User Approval Seed Record V1

This document defines the canonical seed record used to bootstrap the first approved users in the retained PHP forum rewrite.

Scope

• One ASCII text file represents one explicitly seeded approved identity.

• Canonical approval seed files live in records/approval-seeds/.

• These records exist only to bootstrap initial trust without depending on git history.

• Later user approvals are recorded as canonical reply posts on bootstrap threads.

File Naming

• The canonical filename is records/approval-seeds/openpgp-<lowercase-fingerprint>.txt.

• The <lowercase-fingerprint> portion must match the identity fingerprint encoded in Approved-Identity-ID.

File Structure

An approval seed file has two parts:

1. A contiguous header block at the top of the file

2. A body separated from the headers by one blank line

Headers use this form:

Key: Value

Required Headers

• Approved-Identity-ID: canonical identity ID, using the form openpgp:<lowercase-fingerprint>

• Seed-Reason: short operator-readable reason for the seed

Body Rules

• The body is plain ASCII text.

• The body may be a short explanation of why the identity was seeded.

• The file uses LF line endings and ends with a trailing LF.

Invariants

• Approved-Identity-ID must use the retained identity form openpgp:<lowercase-fingerprint>.

• The filename fingerprint must match the fingerprint encoded in Approved-Identity-ID.

• Seed records are additive in V1.

• Seed records do not replace approval replies; they only bootstrap initial trust roots.

Example

Approved-Identity-ID: openpgp:0168ff20eb09c3ea6193bd3c92a73aa7d20a0954
Seed-Reason: initial approved fixture user

Seed this identity as approved so later user-to-user approval chains can begin from canonical data.