railiance-clock/docs/release-verification.md

Local release verification

Run from this repository on Linux with Python 3.11+ and uv:

python3 tools/verify_release.py --output /tmp/rclk-release-UNIQUE

The output directory must not already exist. Temporary keys, virtual environments and build trees are removed at exit. The output retains verification.json and runtime.cdx.json; it does not publish or deploy a package. Package downloads may require registry access. No production credentials or host clock changes are used.

The verifier performs:

1. Byte comparison of the three packaged JSON schemas against specs/.
2. A fresh build environment installed from hash-pinned tools/build-requirements.txt, independently of runtime dependencies.
3. Two sdist/wheel builds from separate source roots with deliberately different mtimes and fixed SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=315532800. The sdist explicitly includes source, project metadata and README; Hatchling also includes .gitignore. All four are represented in the input manifest; generated evidence is excluded.
4. A build from the actual checkout, which must match both copied-source builds.
5. A fresh runtime environment installed from the hash-bearing locked runtime requirements plus the built wheel, followed by uv pip check.
6. An isolated (python -I) smoke check outside the checkout: installed-package import, schema presence, CLI startup, a signed HTTP exchange with a disposable authority, wrong-key refusal, and sanitized CLI failure on unusable health.
7. Installed distribution/version comparison against uv.lock and a CycloneDX runtime component inventory. Build dependencies are listed separately in the receipt; neither development dependencies nor build tools enter the runtime.

Build constraints can be deliberately refreshed with:

uv pip compile tools/build-requirements.in --generate-hashes -o tools/build-requirements.txt

Review that diff and rerun verification after a refresh. Normal verification uses the committed pins and does not resolve newer build versions. Runtime installation similarly uses uv export --locked and verifies archive hashes.

Retained evidence

The current parser-hardening run is in evidence/2026-09-28-protocol-hardening/verification.json and its runtime SBOM. The earlier release-verification receipt is retained as historical evidence. The receipt records source-input hashes, lock/build-requirement hashes, verifier hashes, Python/uv/build-tool versions, artifact digests and smoke checks. Its base commit identifies the checkout before the verification changes were committed; the input manifest identifies the exact built contents, including pending edits.

This demonstrates repeatability on the recorded Linux/Python toolchain. It does not establish reproducibility on other platforms/interpreters, native UTC accuracy, consumer admission, deployment, license clearance or absence of vulnerabilities. The component inventory covers installed Python distributions, not system libraries or native libraries embedded inside third-party wheels. Build timestamps are normalized metadata and are never used as trusted time.

The acceptance coverage map distinguishes local checks from unproven native obligations. RCLK-WP-0003-T03 owns this package evidence; existing 0002/0004/0005 records retain owner acceptance and deployment gates.