Attestation

• CURIE: gmeow:Attestation
• IRI: https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/Attestation
• Category: class
• Defined by: gmeow:slices/attestation
• Box roles: CBox role, TBox role (What is this?)

A reified assertion envelope that an attester vouches for a claim, artifact, identity binding, process, quality report, or ledger claim under a specific policy. Mediates between an attester, an attested subject, and optionally an attested claim or artifact. Distinct from Observation: an attestation is a vouching act, not a measurement or sensory reading. Its validity window is carried with gmeow:validFrom/validUntil; revocation sets validUntil (Principle 10).

Structure

Subclass of: gmeow:JustificationGround, gufo:Relator

Practical Pattern

Use gmeow:Attestation as a specialized kind of gmeow:JustificationGround, gufo:Relator. Add statement metadata or a standpoint when the assertion needs provenance, confidence, or vantage.

Example Snippets

These snippets are generated from canonical slice examples and trimmed to the Turtle blocks where this term appears.

Software Release

• Source: slices/core/attestation/examples/software-release.ttl
• Examples catalog: open in catalog#example-slices-core-attestation-examples-software-release

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Blackcat Informatics® Inc. <paudley@blackcatinformatics.ca>
# SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
#
# Worked example: a supply-chain attestation. A gmeow:Attestation binds an
# gmeow:attester (who vouches) to an gmeow:attestedSubject (what is vouched for)
# under an gmeow:attestationType drawn from the open vocabulary of real formats
# (SLSA provenance, in-toto, DSSE, C2PA, verifiable credential, …). Here a CI
# pipeline issues a SLSA-provenance attestation over a release bundle, carries
# the signed artifact, and a relying party records a gmeow:VerificationResult —
# the attestation is a claim; verifying it is a separate, recorded act.
@prefix gmeow: <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/> .
@prefix ex:    <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/examples/attestation/> .
@prefix xsd:   <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .

# --- The attestation: the CI system vouches for the release as SLSA provenance.
ex:slsaAttestation a gmeow:Attestation ;
    gmeow:attester           ex:ciSystem ;
    gmeow:attestedSubject    ex:release ;
    gmeow:attestationType    gmeow:attestationTypeSLSAProvenance ;
    gmeow:issuedAt           "2026-06-14T12:00:00Z"^^xsd:dateTime ;
    gmeow:attestationArtifact ex:artifact ;
    gmeow:hasSignature       ex:sig ;
    gmeow:verificationResult ex:verifyResult .

Skill Proficiency

• Source: slices/core/expertise/examples/skill-proficiency.ttl
• Examples catalog: open in catalog#example-slices-core-expertise-examples-skill-proficiency

# --- A credential: an independent attestation OF the skill, by an issuer. A
#     verifiable credential references a gmeow:Attestation that signs it (the
#     expertise↔attestation seam): the credential is a CLAIM, the attestation
#     makes it checkable.
ex:cert a gmeow:Credential ;
    gmeow:credentialFor    ex:python ;
    gmeow:credentialIssuer ex:psf ;
    gmeow:hasAttestation   ex:certAttestation .

ex:certAttestation a gmeow:Attestation ;
    gmeow:attester        ex:psf ;
    gmeow:attestedSubject ex:cert ;
    gmeow:attestationType gmeow:attestationTypeVerifiableCredential ;
    gmeow:issuedAt        "2025-09-01T00:00:00Z"^^xsd:dateTime .

Common Companion Terms

gmeow:JustificationGround

Projects To

External Equivalences

Equivalent or closely aligned targets: prov, schema, vc, wot

Linkages

Generated from the canonical mapping DSL. SSSOM files are the generated public interchange form for term equivalences.

Term Equivalences

Projection Coverage

Usage Advice

Use when

• Use to record that some agent VOUCHES FOR a claim, artifact, or binding under a named policy — the envelope that holds who attested, to what, under which rules, and with what cryptographic and log evidence; standpoint-indexed, never a global truth verdict (Principle 9).

Avoid when

• Avoid for the measurement or claim itself (that is a gmeow:Observation, the target of gmeow:attestedClaim, not the parent of Attestation) and for asserting a proposition true by fiat — an attestation proves an issuer made a statement under a policy, not that the statement is correct (boundaries in the module comment).

How to use

• Mint one Attestation per vouching act, bind gmeow:attester and gmeow:attestedSubject (the EL minimum) plus gmeow:issuedAt, point gmeow:attestedClaim at the vouched Observation, name gmeow:attestationType / gmeow:attestationPolicy, carry the signature via gmeow:hasSignature and log/ledger evidence via gmeow:transparencyLogEntry, and bound validity with gmeow:validFrom/validUntil (revocation sets validUntil).

Examples

• ex:provAtt a gmeow:Attestation; gmeow:attester ex:buildBot; gmeow:attestedClaim ex:buildClaim; gmeow:attestationPolicy ex:slsaL3.