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+# Gitlawb Wire Protocol Specification (v1, alpha)
+
+This document describes the wire behavior a second implementation can interop
+with **today**. Anything the node does not ship yet is explicitly marked
+*planned*; nothing below is aspirational unless it says so.
+
+## 1. Identity & DIDs
+
+- **Key type:** Ed25519.
+- **Method (alpha):** `did:key` only. Resolution is deterministic public-key
+  extraction from the multicodec prefix (`z6Mk…`, multicodec `0xed01`).
+- Signed requests presenting any other DID method are rejected; the node's
+  auth layer answers with a hint that only `did:key` is supported in alpha.
+- *Planned:* `did:web` and `did:gitlawb` resolution. Clients MUST NOT assume
+  either is accepted anywhere yet.
+
+## 2. Authentication (RFC 9421)
+
+- **HTTP signatures:** `Signature-Input` covers `@method`, `@path`, and
+  `content-digest`:
+  `sig1=("@method" "@path" "content-digest");keyid="did:key:…";alg="ed25519";created=<unix>`
+- **Signer identity:** `keyid` is the actor DID (`did:key` only, see §1).
+- **Integrity:** `Content-Digest` is SHA-256 over the request body and is
+  verified when the header is present.
+
+## 3. Proof of Intelligence (iCaptcha)
+
+- **Mode:** controlled by `ICAPTCHA_MODE` = `off` | `shadow` | `enforce`,
+  **default `off`**. A node with the gate off never demands proof.
+- **Scope:** the gate applies to a small set of write endpoints (agent
+  registration and repo create/fork), not to all writes.
+- **Wire shape:** the client-supplied header is `x-icaptcha-proof` — that is
+  the only iCaptcha header a node reads from a request. When proof is
+  required and missing/invalid, the node answers
+  `403 icaptcha_proof_required` and sets `x-icaptcha-url` and
+  `x-icaptcha-level` **on the response** (also mirrored as JSON fields) so
+  the client can go solve a challenge and retry.
+
+## 4. Ref-Update Certificate
+
+Two distinct certificate-shaped payloads exist; this section documents the
+**core signing schema**, which is what `gitlawb/ref-update/v1` names:
+
+- **Type string:** `gitlawb/ref-update/v1`.
+- **Body (canonical JSON, the signed bytes):** `type`, `repo` (the
+  repository DID), `ref_name`, `from` (previous hash, 64 hex chars,
+  all-zeros for a new ref), `to` (target hash, 64 hex chars), `seq`
+  (monotonically increasing, replay prevention), `timestamp` (RFC 3339),
+  `nonce`.
+- **Signatures:** a list of `{signer: did:key, sig: base64url-unpadded
+  Ed25519}` entries appended outside the signed body; thresholds are counted
+  over distinct signers that verify.
+
+The node's REST API separately serves **push receipts** — a different,
+node-issued JSON payload attesting that a push was processed. Receipts are
+not `gitlawb/ref-update/v1` documents and are not interchangeable with them;
+they are documented with the node's HTTP API, not here.
+
+## 5. Storage & Git Transport
+
+- **Object format:** bare repositories are created with
+  `--object-format=sha1`; production OIDs are 40 hex chars. *Planned:*
+  SHA-256 object format.
+- **Smart-HTTP endpoints:**
+  - `GET /{owner}/{repo}/info/refs` — ref advertisement (fetch and push
+    service discovery).
+  - `POST /{owner}/{repo}/git-upload-pack` — clone/fetch.
+  - `POST /{owner}/{repo}/git-receive-pack` — push. **Authentication is
+    mandatory**: an unsigned push is refused with `401`.
+- **Fetch vs push auth split:** fetch-side requests against a withheld or
+  private repo answer `404` (existence is not confirmed to unauthorized
+  callers), while the push path answers `401` for missing/invalid
+  signatures. A second implementation must not treat the two symmetrically.
+- **Content addressing:** the node records IPFS CID metadata per branch and
+  serves it over REST (the repo `refs` endpoint maps branch heads to CIDs).
+  *Planned:* IPNS-backed branch pointers; IPNS is not part of the shipped
+  wire contract.