{"_self":{"principle":"Self-explaining payload — no external context required. This _self block describes what you are reading and where to look next.","widget":"article_topology","feature":"topology","name":"Article topology","what":"Claims, sources, anecdotes, user reports, related embeds, question graph slice — for ask/ROUTER.","contains":"claims, sources, anecdotes, question_graph slice","slug":"what-is-receipt","urls":{"read":"https://miscsubjects.com/api/articles/what-is-receipt/topology"},"how_to_use":"Claims, sources, anecdotes, user reports, related embeds, question graph slice — for ask/ROUTER.","write":null,"imessage":null,"router_tag":null,"proof_chain":[{"step":1,"claim":"Articles are voxel graphs of tiered claims, not prose blobs.","verify":"https://miscsubjects.com/api/articles/constitution"},{"step":2,"claim":"Claims link to hash-chained sources via source_ids.","verify":"https://miscsubjects.com/api/articles/what-is-receipt/sources"},{"step":3,"claim":"Ask reads topology; ingest/claim append to ledger.","verify":"https://miscsubjects.com/api/protocol"},{"step":4,"claim":"Models queue growth: populate → collaborate → repair → reflex.","verify":"https://miscsubjects.com/api/protocol/grow"},{"step":5,"claim":"Graph proves its own shape (reflex) and $/claim (yield).","verify":"https://miscsubjects.com/graph.html?layer=reflex"},{"step":6,"claim":"Full feature index + _explain on every API response.","verify":"https://miscsubjects.com/api/articles/system-map"}],"related_features":[{"id":"ask","name":"Ask protocol","what":"Answer only from topology; creates question_node with gaps and ingest_hint.","urls":{"read":"https://miscsubjects.com/api/articles/what-is-receipt/prompts","write":"https://miscsubjects.com/api/protocol/ask"}},{"id":"graph_topology","name":"Cross-article graph","what":"Merged claims/sources across condition+stack slugs for one question.","urls":{"read":"https://miscsubjects.com/api/articles/what-is-receipt/graph-topology?question=..."}},{"id":"question_graph","name":"Question graph","what":"Ask nodes (questions + gaps) and evidence_ingest nodes (pasted model output).","urls":{"read":"https://miscsubjects.com/api/articles/what-is-receipt/question-graph","write":"https://miscsubjects.com/api/protocol/ask"}},{"id":"voxels","name":"Voxel graph","what":"Claims as atoms, sources as edges (supported_by, posted_by). Per-claim provenance.","urls":{"read":"https://miscsubjects.com/api/articles/what-is-receipt/voxels","write":"https://miscsubjects.com/api/protocol/claim"}}],"system_map":"https://miscsubjects.com/api/articles/system-map","system_map_markdown":"https://miscsubjects.com/api/articles/system-map?format=markdown","not_medical_advice":true},"_explain":{"feature":"topology","name":"Article topology","what":"Claims, sources, anecdotes, user reports, related embeds, question graph slice — for ask/ROUTER.","why":"Every feature is auditable collective intelligence","how":"Claims, sources, anecdotes, user reports, related embeds, question graph slice — for ask/ROUTER.","model":null,"verifies":null,"urls":{"read":"https://miscsubjects.com/api/articles/what-is-receipt/topology"},"imessage":null,"router":null,"related":[{"id":"ask","what":"Answer only from topology; creates question_node with gaps and ingest_hint."},{"id":"graph_topology","what":"Merged claims/sources across condition+stack slugs for one question."},{"id":"question_graph","what":"Ask nodes (questions + gaps) and evidence_ingest nodes (pasted model output)."},{"id":"voxels","what":"Claims as atoms, sources as edges (supported_by, posted_by). Per-claim provenance."}],"not_medical_advice":true},"slug":"what-is-receipt","title":"What Is a Receipt","register":"standard","tags":["oip","kimi-import","self-explaining","voxel","concepts","what-is-receipt"],"updated_at":"2026-07-15T04:21:02.436Z","body_excerpt":"<!-- hierarchy:nav -->\n> **Path:** [OIP](https://miscsubjects.com/a/oip) › [Thinker Reference](https://miscsubjects.com/a/oip-thinker-reference) › [Protocol Concepts](https://miscsubjects.com/a/oip-protocol-concepts) › **What Is a Receipt**\n>\n> **Shelf:** Protocol Concepts · **Traversal:** self-explaining · hierarchical · voxel-ready\n> **Machine root:** [OIP tree](https://miscsubjects.com/api/dispatch?map=1&format=markdown) · [Registry](https://miscsubjects.com/api/dispatch?registry=1)\n\n# What Is a Receipt\n\n## §SELF — what-is-receipt\n\n**What this page is:** A definition of a receipt as a technical object in protocol design.\n**What it explains:** What a receipt contains, what properties it has, and why it is the fundamental unit of proof in OIP.\n**Why read it:** To understand how to prove that an action happened — not with a log entry or a status code, but with a self-contained, verifiable, immutable record.\n\n### What a Receipt Is\n\nIn protocol design, a receipt is a proof that an action was performed. It is not a log entry (a chronological record of events). It is not an audit trail (a history of who accessed what). It is a self-contained, verifiable, immutable record of a single invocation — one specific call to one specific function with one specific result.\n\nA receipt is created at the moment an invocation completes. It cannot be changed afterward. If the invocation was wrong, a new receipt is created to correct it. The original receipt remains.\n\n### Why It Matters\n\nIn most systems, \"proof that something happened\" means a log line in a database, a 200 HTTP status code, or an entry in an audit trail. These are not proof. A log line can be deleted. A status code is ephemeral — it exists only in the response and is not stored. An audit trail tracks access, not action.\n\nA receipt fixes this. It is a cryptographic object: it has hashes, signatures, and unique identifiers. It can be verified by anyone with access to the confirm URL. It can be replayed (run again to check the result). It can be repaired (superseded by a corrected invocation, with both receipts linked). The receipt is the only object that proves an action occurred. Everything else is a signal, a record, or a claim — not proof.\n\n### The Key Idea\n\nThe central concept is **proof through immutability and linkage.** A receipt proves an action happened because:\n\n1. It was created at the moment of the action (it is contemporaneous).\n2. It contains hashes of the input and output (tampering is detectable).\n3. It is stored immutably (it cannot be altered after creation).\n4. It is linked to related receipts (parent invocations, repairs, replays form a chain).\n\nErrors are not corrected by editing. They are corrected by creating a new receipt that references the old one. The history of corrections is itself a provable chain.\n\n### What a Receipt Contains\n\nA receipt has four sections:\n\n**Identity:**\n- `invocation_id` — a unique identifier for this specific invocation (UUID, never reused).\n- `timestamp` — when the invocation completed.\n- `actor` — who invoked the action (a principal identifier).\n- `credential_scope` — what authority the actor was exercising (which credentials they presented).\n\n**Object:**\n- `object_key` — what was invoked (the function or operation).\n- `object_version` — which version of the function was used.\n- `input_hash` — the cryptographic hash of the input parameters.\n- `input_body` — the actual input parameters (optional if the hash is sufficient).\n\n**Result:**\n- `runner` — what executed the invocation (the compute environment or service).\n- `status` — the outcome: `success` or `failure`.\n- `output_hash` — the cryptographic hash of the output.\n- `artifact_urls` — links to any files produced by the invocation.\n\n**Lineage:**\n- `error` — if the status is `failure`, the error details.\n- `ledger_url` — the canonical location where this receipt is stored.\n- `confirm_url` — a public URL where anyone can verify this receipt exists.\n- `replay_url` — a URL that reruns","ranking":"safety-first (interaction_risk/limitations), then quote-gated effective_weight","claims":[],"sources":[],"anecdotal_sources":[],"scientific_sources":[],"user_reports":[],"related_articles":[],"question_graph":{"slug":"what-is-receipt","questions":[],"evidence":[],"edges":[],"counts":{"questions":0,"evidence":0,"edges":0}},"honesty":{"active_claims":0,"retracted_claims":0,"cut_claims":0,"challenges":0,"scrub_events":0,"note":"Retracted/cut claims stay on ledger but are excluded from ask unless ?include_inactive=1"},"counts":{"claims":0,"claims_total":0,"sources":0,"anecdotal":0,"scientific":0,"user_reports":0,"questions":0,"evidence_ingests":0}}