fix(witness): support pinned signing keys and label legacy signatures (#4326)

* fix(witness): support pinned signing keys and label legacy signatures

The default witness seed is derived from the public git commit, so anyone can re-sign a modified manifest; verify.mjs still called the result cryptographically valid. Add RUFLO_WITNESS_SEED for external-key signing and RUFLO_WITNESS_PUBLIC_KEY for pinned verification (fail closed on external-key manifests without a pin), tag legacy manifests as self-attested, and stop describing the default as authorship proof.

* fix(witness): make --public-key win over the env pin

The env-var precedence audit requires a CLI flag for RUFLO_WITNESS_PUBLIC_KEY. Add --public-key, document that it takes precedence, and cover both precedence directions in the auth test.

* fix(ci): exclude witness-auth test from vitest ratchet (uses node:test)

plugins/ruflo-core/scripts/witness/__tests__/witness-auth.test.mjs imports
from node:test, not vitest, matching the same miscategorization pattern as
pod-tick.test.mjs and probe-mod-guards.test.mjs. vitest's glob picks it up
but can't parse node:test's API, so the ratchet reports "No test suite
found" even though `node --test` passes all 3 cases cleanly.

Co-Authored-By: RuFlo <ruv@ruv.net>

---------

Co-authored-by: r <r@x>
Co-authored-by: RuFlo <ruv@ruv.net>

plugins/ruflo-core/agents/witness-curator.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ---
 name: witness-curator
-description: Maintains the cryptographically-signed witness manifest. Adds new fix entries when shipping a release, regenerates the signed manifest + temporal history, identifies regression-introduction commits, and verifies markers against the live tree (ADR-103).
+description: Maintains the tamper-evident witness manifest. Adds new fix entries when shipping a release, regenerates the signed manifest + temporal history, identifies regression-introduction commits, and verifies markers against the live tree (ADR-103).
 model: sonnet
 ---
 
@@ -20,8 +20,10 @@ You are invoked when:
 ## How the system works
 
 The manifest at `verification.md.json` lists `{ id, desc, file, sha256, marker, markerVerified }` per fix.
-The whole manifest is hashed (SHA-256) and signed (Ed25519) using a deterministic seed
+The whole manifest is hashed (SHA-256) and signed (Ed25519). By default the
-`sha256(gitCommit + ':ruflo-witness/v1')` — no committed private key.
+seed is derived from the public commit (`sha256(gitCommit + ':ruflo-witness/v1')`),
+which proves integrity but not authorship. Sign with `RUFLO_WITNESS_SEED` and
+pin `RUFLO_WITNESS_PUBLIC_KEY` in `verify.mjs` when authorship matters.
 
 `verification-history.jsonl` is an append-only log of each regen's snapshot.
 That's what lets you bisect: walk back through entries to find the last commit

plugins/ruflo-core/commands/witness.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ---
 name: witness
-description: Manage and verify a cryptographically-signed fix manifest with temporal history (ADR-103)
+description: Manage and verify a tamper-evident fix manifest with temporal history (ADR-103)
 argument-hint: "init|regen|verify|history|regressions [--manifest <path>] [--history <path>]"
 ---
 

plugins/ruflo-core/scripts/witness/__tests__/witness-auth.test.mjs

@@ -0,0 +1,129 @@
+import { test } from 'node:test';
+import assert from 'node:assert/strict';
+import { execFileSync } from 'node:child_process';
+import { randomBytes } from 'node:crypto';
+import { mkdtempSync, mkdirSync, readFileSync, rmSync, writeFileSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { tmpdir } from 'node:os';
+import { join, resolve } from 'node:path';
+import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
+import { regenerate } from '../lib.mjs';
+
+const HERE = fileURLToPath(new URL('.', import.meta.url));
+const REPO_ROOT = resolve(HERE, '../../../../..');
+const REPO_V3 = resolve(HERE, '../../../../../v3');
+const ED_ROOTS = [process.env.WITNESS_ED25519_ROOT, REPO_ROOT, REPO_V3].filter(Boolean);
+const VERIFY = resolve(HERE, '../verify.mjs');
+
+function makeRepo() {
+  const root = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), 'witness-auth-'));
+  writeFileSync(join(root, 'README.md'), 'fixture\n');
+  execFileSync('git', ['init', '-q'], { cwd: root });
+  execFileSync('git', ['config', 'user.email', 'test@example.invalid'], { cwd: root });
+  execFileSync('git', ['config', 'user.name', 'Witness Test'], { cwd: root });
+  execFileSync('git', ['add', 'README.md'], { cwd: root });
+  execFileSync('git', ['commit', '-qm', 'fixture'], { cwd: root });
+  return root;
+}
+
+function runVerify(root, manifestPath, env = {}, extraArgs = []) {
+  return execFileSync(process.execPath, [VERIFY, '--manifest', manifestPath, '--root', root, '--json', ...extraArgs], {
+    encoding: 'utf8',
+    env: { ...process.env, ...env },
+  });
+}
+
+function runVerifyFailing(root, manifestPath, env = {}, extraArgs = []) {
+  try {
+    runVerify(root, manifestPath, env, extraArgs);
+    assert.fail('verify.mjs was expected to exit non-zero');
+  } catch (error) {
+    assert.equal(error.status, 1);
+    return JSON.parse(error.stdout);
+  }
+}
+
+test('external signing key verifies only with the pinned public key', () => {
+  const root = makeRepo();
+  try {
+    const manifestPath = join(root, 'verification.md.json');
+    const seed = randomBytes(32);
+    const result = regenerate({
+      repoRoot: root,
+      manifestPath,
+      ed25519Roots: ED_ROOTS,
+      signingSeed: seed,
+    });
+    writeFileSync(manifestPath, JSON.stringify(result.witness, null, 2));
+    const publicKey = result.witness.integrity.publicKey;
+
+    const pinned = JSON.parse(runVerify(root, manifestPath, { RUFLO_WITNESS_PUBLIC_KEY: publicKey }));
+    assert.equal(pinned.ok, true);
+    assert.equal(pinned.signature.authenticity, 'external-key');
+    assert.equal(pinned.signature.pinnedKeyConfigured, true);
+    assert.equal(pinned.signature.pinnedKeyMatches, true);
+    assert.equal(pinned.signature.publicKeyReproducible, true);
+
+    const unpinned = runVerifyFailing(root, manifestPath);
+    assert.equal(unpinned.ok, false);
+    assert.equal(unpinned.signature.authenticity, 'external-key');
+    assert.equal(unpinned.signature.publicKeyReproducible, false);
+
+    const wrongKey = randomBytes(32).toString('hex');
+    // --public-key takes precedence over a conflicting env var.
+    const flagWins = JSON.parse(runVerify(
+      root,
+      manifestPath,
+      { RUFLO_WITNESS_PUBLIC_KEY: wrongKey },
+      ['--public-key', publicKey]
+    ));
+    assert.equal(flagWins.ok, true);
+    assert.equal(flagWins.signature.pinnedKeyMatches, true);
+
+    const flagLoses = runVerifyFailing(
+      root,
+      manifestPath,
+      { RUFLO_WITNESS_PUBLIC_KEY: publicKey },
+      ['--public-key', wrongKey]
+    );
+    assert.equal(flagLoses.ok, false);
+    assert.equal(flagLoses.signature.pinnedKeyMatches, false);
+
+    const wrong = runVerifyFailing(root, manifestPath, {
+      RUFLO_WITNESS_PUBLIC_KEY: wrongKey,
+    });
+    assert.equal(wrong.ok, false);
+    assert.equal(wrong.signature.pinnedKeyMatches, false);
+    assert.equal(wrong.signature.publicKeyReproducible, false);
+  } finally {
+    rmSync(root, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  }
+});
+
+test('legacy commit-derived seed is reported as self-attested', () => {
+  const root = makeRepo();
+  try {
+    const manifestPath = join(root, 'verification.md.json');
+    const result = regenerate({ repoRoot: root, manifestPath, ed25519Roots: ED_ROOTS });
+    writeFileSync(manifestPath, JSON.stringify(result.witness, null, 2));
+
+    const legacy = JSON.parse(runVerify(root, manifestPath));
+    assert.equal(legacy.ok, true);
+    assert.equal(legacy.signature.authenticity, 'self-attested');
+    assert.equal(legacy.signature.pinnedKeyConfigured, false);
+    assert.equal(legacy.signature.publicKeyReproducible, true);
+  } finally {
+    rmSync(root, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  }
+});
+
+test('invalid RUFLO_WITNESS_SEED is rejected instead of silently falling back', () => {
+  const root = makeRepo();
+  try {
+    assert.throws(
+      () => regenerate({ repoRoot: root, manifestPath: join(root, 'verification.md.json'), ed25519Roots: ED_ROOTS, signingSeed: 'abcd' }),
+      /32 bytes/
+    );
+  } finally {
+    rmSync(root, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  }
+});

plugins/ruflo-core/scripts/witness/lib.mjs

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 /**
  * Witness library — shared logic for regenerating, verifying, and
- * querying cryptographically-signed fix manifests with temporal
+ * querying tamper-evident fix manifests with temporal
  * history (ADR-103).
  *
  * Pure functions + small I/O helpers; no project-specific assumptions.
@@ -111,6 +111,27 @@ export function refreshFix(repoRoot, fix) {
   return { id: fix.id, desc: fix.desc, file: fix.file, sha256, marker: fix.marker, markerVerified };
 }
 
+/**
+ * Resolve the Ed25519 seed used to sign a manifest.
+ *
+ * The historical default is sha256(gitCommit + ':ruflo-witness/v1'). That
+ * seed is public (the commit is public), so the resulting signature is an
+ * integrity checksum, not proof of authorship. Deployments that need
+ * authenticity can provide a 32-byte seed through RUFLO_WITNESS_SEED (or
+ * opts.signingSeed); verify.mjs can then pin the matching public key.
+ */
+export function resolveSigningSeed(explicitSeed) {
+  const raw = explicitSeed ?? process.env.RUFLO_WITNESS_SEED;
+  if (raw === undefined || raw === null || raw === '') {
+    return { seed: null, source: "sha256(gitCommit + ':ruflo-witness/v1')" };
+  }
+  const seed = Buffer.isBuffer(raw) ? raw : Buffer.from(String(raw), 'hex');
+  if (seed.length !== 32) {
+    throw new Error('RUFLO_WITNESS_SEED must be exactly 32 bytes (64 hex characters)');
+  }
+  return { seed, source: 'env:RUFLO_WITNESS_SEED' };
+}
+
 // ─── regenerate ───────────────────────────────────────────────────
 /**
  * Regenerate a signed witness manifest.
@@ -124,7 +145,7 @@ export function refreshFix(repoRoot, fix) {
  * @returns {{witness: object, summary: string}}
  */
 export function regenerate(opts) {
-  const { repoRoot, manifestPath, newFixes = [], releases = {}, ed25519Roots = [] } = opts;
+  const { repoRoot, manifestPath, newFixes = [], releases = {}, ed25519Roots = [], signingSeed } = opts;
   const ed = loadEd25519(ed25519Roots.length ? ed25519Roots : [repoRoot, join(repoRoot, 'v3')]);
 
   const existing = existsSync(manifestPath) ? JSON.parse(readFileSync(manifestPath, 'utf8')) : null;
@@ -156,7 +177,8 @@ export function regenerate(opts) {
 
   const manifestCanonical = JSON.stringify(manifest);
   const manifestHash = createHash('sha256').update(manifestCanonical).digest('hex');
-  const seed = createHash('sha256').update(gitCommit + ':ruflo-witness/v1').digest();
+  const signing = resolveSigningSeed(signingSeed);
+  const seed = signing.seed ?? createHash('sha256').update(gitCommit + ':ruflo-witness/v1').digest();
   const publicKey = ed.getPublicKey(seed);
   const signature = ed.sign(Buffer.from(manifestHash, 'hex'), seed);
 
@@ -168,7 +190,11 @@ export function regenerate(opts) {
       signatureAlgo: 'ed25519',
       publicKey: Buffer.from(publicKey).toString('hex'),
       signature: Buffer.from(signature).toString('hex'),
-      seedDerivation: "sha256(gitCommit + ':ruflo-witness/v1')",
+      // self-attested = the public commit deterministically derives the seed,
+      // so anyone can reproduce the signature. external-key = signed with a
+      // caller-held seed; verify.mjs should pin the matching public key.
+      authenticity: signing.seed ? 'external-key' : 'self-attested',
+      seedDerivation: signing.source,
     },
   };
 
@@ -180,6 +206,7 @@ export function regenerate(opts) {
     `total fixes:  ${merged.length}  (was ${oldFixes.length})\n` +
     `verified:     ${verifiedCount}\n` +
     `missing:      ${missingCount}\n` +
+    `authenticity: ${witness.integrity.authenticity}\n` +
     `new entries:  ${newIds.join(', ') || '(none)'}\n` +
     `releases:     ${JSON.stringify(releases)}`;
 

plugins/ruflo-core/scripts/witness/verify.mjs

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
  * Project-agnostic — works without ruflo CLI being installed.
  *
  * Usage:
- *   node verify.mjs --manifest <path> [--root <path>] [--source-only] [--json] [--strict]
+ *   node verify.mjs --manifest <path> [--root <path>] [--source-only] [--json] [--strict] [--public-key <hex>]
  *
  * Exit codes:
  *   0  — signature valid + all fixes pass or drift (marker present);
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ import { fileSha256, fileContains } from './lib.mjs';
 
 const args = parseArgs(process.argv.slice(2));
 if (args.help) {
-  console.log('Usage: node verify.mjs --manifest <path> [--root <path>] [--source-only] [--json] [--strict]');
+  console.log('Usage: node verify.mjs --manifest <path> [--root <path>] [--source-only] [--json] [--strict] [--public-key <hex>]');
   process.exit(0);
 }
 if (!args.manifest) { console.error('--manifest <path> required'); process.exit(2); }
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ const strict = !!args.strict;
 const witness = JSON.parse(readFileSync(manifestPath, 'utf8'));
 
 // ─── signature ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-const sig = verifySignature(witness);
+const sig = verifySignature(witness, { publicKey: args['public-key'] });
 
 // ─── per-fix marker check ─────────────────────────────────────────
 const allFixes = witness.manifest.fixes;
@@ -135,6 +135,16 @@ if (asJson) {
   console.log(`  hash matches:                    ${sig.manifestHashOk ? 'yes' : 'NO'}`);
   console.log(`  public key reproducible:         ${sig.publicKeyReproducible ? 'yes' : 'NO'}`);
   console.log(`  Ed25519 signature valid:         ${sig.signatureValid ? 'yes' : 'NO'}`);
+  console.log(`  authenticity:                    ${sig.authenticity}${sig.pinnedKeyConfigured ? ' (pinned key)' : ''}`);
+  if (sig.authenticity === 'self-attested' && !sig.pinnedKeyConfigured) {
+    console.log('  WARNING: the signing seed is derived from the public git commit, so this');
+    console.log('           signature proves integrity, not authorship. Set');
+    console.log('           --public-key or RUFLO_WITNESS_PUBLIC_KEY to pin a release key.');
+  }
+  if (sig.authenticity === 'external-key' && !sig.pinnedKeyConfigured) {
+    console.log('  WARNING: manifest was signed with an external key; verification fails closed');
+    console.log('           until --public-key or RUFLO_WITNESS_PUBLIC_KEY pins the matching public key.');
+  }
   console.log('');
   console.log(`Summary: pass=${summary.pass} drift=${summary.drift} regressed=${summary.regressed} missing=${summary.missing} skipped-generated=${summary.skippedGenerated}`);
   if (summary.regressed > 0) {
@@ -154,30 +164,44 @@ if (asJson) {
 process.exit(ok ? 0 : 1);
 
 // ─── ed25519 helpers ─────────────────────────────────────────────
-function verifySignature(witness) {
+function verifySignature(witness, options = {}) {
   try {
     const recomputed = createHash('sha256').update(JSON.stringify(witness.manifest)).digest('hex');
     const manifestHashOk = recomputed === witness.integrity.manifestHash;
-    const seed = createHash('sha256')
+    const authenticity = witness.integrity.authenticity ?? 'self-attested';
-      .update(witness.manifest.gitCommit + ':ruflo-witness/v1')
+    const declaredPublicKey = String(witness.integrity.publicKey ?? '').toLowerCase();
-      .digest();
+    // --public-key takes precedence over the RUFLO_WITNESS_PUBLIC_KEY env var.
+    const pinnedKey = String(options.publicKey ?? process.env.RUFLO_WITNESS_PUBLIC_KEY ?? '').trim().toLowerCase();
+    const pinnedKeyConfigured = pinnedKey.length > 0;
+    const pinnedKeyMatches = pinnedKeyConfigured ? declaredPublicKey === pinnedKey : undefined;
 
-    // RFC 8410 DER wrappers let Node/OpenSSL derive and verify Ed25519 keys
+    // For a legacy self-attested manifest, the public key is reproducible from
-    // without a package install. The witness format remains byte-compatible
+    // the commit. For an external-key manifest, only a caller-supplied pinned
-    // with manifests produced by @noble/ed25519.
+    // key can establish authenticity; without one verification fails closed.
-    const privateKey = createPrivateKey({
+    let publicKeyReproducible = false;
-      key: Buffer.concat([
+    if (pinnedKeyConfigured) {
-        Buffer.from('302e020100300506032b657004220420', 'hex'),
+      publicKeyReproducible = pinnedKeyMatches === true;
-        seed,
+    } else if (authenticity === 'self-attested') {
-      ]),
+      const seed = createHash('sha256')
-      format: 'der',
+        .update(witness.manifest.gitCommit + ':ruflo-witness/v1')
-      type: 'pkcs8',
+        .digest();
-    });
+
-    const reproducedKey = createPublicKey(privateKey)
+      // RFC 8410 DER wrappers let Node/OpenSSL derive and verify Ed25519 keys
-      .export({ format: 'der', type: 'spki' })
+      // without a package install. The witness format remains byte-compatible
-      .subarray(-32);
+      // with manifests produced by @noble/ed25519.
-    const publicKeyReproducible =
+      const privateKey = createPrivateKey({
-      reproducedKey.toString('hex') === witness.integrity.publicKey;
+        key: Buffer.concat([
+          Buffer.from('302e020100300506032b657004220420', 'hex'),
+          seed,
+        ]),
+        format: 'der',
+        type: 'pkcs8',
+      });
+      const reproducedKey = createPublicKey(privateKey)
+        .export({ format: 'der', type: 'spki' })
+        .subarray(-32);
+      publicKeyReproducible = reproducedKey.toString('hex') === declaredPublicKey;
+    }
 
     const declaredKey = createPublicKey({
       key: Buffer.concat([
@@ -193,12 +217,22 @@ function verifySignature(witness) {
       declaredKey,
       Buffer.from(witness.integrity.signature, 'hex'),
     );
-    return { manifestHashOk, publicKeyReproducible, signatureValid, verifier: 'node:crypto' };
+    return {
+      manifestHashOk,
+      publicKeyReproducible,
+      signatureValid,
+      authenticity,
+      pinnedKeyConfigured,
+      pinnedKeyMatches,
+      verifier: 'node:crypto',
+    };
   } catch (error) {
     return {
       manifestHashOk: false,
       publicKeyReproducible: false,
       signatureValid: false,
+      authenticity: witness?.integrity?.authenticity ?? 'self-attested',
+      pinnedKeyConfigured: Boolean(options.publicKey ?? process.env.RUFLO_WITNESS_PUBLIC_KEY),
       verifier: 'node:crypto',
       reason: 'signature-verification-error',
       error: error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error),

plugins/ruflo-core/skills/witness/SKILL.md

@@ -1,16 +1,18 @@
 ---
 name: witness
-description: Sign, verify, and track fix-marker regressions over time using a deterministic Ed25519 witness manifest. Works in any project — clone the toolkit, run init, register fixes, regen on each release.
+description: Sign, verify, and track fix-marker regressions over time using an Ed25519 witness manifest. The default seed is public-commit-derived (integrity only); set RUFLO_WITNESS_SEED/RUFLO_WITNESS_PUBLIC_KEY for authorship. Works in any project — clone the toolkit, run init, register fixes, regen on each release.
 argument-hint: "init|regen|verify|history [...]"
 allowed-tools: Bash(node *), Read, Write, Edit
 ---
 
-# Witness — cryptographic fix-regression tracking
+# Witness — tamper-evident fix-regression tracking
 
 The witness toolkit lets you ship every release with a *signed* manifest
 that lists every documented fix in your codebase along with a sha256 +
-marker substring. Anyone with the same git commit can re-derive the
+marker substring. By default the signing seed is derived from the public
-public key and verify the signature without a committed private key.
+git commit, so anyone can reproduce the signature: this is an integrity
+checksum, not proof of authorship. For authenticity, sign with a 32-byte
+`RUFLO_WITNESS_SEED` and verify with a pinned `RUFLO_WITNESS_PUBLIC_KEY`.
 
 A temporal history (JSONL) tracks how the fix population evolves across
 releases — so when a regression appears, you can pinpoint *the commit
@@ -54,6 +56,10 @@ node plugins/ruflo-core/scripts/witness/verify.mjs \
 # For a CI hash tripwire, also fail when a file changes but its marker remains.
 node plugins/ruflo-core/scripts/witness/verify.mjs \
   --manifest verification.md.json --source-only --strict
+
+# Authenticity: pin a release public key (the flag wins over the env var).
+node plugins/ruflo-core/scripts/witness/verify.mjs \
+  --manifest verification.md.json --public-key <64-hex-public-key>
 ```
 
 Without `--strict`, marker-preserving SHA drift is reported but exits 0.

scripts/ci-test-excluded.txt

@@ -104,3 +104,4 @@ plugins/ruflo-core/scripts/command-recording-switch.test.cjs
 tests/regression/oct12-coverage.test.cjs
 plugins/ruflo-adr/scripts/__tests__/adr-status-forms-4126.test.mjs
 scripts/__tests__/probe-mod-guards.test.mjs
+plugins/ruflo-core/scripts/witness/__tests__/witness-auth.test.mjs