Operators

Get listed in the directory

Submit your node to the public directory, and what the interim admissions process means for trust.

The public directory lists conformant witnesses with the facts principals pick sets by. Listing has one bar: pass the harness.

Submit

bash
cargo xtask witness-conformance --url https://w1.acme.example > conformance.txt

Send to network@auths.dev:

FieldExample
Node endpointhttps://w1.acme.example
Witness nameacme-w1
Member keydid:key:z6Mk… (printed at first boot)
Operator factsoperator, organization, jurisdiction, infrastructure
Regionus-west
Conformance transcriptconformance.txt

How admissions work today

Entries are admitted by an attestation signed with a single admissions key held by Auths. Your browser then does two checks before trusting any entry:

  1. The admissions attestation re-verifies under a key pinned into the app bundle at build time — never read from the served document.
  2. The exact roster bytes hash to the id that attestation commits to, so the attestation can't be reused over a swapped entry list.

Only a roster that passes both can supply keys to anything else on the site.

This is interim governance, and it is centralized

One key decides who appears. That key can add or omit an operator — the directory says so on its face rather than implying neutrality it doesn't have.

What it cannot do: forge your cosignatures, or make a bad anchor verify. The directory is a discovery surface. Every guarantee you rely on is re-checked from the anchor itself, so a compromised or partial directory costs you discoverability, never correctness.

You don't need the directory

Listing is convenience, not permission. A principal can add your name and member key to their declared set directly — the set is theirs to declare and your signature is yours to give. Nothing in the protocol consults the directory.

If your listing is refused or delayed: the conformance transcript is the objective part; ask for the specific check that failed and re-drive after fixing it.