WAI Extension: Browser Sink
Mirrored from the canonical text at commit b1681667 ().
Status: Draft. How a sink that runs in a web page answers SPEC §4’s “the sink advertises
cap”, and what the frames it decodes can be checked against. For each object it is about to decode, the page routes the object’s capability to the user agent’s decoder, a native host’s or WAI’s own WebAssembly decoder (§4): the user agent is asked only about codec strings the WebCodecs Codec Registry lists, and its decoder is preferred where it is exact for the tier the object needs. The page evaluates the constraint sets of capability-constraints itself (§5), and reports the joules a decode was measured to cost beside the user agent’spowerEfficientboolean, which stays the user agent’s word (§6). Every frame the page decodes carries a content binding (§7): the content hash of the receipted object it was decoded from, the link hash of the group receipt that object verified under, and the tier its samples hold. The binding’s life throughclone(), transfer,copyTo()and re-encode is in §8, its carriage in a page in §9, and the state of the frame on screen, which joins the binding to the receipts and to live-provenance’s verdict, in §10. The member a frame carries,contentBinding, is proposed for the WebCodecs VideoFrame Metadata Registry inproposals/webcodecs-content-binding.md, a draft that has not been filed; until a registry lists the member, a page carries it in a side table (§9.2). No transport, no record, no change to the wire format or to SPEC §4’s algorithm. The reference implementation is thebrowser_sinkmodule ofwai-rs(featurebrowser_sink), whichwai/wai-live-webbuilds for the page; the page’s own code isjoule-code/joule-code-rs/crates/joule-moq-web/web/room/binding.js; the corpus islive-conformance/browser/, and its second implementation islive-conformance/browser_sink_verify.py. Keywords MUST, MUST NOT, SHOULD, MAY are RFC 2119/8174.Texts read for this revision, each pinned to the version named: WebCodecs, W3C Working Draft 19 October 2026: the VideoDecoder’s Output VideoFrames steps, Create a VideoFrame, the
VideoFrameMetadatadictionary andmetadata(), Copy VideoFrame metadata, Clone VideoFrame, the constructors’ metadata steps, the serialization and transfer steps,copyTo()andEncodedVideoChunk; the WebCodecs Codec Registry, W3C Registry Draft 24 September 2026, its video and audio tables; the WebCodecs VideoFrame Metadata Registry, W3C Registry Draft 14 April 2026, its entries and its registration requirements; and Media Capabilities, W3C Working Draft 18 October 2026,MediaCapabilitiesInfo(supported,smooth,powerEfficient) and its privacy considerations. A section number in this text is this extension’s unless it names another document.
1. Scope
In scope: the capability report a page builds (§3); routing an object to a decoder (§4);
constraint sets evaluated in the page (§5); the energy entry beside powerEfficient (§6); the
content binding, its form and when a page writes one (§7); what happens to it through a frame’s
life (§8); how a page carries it (§9); the state of the frame on screen (§10); and the reasons
(§11).
Out of scope: a transport; the user agent’s decoders and whether they conform to their standards, which a page cannot see beyond the answers they give and a probe (§4.4); the decoders of a native host; how a meter measures (energy-measurement §3); and what a party does with a state.
Relationship to the core spec and the other extensions:
- SPEC §4. A page answers step 3’s “the sink advertises
cap” for an object with its route (§4): it advertisescapfor that object when the route is notnone. - http-delivery §4.3 and §12. A WAI element is never put to a user-agent
interface (§4.3 there). The route gives the Sink Capability Descriptor’s
via(§4.6). - capability-constraints. §5 is its evaluation in a page, over the register of its §3.1.
- energy-measurement §2. The classes a figure carries (§6).
- jwp-receipts §2.1 and §3 step 3. The content hash a binding names, and the link hash of the group receipt.
- determinism-tiers. The tier vocabulary a need and a binding use.
- live-provenance §11. The verdict on the segment a frame’s object belongs to, for a CMAF track (§10).
2. Terms
-
Page: a sink running in a web page.
-
UA decoder: a decoder of the user agent: WebCodecs
VideoDecoder,AudioDecoderorImageDecoder. Wasm decoder: a WAI decoder compiled to WebAssembly that the page loads. Host decoder: a decoder of a native host the page hands a payload to (http-delivery §12.1,host). -
Route:
ua,host,wasmornone. -
Receipted object: the bytes a JWP content hash covers (jwp-receipts §2.1): a WAI envelope; in an end-to-end encrypted room, the sealed object, over which the receipt is signed (confidentiality); in a CMAF track, a chunk (live-provenance §8.1).
-
Tier:
decode-equivalence,entropy-consistencyornone(determinism-tiers §2), orderednone<entropy-consistency<decode-equivalence. A token outside this vocabulary is read asnone, as a pin’s is (determinism-tiers §3). -
Registered tier of a capability: the tier its decoded output holds on every conforming sink, from its replicate class (SPEC §7):
replicate class registered tier StandardDefined,NeuralIntegerExactdecode-equivalenceNeuralEntropyExactentropy-consistencyevery other class, and a string this revision does not register noneStandardDefinedis read asdecode-equivalencebecause SPEC §7 has its decoded output the same bytes on every conforming sink, which is the property that tier names; determinism-tiers defines the tiers for neural capabilities, and this extension uses the same tokens for that property and claims nothing more.GenerativeExactoutput also reproduces, but it is generated rather than decoded, so it is held atnonehere. -
Need: the tier the page holds an object’s decoded output to: the object’s pin
tier(SPEC §3.1) where it has one, else its track’swai_determinism(moq-streaming-format §4), elsenone. -
Frame: a WebCodecs
VideoFrame. Binding: acontentBindingvalue (§7).
Hexadecimal is lowercase. JSON in this text is RFC 8259.
3. The capability report
A page states what it knows about its decoders, and what it is about to decode, in a capability report: one JSON object.
{ "browser_sink": 1,
"ua": { "<codec string>": { "supported": true, "smooth": true, "power_efficient": false,
"probe": "match" | "mismatch" | "not_run" } },
"host": { "<capability>": "<tier>" },
"wasm": [ "<capability>" ],
"constraints": { "<capability>": [ { "<parameter>": { "enum": [ ], "minimum": 0, "maximum": 0 } } ] },
"energy": { "<capability> <route>": { "joules_micro": 0, "decodes": 0, "window_us": 0,
"class": "<class>", "relative_ppm": 0,
"filtering": "On" | "Off" | "Unknown",
"calibration_ref": "<text>",
"coverage": "Whole" | "Partial", "fabrics": [ "cpu" ] } },
"objects": [ { "name": "<text>", "capability": "<capability>", "codec": "<codec string>" | null,
"need": "<tier>", "params": { "<parameter>": 0 } } ] }
browser_sinkis1.uaholds the user agent’s answers, by codec string:supported, fromisConfigSupportedfor the configuration the page built from the object (§4.6);smoothandpower_efficient, from Media Capabilities’smoothandpowerEfficientfor the same codec string, ornullwhere the page did not ask;probe, from §4.4.hostnames the capabilities a native host decodes for the page, each with the tier its decode holds, as the host declares it.wasmlists the capabilities the page’s wasm decoders decode.constraintsholds the constraint sets the page’s decoders publish, by capability (§5). A capability with no entry is unconstrained.energyholds measurements, by capability and route (§6).objectslists what the page is about to decode, each object (or each track, whose objects share these values) with aname, itscapability, the codec string a UA decoder would be asked under (nullwhere none applies), its need, and its declared parameters (§5).
A report that does not read in this shape, or whose browser_sink is not 1, is refused whole
(report_malformed): every member above is required, objects may be empty, and a member this
text does not define is ignored. A codec string with an answer in ua that §4.2’s gate refuses is
never read (§4.2).
4. Routing
4.1 The user agent’s decoders
A capability is put to a UA decoder only through a row of this table:
| capability | UA decoder | codec string | UA tier |
|---|---|---|---|
wai.video.vp9 | VideoDecoder | vp09. and more | decode-equivalence |
wai.video.avc | VideoDecoder | avc1. or avc3. and more | decode-equivalence |
wai.video.hevc | VideoDecoder | hev1. or hvc1. and more | decode-equivalence |
wai.video.av1, wai.video.av1.lossless | VideoDecoder | av01. and more | none |
wai.video.vp8 | VideoDecoder | vp8 | none |
wai.audio.opus, wai.audio.opus.packet | AudioDecoder | opus | none |
wai.audio.flac | AudioDecoder | flac | none |
wai.audio.aac | AudioDecoder | mp4a. and more | none |
The UA tier is what a UA decoder’s output holds when the decoder conforms to its standard:
decode-equivalencefor the video codecs whose decoder conformance requires every output sample to equal the decoding process’s (SPEC §7,StandardDefined), over the samples of the frame the decoder outputs, in the format it outputs them in (§8);nonefor AV1, whose film-grain synthesis is held to a perceptual criterion, for VP8, whose conformance this revision has not read, and for Opus and AAC (SPEC §7); and for FLAC, whose decoded samples are exact but which anAudioDecoderhands back in a sample format the user agent chooses, a conversion no standard fixes (SPEC §7, Whatreplicatepromises over a standard codec).
A capability with no row has no UA decoder: wai.video.av2, wai.video.vvc and
wai.audio.iamf among the registered ones, since the registry of §4.2 lists no codec string for
them, and every WAI-native capability, whose decoder is WAI’s own. ImageDecoder has no row in
this revision: an image decode in a user agent may apply colour conversion, and the user agent
does not say whether it did.
4.2 The registry gate
The WebCodecs Codec Registry (W3C Registry Draft, 24 September 2026) lists these codec strings:
| media | rows |
|---|---|
| video | av01.*, avc1.*, avc3.*, hev1.*, hvc1.*, vp8, vp09.* |
| audio | flac, mp3, mp4a.*, opus, vorbis, ulaw, alaw, pcm-* |
A codec string matches a row equal to it; a row ending .* or -* is matched by a string
that begins with the row up to and including its . or - and has at least one character after
it. A codec string that matches no row:
- MUST NOT be passed to
isConfigSupported, to Media Capabilities or to any other user-agent interface by a page that routes by this extension; - is never answerable: an answer for it in a report is not read, whatever it says, and the
object’s UA leg is refused
codec_unregistered.
The registry is how WebCodecs names a codec. Its abstract says no implementer is required to support any entry; a string outside it names nothing the registry defines, so two user agents’ answers about it need not be about the same codec, and a page has no basis to read one. Such a capability resolves through a host decoder or a wasm decoder, or not at all. A row the registry adds later enters this table by a revision of this extension.
4.3 The steps
For each object o of a report, in order, the page computes its route:
- Kind. If
o.capabilityis not dispatchable (SPEC §4: a record, a derivation, a candidate, a companion-only or a refinement-only capability), the route isnone(not_dispatchable). - Need. If
o.needis above the capability’s registered tier, the route isnone(tier_exceeds_class, determinism-tiers §3). - Constraints. §5 over the report’s sets for
o.capabilityando.params: if they cannot be evaluated the route isnone(constraints_unevaluable), and if no set is satisfied it isnone(constraints_unmet) — the capability is unsupported for this object, which is not a decode error (capability-constraints §2). - The UA leg. It is taken when every check holds; otherwise its reason is the first that
fails:
o.codecis a string (no_ua_mapping: the object names nothing to ask a UA decoder);o.codecpasses §4.2’s gate (codec_unregistered), whatever the capability;o.capabilityhas a row in §4.1 (no_ua_mapping);o.codecis a string of that row’s form (codec_mismatch);- the report holds an answer for
o.codec(ua_not_asked), and itssupportedis true (ua_unsupported); - the need is at most the row’s UA tier (
ua_inexact); - where the need is
decode-equivalence, the answer’sprobeismatch(ua_unprobedfornot_run,ua_probe_mismatchformismatch).
- The host leg. It is taken when
o.capabilityis inhost(no_host) with a tier at least the need (host_inexact). - The wasm leg. It is taken when
o.capabilityis inwasm(no_wasm). A wasm decoder is WAI’s own, so its output holds the registered tier, which step 2 has already held to be at least the need. - Route. The route is the first leg taken, in the order UA, host, wasm. Where none is taken
the route is
none(no_decoder), and each leg’s reason is reported.
The UA leg comes first because a decoder the device ships is the one a page is expected to use,
and checks 4.6 and 4.7 take it only where its output is exact for what the object needs; the wasm
decoder is the fallback that depends on nothing the device must provide. A page MUST decode
an object only through its route, and MUST NOT decode one whose route is none.
Each object’s entry in the routing table states: its name, its route, its reason
(null unless the route is none), each leg’s outcome ("taken", "not_reached" for a leg
after the one taken and for every leg when steps 1 to 3 decide, or the leg’s reason), asked
(whether the page may put o.codec to the user agent: true exactly when steps 1 to 3 pass and
checks 4.1 to 4.4 hold), the route’s tier, and the energy entry of §6. The entry’s reason is
the code of the step that decided, or no_decoder from step 7. The route’s tier is the row’s UA
tier for ua (lowered to none unless the probe matched), the host’s declared tier for host,
the registered tier for wasm, and none for none; in each case no higher than the
registered tier.
4.4 The probe
An answer of supported says a UA decoder accepts the configuration; it does not say the
decoder’s output is the decoding process’s. Where an object needs decode-equivalence, the page
decodes a probe: an object of the same capability and configuration whose decoded frames’
SHA-256 digests are published (http-delivery §12.4’s probe object), each over the frame’s samples
as copyTo() writes them with no format, rect or layout option (planes in order, rows
tightly packed). A frame output in NV12 is compared after its interleaved chroma plane is split
into its two planes, which reorders samples and changes none. The probe is match when every
frame’s digest is the published one, mismatch when any is not, and not_run when the page
decoded no probe. This revision publishes no probe for a UA codec, so a page reports not_run
and a need of decode-equivalence is never routed to a UA decoder.
4.5 The user agent’s answer is a constraint check too
isConfigSupported answers for a whole configuration, before any decoder is configured, and
returns the configuration it would accept. It already does, for the parameters a configuration
carries, what capability-constraints asks of a sink: an answer before dispatch, for one object,
that is “unsupported” rather than a decode error. A page SHOULD build the configuration from
the object’s own declared parameters, and SHOULD configure the decoder with the
configuration the answer returns. The two checks are separate and both apply: an object routes
ua only when its constraint sets are satisfied (step 3) and the user agent answered
supported (check 4.5). Neither covers the neural, quantum, world or haptic families, which have
no UA decoder; their constraints are evaluated by §5 alone.
4.6 What a page asks, and what it advertises
A page builds a report in two passes: from the objects alone it computes asked for each, and
puts to the user agent exactly the codec strings an entry marks asked; then it adds the answers
and computes the routes. Media Capabilities is asked only about a codec string the user agent
answered supported (http-delivery §12.2). A capability routed ua, wasm or host is, for
http-delivery §12.1’s descriptor, via "ua" (with the codec strings asked and their answers,
provisional true), "wasm" or "host"; one routed none is absent from it.
5. Constraint sets in the page
A page evaluates capability-constraints §2 in this form:
- A capability’s sets are a JSON array of one or more constraint sets. A set is a JSON
object whose members are parameter names, each mapped to a constraint: a JSON object with
one or more of
enum(a non-empty array of values),minimumandmaximum(integers), and no other member. A value is a JSON string, or an integer: a JSON number with no fraction and no exponent, from −(2^53 − 1) to 2^53 − 1. A page whose own numbers do not keep1920.0apart from1920writes both as1920, so the integers it writes are exactly its integral values; a value with a fractional part stays a fraction. - A parameter name MUST be one of the register of capability-constraints §3.1.
- An object’s declared parameters are a JSON object of the same names and values.
evaluate(sets, params) is:
- No sets for the capability:
unconstrained. - The sets break the form above — not an array, an empty array, a set that is not an object, a
constraint that is not an object, a constraint with no member or with a member other than the
three, an empty
enumor one holding something other than a value, aminimumormaximumthat is not an integer, or aminimumabove amaximum:unevaluable(constraint_malformed). - A set names a parameter outside the register:
unevaluable(parameter_unregistered). A page MUST NOT advertise a capability whose sets it cannot evaluate (capability-constraints §2). - A set is satisfied when, for each parameter it names, the object declares a value for it
and the value meets each member of the constraint: for
enum, it equals one of the values, a string only a string and an integer only an integer; forminimumandmaximum, it is an integer at least, or at most, the bound. An undeclared parameter, or a declared value that is neither a string nor an integer, meets no constraint. An empty set is satisfied by every object. satisfiedwhen one set is; otherwiseunsatisfied(constraints_unmet).
The grammar is the one capability-constraints adopts, enumerations, minima and maxima ORed over sets, with integers in place of rationals, so every evaluation is exact.
6. Energy beside powerEfficient
Each entry of the routing table carries an energy entry:
{ "power_efficient": true | false | null, "figure": null | { … }, "reason": null | "<reason>" }
power_efficientis Media Capabilities’powerEfficientfor the object’s codec string, copied as the user agent gave it, for an object routedua; it isnullfor any other route and where the page did not ask. It is the user agent’s word: its own specification leaves the meaning of optimal power draw to the user agent. A page MUST NOT set it, invert it or compute it from a figure, MUST NOT state it for a route the user agent did not answer for, and MUST NOT derive a figure from it.figureis the measurement the report holds under the key"<capability> <route>", where<route>is the object’s route, andnullwhen it holds none or the route isnone. A measurement under another route’s key is not this route’s figure.
A measurement is read as energy-measurement §2 has it, and refused, with figure null and the
entry’s reason, when:
- its
classis not one ofCalibratedInstrument,OnChipCounter,ModelBasedandEstimator(energy_class_invalid;HwShuntis never emitted, energy-measurement §2.6); joules_microis0(unmetered_as_zero): an unmetered decode has no measurement, and a class beside a zero claims a measurement that did not occur;joules_micro,decodesorwindow_usis not a positive integer below 2^53 (energy_count_invalid);- a hardware class lacks its evidence:
relative_ppm, a positive integer, forCalibratedInstrumentandOnChipCounter;filtering, one ofOn,OffandUnknown, forOnChipCounter;calibration_ref, a non-empty string, forCalibratedInstrument(energy_evidence_missing); coverageis notWholeorPartial, orfabricsis not a non-empty array of distinct strings (energy_evidence_missing).
A figure that reads is reported with every member it was given and
per_decode_micro = ⌊joules_micro / decodes⌋; joules_micro and decodes stay beside it, so the
floor loses nothing. An object with no measurement is unmetered: figure and reason are
both null, and a page presents it as unmetered, never as 0 J. In this revision a figure never
changes a route; it is reported, not steered on. How a figure is measured, bracketed and
attributed is energy-measurement §3 and §4’s, and a Partial coverage says the meter saw only
the fabrics it names.
7. The content binding
7.1 The value
A content binding is a JSON object, and in a page a dictionary of the same members, the
contentBinding member of a frame’s metadata: proposed for the WebCodecs VideoFrame Metadata
Registry, and not registered (§9):
| member | value |
|---|---|
alg | the algorithm digest is computed with. This revision defines jwp-object-1: the content hash of jwp-receipts §2.1, BLAKE3("moq-jwp:object\x01" ‖ object). |
digest | 64 hexadecimal digits: the content hash of the receipted object the frame was decoded from. |
receipt | optional; 64 hexadecimal digits: the link hash (jwp-receipts §3 step 3) of the group receipt that object verified under. |
tier | the tier the frame’s samples hold (§7.2). |
Its canonical form is the JSON text of those members in that order, receipt left out when
absent, with no whitespace and no other member. A reader:
- refuses a value that is not an object, that lacks
alg,digestortier, whose members are not strings, whosedigestorreceiptis not 64 hexadecimal digits (binding_malformed); - refuses an
algit does not know (binding_alg_unknown): it cannot check the digest; - reads a
tieroutside the vocabulary asnone; - ignores a member this text does not define, as a dictionary drops one.
7.2 When a page binds a frame
A page binds a frame it decoded, and only then, when:
- the frame was output for a chunk whose coded data came from one receipted object, and the page
computed
digestover that object’s bytes as received, or holds it as the content hash of the object receipt that object verified against; - the content hash of every object the decoder was given since its last key frame — its last
keychunk, or its configuration — was established: the object verified against its JWP object receipt (jwp-receipts §3 steps 1 to 5), or it was fetched whole under that hash as its content identifier, or through a verified head proof (http-delivery §6, §8.3). A frame predicted from data whose hash nobody established is not bound (binding_unverified_reference). A page that verifies every object before a decoder sees it meets this by construction.
receipt is written exactly when the object verified against a group receipt (jwp-receipts §3
steps 1 to 5), and is that receipt’s link hash; a page MUST NOT write a receipt it did not
verify the object against. For an object carried over MoQ, digest and receipt are then the
content_hash and group_receipt of its WAI_RECEIPT property
(moq-streaming-format §5). tier is the route’s tier (§4.3),
lowered to none where:
- the route is
uaand the frame’sformatisnull: its samples cannot be read without a conversion, so nothing can check them; - the page altered the samples after the decode (determinism-tiers §2, What a tier covers).
Where the frame’s tier is below the object’s need, the page MUST NOT present the frame as meeting it.
On the wasm route the wasm decoder writes the binding itself: it holds the object’s bytes, hashes them, decodes them, and returns every frame with the binding.
8. Through the frame’s life
| operation | the binding |
|---|---|
| a decoder’s output | none from the decoder: WebCodecs’ Create a VideoFrame takes no metadata. The page binds it (§7.2, §9). |
clone() | carried: the clone references the same samples, and Clone VideoFrame assigns it every slot but the resource reference, [[metadata]] among them. |
serialization (postMessage without transfer) | carried: the serialization steps copy [[metadata]]. |
| transfer | carried to the receiving realm; the source is closed and keeps none. |
close() | gone with the frame. |
copyTo() | the bytes written carry none. With no format option they are the frame’s samples, and a page MAY check them against a published digest (§4.4); with one they are a conversion, which no tier covers. |
new VideoFrame(frame, init) | carried only when the page puts it in init.metadata: the constructor copies init’s metadata, not the source’s. The new frame references the source’s samples; a page MAY copy the binding into it, and a narrower visibleRect presents part of the same samples, from the same object. |
new VideoFrame from a canvas, an image or a buffer | a frame of other samples: none, except on the wasm route, where the samples are the ones the wasm decoder output from the bound object (§7.2). |
drawing the frame (drawImage, a texture) | the drawn pixels are a rendering and carry none; §10 says which frame a region of the screen shows. |
VideoEncoder.encode(), and a decode of its output | does not survive. A re-encoded frame is a new object: its chunks carry no binding, and a frame decoded from them is bound, if at all, to that new object and its own receipt. |
9. Carriage in a page
9.1 As metadata
Where the user agent’s VideoFrameMetadata has a contentBinding member, a page binds a decoded
frame f by constructing new VideoFrame(f, { metadata: { ...f.metadata(), contentBinding } })
and closing f. clone(), serialization and transfer then carry it by WebCodecs’ own steps (§8).
9.2 In a side table
VideoFrameMetadata is a dictionary whose members are the registry’s, and a dictionary keeps only
the members it declares, so a member no registry lists is dropped from init.metadata. Until
contentBinding is listed, a page carries the binding in a side table:
- Pending. Before it gives a decoder a chunk, the page enters the chunk’s binding under (that
decoder, the chunk’s
timestamp). A decoder outputs a frame with the timestamp of the chunk it came from (WebCodecs Output VideoFrames), and nothing else in a frame says which chunk that was. Where a second chunk is given the same decoder under a timestamp still pending, both entries are struck and neither frame is bound (binding_ambiguous). A page bounds the entries pending per decoder, and strikes the oldest past the bound. - Output. On a decoder’s output, the page takes the entry under (that decoder, the frame’s timestamp), removes it, and attaches it to the frame object, held weakly so that it lives as long as the frame does. An output with no entry is unbound.
- Reset.
reset(),close()and a decoder error strike that decoder’s pending entries, and so doesflush()once it resolves, for the entries whose frames it did not output; a frame output afterwards for a struck entry is unbound. - Clone.
clone()attaches the source’s binding to the clone. - Transfer. A frame posted to another realm is posted with its binding beside it, and the receiver attaches it on arrival. A frame that arrives without one is unbound.
- Close.
close()detaches it.
A page MAY test whether the user agent keeps the member (construct a frame with it in
init.metadata and read metadata()), and use §9.1 where it does.
10. The frame on screen
For each region of the screen a page draws frames into (a tile), the page keeps the binding of the frame it last drew there. The state of that frame is computed from:
- the binding, or none;
object:verified(the object verified against its receipt),refused, orunverified(no receipt has been checked);chain: the group receipt’s admission to its chain (jwp-receipts §3 step 3):linked,anchor,history,held(not yet admitted:parent_not_held) orrefused;provenance: for a track with a provenance track (live-provenance §10.2), the verdict of live-provenance §11.4 on the segment of the frame’s group,acceptedorrefused, ormissingwhile its provenance object has not arrived;not_applicablefor a track packaged as WAI envelopes, which has no C2PA provenance (live-provenance §1).
The state is, in this order:
unbound, with no binding or with one the reader refuses (§7.1);refused, whenobject,chainorprovenanceisrefused;pending, whenobjectisunverified,chainisheldorprovenanceismissing;verifiedotherwise.
anchor and history are admissions: a chain a joiner anchored, or filled below its anchor. A
page that shows verified for them MUST also say from which group it holds the chain, as
jwp-receipts §3 step 3 requires of a verifier that re-anchors, and MUST NOT state the groups
before it verified.
A page that shows the state, behind a control the reader turns on, shows for each tile the state, the tier, the first digits of the digest and of the receipt, the provenance, the route and the energy entry. The state is about the frame the tile last drew, not about the pixels on the display: what the display emits is a rendering of the frame, scaled and converted to the display’s colour space, which no tier covers.
11. Reasons
| reason | raised at |
|---|---|
report_malformed | §3 |
not_dispatchable | §4.3 step 1 |
tier_exceeds_class | §4.3 step 2 |
constraints_unevaluable | §4.3 step 3 |
constraints_unmet | §4.3 step 3, §5 step 5 |
no_ua_mapping | §4.3 steps 4.1, 4.3 |
codec_mismatch | §4.3 step 4.4 |
codec_unregistered | §4.2, §4.3 step 4.2 |
ua_not_asked | §4.3 step 4.5 |
ua_unsupported | §4.3 step 4.5 |
ua_inexact | §4.3 step 4.6 |
ua_unprobed | §4.3 step 4.7 |
ua_probe_mismatch | §4.3 step 4.7 |
no_host | §4.3 step 5 |
host_inexact | §4.3 step 5 |
no_wasm | §4.3 step 6 |
no_decoder | §4.3 step 7 |
constraint_malformed | §5 step 2 |
parameter_unregistered | §5 step 3 |
energy_class_invalid | §6 |
unmetered_as_zero | §6 |
energy_count_invalid | §6 |
energy_evidence_missing | §6 |
binding_malformed | §7.1 |
binding_alg_unknown | §7.1 |
binding_unverified_reference | §7.2 |
binding_ambiguous | §9.2 step 1 |
An object routed none is inert at the sink for that object, as SPEC §4 step 6 has it; a refused
energy measurement leaves the route as it is; a refused binding leaves the frame unbound.
12. Conformance
live-conformance/browser/ holds the corpus, vectors.json,
written by wai_browser_sink_vectors gen. It has:
- Routes: capability reports, each with the routing table §4 and §6 give it: every route and
every reason of §4.3, the registry gate with codec strings for AV2, VVC and IAMF answered
supportedand never read, a need ofdecode-equivalencerefused a UA decoder whose probe did not run and taken by one whose probe matched, the host and wasm fallbacks, and a malformed report. - Constraints: constraint sets and declared parameters, with §5’s outcome: satisfied by one
set of several, by an empty set, by
enum,minimumandmaximum; unsatisfied by an undeclared parameter and by a value of the wrong type; each malformed form and an unregistered parameter. - Energy, among the routes: measurements beside answers, each with its energy entry: every class, the unmetered case, a figure under another route’s key, and each refusal of §6.
- Bindings: values with their reading: canonical forms, each refusal of §7.1, an unknown tier
read as
none, and a member the text does not define; the tier §7.2 gives a frame for each route, format and alteration; and objects bound under a signed group receipt, each binding’sdigestthe object’s content hash and itsreceiptthe receipt’s link hash, the receipt’s signature and the object’s inclusion verifiable from the corpus. - Frames: inputs to §10 with their state, covering every row.
- Side tables: sequences of chunks, outputs, clones, transfers and resets with the bindings
§9.2 leaves each frame,
binding_ambiguousamong them.
wai_browser_sink_vectors verify and the test tests/browser_sink.rs check that vectors.json
regenerates byte for byte, that wai-rs gives every case its stated outcome, that every reason of
§11 appears, and that §11 lists exactly the reference’s codes.
live-conformance/browser_sink_verify.py is the second implementation, written from this text:
it shares no code with wai-rs, reads each capability’s kind, status and replicate class from the
registry export (registry/capabilities.json), checks
signatures with WAI’s strict rule and hashes with BLAKE3 from claim-conformance/, and mutates
copies of the corpus and requires every copy to fail. The page runs the route, constraint, energy,
binding and frame cases through its wasm build, and its side table through the sequences, in a
browser (joule-moq-web’s end-to-end scenario binding).
13. Security and privacy considerations
- A binding is a statement, not a signature. Any script in the page can bind any frame. What a binding gives is where to look: the receipt it names commits to the digest under a key, and a party that holds the object, the receipt and its key log checks them. The state of §10 is the page’s own verdict on what it checked.
- What
verifiedcovers. The object and its group receipt, and, for a CMAF track, the segment’s C2PA provenance. It does not cover what the display shows, how a frame was scaled, or a user agent’s decoder: a UA decoder that misdecodes a verified object outputs a frame bound to that object. §4.4’s probe is how a page holds a UA decoder to the decoding process where the tier matters. - What a report reveals. A report holds the user agent’s answers and, with a meter attached,
an energy figure; together they say a good deal about a device (Media Capabilities, privacy
considerations). Nothing in this extension sends a report anywhere: routing, binding and the
state of a frame are computed in the page. A service that collects reports learns that much
about each device it collects from; where it needs to record a legal basis for doing so,
jwp-receipts §2.4.6’s
lawful-basisclaim is the place. - An energy figure is a side channel. A per-process energy reading, taken often enough, leaks what a process does. A page receives a figure only from a meter the host chose to attach, at the granularity the host chose, and this extension never has a page read a counter itself.
- Ambiguity is refused, not guessed. A side table keyed by timestamp cannot tell two chunks of one decoder with one timestamp apart, so neither frame is bound (§9.2).
- Unregistered codec strings are not asked about. Besides having no defined answer, a question about a codec string outside the registry adds to what a page learns about a device for nothing it can use.