SPECIFICATION
CAP Protocol Technical Specification (Draft)
This directory contains the draft version of the Control Authority Protocol (CAP) v1 technical specification. The specification is developed based on the architecture blueprint in docs/en/blueprint/, covering the 6 core capabilities listed in §3.1 of Chapter 3 of the blueprint.
Document Structure
| Chapter | File | Content |
|---|---|---|
| Chapter 0 | 00-Introduction and Conformance.md | Document status, scope, RFC 2119 keywords, conformance levels, normative references |
| Chapter 1 | 01-Architecture and Roles.md | Protocol roles, trust chain, external interface contracts |
| Chapter 2 | 02-Data Model.md | Core data structures (Authorization_Descriptor, Trusted_Ticket, Session, Verification_Key) |
| Chapter 3 | 03-Offline Authorization Protocol.md | Complete Authorization_Descriptor lifecycle protocol flow |
| Chapter 4 | 04-Online Ticket Protocol.md | Complete Trusted_Ticket flow and degradation |
| Chapter 5 | 05-Session Management and Liveness Detection.md | Session state machine, binding rules, heartbeats, dual determination, timeout reclamation |
| Chapter 6 | 06-Control Authority Handover Protocol.md | Three Handover_Policy policy types, atomicity guarantees, timeout rollback |
| Chapter 7 | 07-Resource Access Mode.md | Semantics of read/write/execute/configure, read-write lock matrix |
| Chapter 8 | 08-Cryptography and Signatures.md | Algorithm set, key formats, distribution, and rotation |
| Chapter 9 | 09-Error Codes and Conformance Levels.md | Standard error code table, conformance declaration |
| Chapter 10 | 10-Security Considerations.md | Threat model, known risks, and mitigations |
Recommended Reading Order
- First read: Chapter 0 → Chapter 1 → Chapter 2 → Chapter 3
- Implementing terminal: Chapters 0–3 → Chapters 5, 7 → Chapters 8, 9
- Implementing issuer: Chapters 0–2 → Chapters 3, 4 → Chapter 8
- Implementing iFay_Runtime: Chapters 0, 1 → Chapter 5 → Chapter 9
- Security review: Chapter 10 + cross-reading of related chapters
Draft Status
This draft is in the discussion phase. Prior to formal release:
- Field names, error codes, and constraint thresholds may be adjusted
- Chapter structure may be reorganized
- No backward compatibility is guaranteed
After discussions stabilize, the contents of this directory will be released as docs/en/specification/2025-10-25/, the first formal version of the CAP protocol.
Related Assets
- Architecture blueprint:
docs/en/blueprint/ - Schema definitions (draft):
schema/draft/ - Other language versions: This specification currently has zh-CN, zh-TW, ja, and ko versions; remaining languages will be translated prior to formal release