read
+window/order/cursor lifetime, runtime/provider/model defaults, provisioning and
+deletion machinery, runtime telemetry body, and ownership-depth policy. This
+spec does not standardize runtime-to-owner telemetry interpretation. A claim of
+full cross-runtime interoperability would need that companion profile.
+
+## Finite transition system
+
+Run with Python 3.10+ (standard library only):
+
+```sh
+python3 docs/formal/nip-broker/model.py
+```
+
+`model.py` defines an explicit transition relation and breadth-first explores
+all reachable states until a fixed point, not random traces or a depth cutoff.
+A state is `(records, allowed, uncertain)`. Each record is
+`(digest, phase, dispatches, effects, final)`, with final as a ghost observation
+that survives result erasure. One shared request ID, two unequal body digests,
+three contexts `(community,principal) = (0,0),(0,1),(1,0)` exercise collisions.
+One ID is a symmetry abstraction, not proof for arbitrarily many IDs. Work on
+different IDs can interact through real operation state, which is outside this
+model. `effects` is a Boolean abstraction of “any effect took hold,” not the
+number of relay events.
+
+Transitions: admission, digest conflict, wait timeout, dispatch, effect,
+completion, crash, reconciliation, result erasure, retry, and revocation.
+Dispatch is atomically admitted once. Revocation prevents future dispatch and
+stored-result release; it cannot recall already dispatched work. Reconciliation
+may reveal real effects but never runs the operation again. Crashed work can
+remain unknown forever. Lost responses are modeled by allowing completion to
+occur without client observation and later retry; HTTP packet order is not
+modeled. Reconciliation evidence is assumed truthful.
+
+### Checked invariants and mutation witnesses
+
+| Property | Normative seam | Deliberately broken transition |
+|---|---|---|
+| At most one dispatch per context/ID | Execution 2–5, retention | Concurrent redispatch, restart executor, evict protection |
+| Known failure has no effects | Result and Execution 6 | Crash misreported as failure |
+| Success has effect evidence | Published / completion | Baseline assertion (no separate mutant yet) |
+| No cross-context stored-result release | Session / K definition | Drop community or principal |
+| No release after revocation | Session / retry authorization | Replay bypasses revocation |
+| Different bytes do not replay | Execution 1/3 | Ignore digest |
+| Refusal retains previous uncertainty | Results, bold retry caveat | Clear uncertainty on refusal |
+
+Nine deliberate mutations must each produce a counterexample for their expected
+property; the process exits nonzero if the baseline violates an invariant or a
+mutation survives. This tests model guards, **not production guards**. Claims
+about production regressions require binding the actual host implementation,
+which this PR does not supply.
+
+### What this does not prove
+
+Not a proof of JSON-parser correctness, cryptography, credential entropy, TLS,
+Nostr event construction, thread ancestry resolution, pagination completeness,
+NIP-AE convergence, lifecycle atomicity, or actual host behavior. Authorization
+is abstracted to a Boolean; no policy engine is modeled. No fairness or liveness
+claim: permanent partitions and unavailable reconciliation can remain unknown.
+The at-most-once dispatch invariant does not establish exactly-once remote
+effects. Multi-step operation adapters must separately establish their effect
+and failure semantics. No malicious-host security theorem is possible when the
+host holds the identity key.
+
+## Upstream comparison protocol
+
+Fixed before drafting: upstream NIPs 01, 05, 07, 09, 10, 29, 42, 44, 46, 98 at
+`488b787848fcf1c6c3498c253264b8121b1a9692`. This is a purposive dependency/API/
+security sample, not a random sample supporting a 90th-percentile assertion.
+
+Dimensions: normative precision; independent implementability; failure/retry
+clarity; security boundaries; reproducible verification; economy of expression.
+Each gets 0 absent, 1 major gaps, 2 usable with questions, 3 explicit adequate,
+4 unusually strong. N/A must not be scored zero. Independent review must cite
+evidence and may reject the rubric. No averages may hide a weaker dimension.
+Strictly better on every dimension requires every score to exceed the
+comparator's; Pareto superiority (no weaker, at least one stronger) is a
+separate, weaker criterion. Adoption, deployed interoperability, and ecosystem
+maturity are additional dimensions that an unimplemented draft cannot beat by
+editing prose. No “superior to 9/10” conclusion is asserted here.
+
+
+## Executable wire examples
+
+```sh
+python3 -m unittest discover -s docs/formal/nip-broker -v
+```
+
+`vectors.json` contains a request and corresponding result for each of the 15
+actions. `wire.py` is a dependency-free, independently written **partial wire
+oracle**, not a production implementation or a full conformance certificate.
+It checks closed shapes, scalar normalization, integer widths, UTF-8, identity
+syntax, size limits, status/code pairs and selected response correlations.
+`test_wire.py` systematically inserts unknown/null/duplicate members into the
+example objects and exercises boundaries and byte-distinct equivalent JSON.
+Example event IDs and d-tags are illustrative, not cryptographic vectors; the
+checker does not verify signatures,
+read-filter membership, ancestry, address derivation, or operation execution.
+
+A deliberately bypassed closed-object guard admits a forbidden `scope` member;
+the normal guard rejects it. An encoding regression was reproduced before the
+fix: Python's JSON decoder accepted UTF-16 input. The oracle now decodes bytes
+as UTF-8 explicitly. Neither experiment establishes a production SDK regression.
+
+## Comparison findings (author assessment; independent review pending)
+
+The fixed sample is not exchangeable: a browser capability, an event deletion
+request and a distributed action service solve different problems. Absence of
+an execution journal in a signature or serialization standard is **not a defect**.
+Consequently, numerical totals would reward our chosen problem and hide tradeoffs.
+The six dimensions above are inspection questions, not measured universal ranks.
+These are concrete strengths to preserve or learn from, and limits to our claim:
+
+| NIP at the pinned revision | Evidence in that document | NIP-BA comparison boundary |
+|---|---|---|
+| [01][n01] | Events/signatures specifies serialization; relay flow defines OK, CLOSED, EOSE and tie ordering | We add operation uncertainty, but depend on its event machinery; not strictly more precise in every dimension |
+| [05][n05] | Security Constraints forbids redirects; Notes distinguishes identification from verification and preserves pubkey identity across remapping | Comparable explicit trust boundary; much narrower and economical protocol |
+| [07][n07] | Two required browser methods, optional encryption methods, extension timing and implementation link | Our failure contract is fuller; its tiny API is easier to implement and explain for its task |
+| [09][n09] | Client Usage requires author matching; warns deletion cannot be guaranteed; deleting a deletion has no effect | Both explicitly bound promises; no reason to demand an action journal from a deletion-request event |
+| [10][n10] | Marked e tags distinguish parent/root and document legacy ambiguity | We reuse this idea rather than surpass it; its kind-1 scope is not our kind-9 profile |
+| [29][n29] | Relay-scoped group identity, forks/migrations, independent subgroup membership, reconstruction events | Our retry namespace is explicit, but UUID-only actions and out-of-band provisioning are less general |
+| [42][n42] | Connection-scoped challenges, request retry examples, auth-required/restricted distinction | We add revoked-result rules; our bearer provisioning is less specified than its challenge exchange |
+| [44][n44] | Limitations, exact algorithm/pseudocode, external audit, published positive/negative vectors | A finite retry model is not a cryptographic audit; no verification superiority claimed |
+| [46][n46] | Two connection flows, permission requests, secret validation, logout limitations, auth challenge examples | We add reads/execution safety; it specifies discovery and connection establishment that we leave out of band |
+| [98][n98] | URL/method/time checks, optional body binding, wire example and reference implementation | We require retry-byte identity but solve a different authentication problem and are less compact |
+
+NIP-BA's current strengths are explicit attempt-local failure semantics, durable
+retry protection, a small executable safety model with negative witnesses, and
+all-action wire examples. Its weaknesses remain companion runtime telemetry
+semantics, out-of-band provisioning/policy, unbounded lifetime journal growth
+controlled only by admission quotas, no production host, and no independent
+client/host interoperability run. Economy must be judged relative to scope,
+not by rewarding the document with the fewest absolute words.
+
+**The requested “superior in all dimensions to at least 9/10” target is not
+established.** No editing-only stopping rule can supply deployment maturity or
+an independent implementation. This proposal should be judged on an auditable
+contract and resolved review findings, not a fabricated league table.
+
+[n01]: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/488b787848fcf1c6c3498c253264b8121b1a9692/01.md
+
+[n05]: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/488b787848fcf1c6c3498c253264b8121b1a9692/05.md
+
+[n07]: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/488b787848fcf1c6c3498c253264b8121b1a9692/07.md
+
+[n09]: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/488b787848fcf1c6c3498c253264b8121b1a9692/09.md
+
+[n10]: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/488b787848fcf1c6c3498c253264b8121b1a9692/10.md
+
+[n29]: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/488b787848fcf1c6c3498c253264b8121b1a9692/29.md
+
+[n42]: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/488b787848fcf1c6c3498c253264b8121b1a9692/42.md
+
+[n44]: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/488b787848fcf1c6c3498c253264b8121b1a9692/44.md
+
+[n46]: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/488b787848fcf1c6c3498c253264b8121b1a9692/46.md
+
+[n98]: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/488b787848fcf1c6c3498c253264b8121b1a9692/98.md
+
+
+## Reproduction result before independent review (2026-09-03)
+
+Python 3.14, three-context baseline: **1,481,544 reachable states and 16,102,044
+transitions**, exhausted with no invariant violation. All nine mutations yielded
+a counterexample for their designated property. Wire suite: **9 test groups
+passed**, including positive request/result vectors for every action.
+Model source SHA-256: `0f87f39917e044c4767be3d9a75fe1aed65325be9316dbebdab7c6847c7447a5`.
+Rerun the commands above; model stdout contains the complete mutation traces.
+
+`just ci` was attempted on base `7a9a5233d9d755e715be0c585cf7850e935d28cf`
+with only these documentation/model additions. The initial attempt timed out;
+a subsequent invocation selected an old PATH compiler and failed the MSRV check.
+With the installed Rust 1.95.0 toolchain selected explicitly, repository checks
+and the full 463-test CLI package passed, but `test-unit` stopped in buzz-acp at
+`acp::tests::keepalive_resets_idle_past_deadline` (82 passed, one failed before
+fail-fast). Later CI stages did not run. **Full repository CI is not green**;
+this note does not diagnose that failure as a flake or as caused by this change.
+
+Independent redteam requested from Eva; findings and disposition remain pending.
+This is a reviewable draft, not approval of a production broker.