What a receipt proves

A valid export is internally consistent, signed, and bound to the included manuscript. It is not operator-independent non-repudiation, and it is not a detector.

Say what the file proved. Do not upgrade the claim because the news is good.

When click-clack-verify exits 0

The current v3 format proves that the export is:

• internally consistent
• signed
• bound to the included manuscript

It additionally binds:

• every new Figment proposal to its exact admitted model and original source passage
• every accepted contribution to a workspace-scoped deciding-writer identifier
• an opted-in native paste to the exact text that arrived with source=paste

Legacy v2 exports remain readable. They are never backfilled with evidence that was not recorded.

What it does not prove

It is not operator-independent non-repudiation

The summary field operatorIndependentNonRepudiation is always false. A valid signature is tamper evidence from Click Clack’s server. It does not prove that a party other than the operator produced the record, and it does not prove a key the writer alone holds.

A paste is a paste

A paste record proves the paste action only. It does not prove authorship, whether AI was involved, or where the text originated.

Keeping the original is unsigned

Keep original is the writer staying with their own words. That decision is not a signed contribution of the kept text.

In-app “Signed” is not the independent check

Activity can show that Click Clack verified a signature. A publisher should still run click-clack-verify on the downloaded file. Do not treat a screenshot of the studio as the check.

A development key proves the math, not the operator

Some deployments sign under a published development key. Those signatures verify, and prove nothing about who made them.

Do not say “trusted”

A passing check is verified, not “trusted”. Trust is a relationship. Verification is a procedure with an exit status. Click Clack never uses colour alone for that procedure: the product pairs an icon with a label, and this checker pairs a file with a process.

Detectors guess — they have documented false-positive rates, and some have been retired by the labs that shipped them. A receipt is a different kind of object. It does not guess whether a passage “looks like” a model. It checks whether the signed history in the file still holds.

Continuity

Comparing a later export with a receipt you retained can prove that the history has not contradicted that receipt. Use --expect-continues. Neither v2 nor v3 provides operator-independent non-repudiation, with or without that comparison.

Figments, not “the AI”

In customer-facing language a collaborator is a Figment, with a name and a job. Do not collapse the roster into a generic “the AI”. The receipt names who proposed what.