UCAN Inspector (web component)

A Vue 3 custom element for inspecting UCAN tokens (delegations and invocations) and UCAN containers directly in the browser.

Features

• Parses UCAN tokens and UCAN Containers (ctn-v1) locally in the browser (no server required)

• Decodes delegations and invocations via iso-ucan, and produces a structured AnalysisReport

• Verifies signatures when possible (iso-signatures + iso-did)

  • Some verification methods may require network access, depending on the DID method used

• Produces structured diagnostics

  • issues at the report level and token level (notice / warn / error)
  • Container-specific diagnostics when parsing ctn-v1

• Helps debug “almost valid” inputs

  • Non-canonical containers (duplicates, non-sorted entries, padding mismatches) can still parse, but emit notices/warnings
  • If an input starts with a container header byte but fails strict container parsing, the inspector records a warning and falls back to raw token parsing

Quick start

pnpm add @ucan-wg/inspector vue

This package targets bundler-based apps and uses Vue 3 as a peer dependency.

Register the custom element once during application bootstrap:

import { defineUcanInspector } from '@ucan-wg/inspector'

defineUcanInspector()

// later in your DOM
// <ucan-inspector></ucan-inspector>

defineUcanInspector() is safe to call multiple times.

This package also exports getMockToken() and getMockTokens() for generating locally signed sample tokens for debugging.

Mock tokens

In the UI, enable Debug mode to load locally generated samples.

The exported helpers include intentionally malformed samples so you can verify warning paths end-to-end:

• delegation: a valid delegation
• invocation: a valid invocation
• container: a valid ctn-v1 container containing a delegation + invocation
• containerBase64url: same container payload, but encoded as base64url (C header)
• badRawInput: not base64/container; triggers UTF-8 fallback notice + envelope decode warning
• badContainer: looks like a container but violates strict CBOR shape (should fail container parsing)
• nonCanonicalContainer: parses, but emits diagnostics for duplicates and ordering
• tamperedDelegation: decodes but signature verification fails

Component API

Prop	Type	Default	Description
ucan	string	""	Optional token or container string to parse on first render (and when updated).
sync-url	boolean	true	When truthy, syncs the input value to the ucan query parameter and reads it on mount.
auto-inspect	boolean	true	Disable to require manual "Inspect token" clicks.

Event	Payload	Description
report	AnalysisReport	Fired after a successful parse with the full report object.
reportError	string | null	Raised whenever parsing fails (or resets back to null).
reportExport	{ action: 'copy' | 'download'; report: AnalysisReport }	Emitted after the user copies or downloads the report.

All events bubble from the custom element, making them easy to observe from host pages.

Report diagnostics

The report payload includes issues at the report and token levels:

• report.issues[]
• report.tokens[].issues[]

Each issue is { level, code, message }.

The package exports the types so host apps can consume reports in a type-safe way:

• AnalysisReport, TokenAnalysis
• Issue, IssueLevel

UCAN Container input formats

This inspector validates the container CBOR shape strictly:

• The decoded CBOR MUST be a map with exactly one key: ctn-v1.
• ctn-v1 MUST be an array of CBOR byte strings (each entry is one UCAN token's bytes).

In the web component's text input, supported header bytes are:

• B = base64 (standard alphabet, padded)
• C = base64url (URL alphabet, no padding)
• O = base64 + gzip
• P = base64url + gzip

The raw-bytes variants (@ and M) are not supported in the text input because arbitrary bytes cannot be represented safely as a plain string.

Notes:

• Non-canonical containers (duplicates, non-sorted entries, padding mismatches) produce notices/warnings.
• If input starts with a container header byte but fails strict parsing, the inspector records a warning and falls back to raw token parsing.

Container diagnostics

When a container parses successfully, the report includes diagnostics describing canonicality and normalization decisions. These are intended to be developer-friendly and deterministic.

Development workflow

pnpm install              # install dependencies
pnpm play                 # start the playground for manual QA
pnpm lint                 # run ESLint
pnpm typecheck            # ensure TypeScript types stay healthy
pnpm test                 # execute Vitest unit tests
pnpm build                # produce the distributable bundle

The playground mounts the custom element and is useful for verifying URL persistence, visual styling, and regression behaviour.

Tip: enable Debug mode in the UI to load sample tokens, including intentionally malformed inputs that exercise diagnostics.

Time helpers (tests)

When you need a unix timestamp in seconds, prefer nowUnixSeconds() from src/utils/time.ts.

It intentionally uses new Date(Date.now()) (instead of new Date()) so Vitest spies/fake timers that mock Date.now() behave consistently across the codebase.

Maintainers

This repo includes a pnpm patch that adds an iso-ucan export for iso-ucan/utils (see patches/iso-ucan.patch). Re-apply when bumping iso-ucan.

License

Dual-licensed under MIT or Apache-2.0 (your choice). Contributions follow the same terms.