Witness

CommunityPopular

ruvnet

witness

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.

Overview

Publisher	ruvnet
Repository	`ruflo`
Skill name	`witness`
Stars	72.7K
Forks	8.6K
Bundled files	Instructions only
License	MIT
Links	Skill source Repository Homepage

Markdown instructions
A SKILL.md file the model loads on demand, so it only costs tokens when a request actually matches.
Works with any LLM
AI skills are plain Markdown, not provider-specific code, so this works with GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, or a local model.
Self-contained
Everything the model needs lives in the instructions — no extra files to sync.
Open source
Published by ruvnet on GitHub. Read the source before you install it.

Installation

Install the Witness AI skill in TypingMind to use it with any LLM, or drop it into another agent that reads SKILL.md.

Install in TypingMind

TypingMind installs a skill straight from its GitHub folder — it reads SKILL.md, bundles the resource files, and stores the result locally.

Open the app and go to Plugins → Skills.
Choose "Install from GitHub".
Paste the skill folder URL below and confirm.
Enable the skill in any chat where you want it available.

Plugins → Skills → Add skill → From GitHub URL, then paste the folder URL and press Continue.

Install in another agent

Any agent that reads the Agent Skills format can use this skill — copy the folder into that agent's skills directory.

Claude Code — .claude/skills

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ruvnet/ruflo.git /tmp/ruflo
mkdir -p .claude/skills
cp -r /tmp/ruflo/plugins/ruflo-core/skills/witness .claude/skills/witness

Restart Claude Code after copying so it picks up the new skill.

Use it in TypingMind

Enable Witness in any TypingMind chat and the model takes it from there. Its name and description sit in the system prompt, and the moment a request matches, the model loads the full instructions itself — you never invoke it by hand, and it costs no tokens until it is actually used.

The model loads Witness on its own as soon as a request matches it.

Works with any AI model

AI skills are plain Markdown instructions rather than provider-specific code, so Witness is not tied to the model it was written for. Install it once in TypingMind and use it with GPT-5, Claude, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, Mistral, Llama, or a local model you run yourself — all on your own API keys.

Loaded only when it is needed
The system prompt carries just the name and description. The instructions are fetched on the first matching request, so an idle skill costs nothing.
Switch models mid-chat
Because the skill is instructions rather than code, changing model does not break it — the next model reads the same SKILL.md.

Skill instructions

This is the SKILL.md content the model loads. Read it before installing — a skill is instructions your model will follow.

Witness — cryptographic 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 public key and verify the signature without a committed private key.

A temporal history (JSONL) tracks how the fix population evolves across releases — so when a regression appears, you can pinpoint the commit that introduced it, not just "it's broken now."

This skill works two ways:

Inside ruflo — used by ruflo's own CI to gate publishes (see .github/workflows/v3-ci.yml job witness-verify).
In your own project — copy plugins/ruflo-core/scripts/witness/ into your repo, run init.mjs, register your fixes in witness-fixes.json, and call regen.mjs from your release pipeline.

Quick start (any project)

bash
# One-time bootstrap — creates verification.md.json,
# verification-history.jsonl, and witness-fixes.json template
node plugins/ruflo-core/scripts/witness/init.mjs --root .

# Edit witness-fixes.json: add { id, desc, file, marker } per fix.
# A "marker" is a distinctive substring that MUST appear in `file`
# while the fix is present. If someone reverts the fix, the marker
# disappears and `verify` reports it as `regressed`.

# Regenerate the manifest (signing requires @noble/ed25519)
npm i @noble/ed25519
node plugins/ruflo-core/scripts/witness/regen.mjs \
  --manifest verification.md.json \
  --history verification-history.jsonl \
  --fixes witness-fixes.json

# Verify markers are present in the live tree
node plugins/ruflo-core/scripts/witness/verify.mjs \
  --manifest verification.md.json

# Or authenticate the manifest and check source markers in a clean clone.
# Generated dist/ entries are explicitly reported as skipped.
node plugins/ruflo-core/scripts/witness/verify.mjs \
  --manifest verification.md.json --source-only

Temporal queries (ADR-103)

bash
# Latest snapshot vs. previous
node plugins/ruflo-core/scripts/witness/history.mjs \
  --history verification-history.jsonl summary

# For each currently-regressed fix, find the commit that introduced it
node plugins/ruflo-core/scripts/witness/history.mjs \
  --history verification-history.jsonl regressions

# Status timeline for a specific fix
node plugins/ruflo-core/scripts/witness/history.mjs \
  --history verification-history.jsonl timeline --id F1

# Machine-readable for CI
node plugins/ruflo-core/scripts/witness/history.mjs \
  --history verification-history.jsonl summary --json

summary exits non-zero if any fix newly regressed since the last snapshot — drop it in CI as a soft pre-merge gate.

Anti-patterns

Hand-editing verification.md.json — always regenerate via regen.mjs, otherwise the signature breaks.
Markers that are too generic ('function', 'import') — pick something unique enough that grep doesn't false-positive against unrelated code.
Skipping the history append — without --history, you lose the ability to bisect when a regression was introduced.
Committing one without the other — verification.md.json and verification-history.jsonl belong in the same commit; the JSONL is what lets future you verify the signed manifest is the latest in the line.

Files

scripts/witness/lib.mjs — shared regenerate / history logic.
scripts/witness/regen.mjs — CLI: sign + append history.
scripts/witness/history.mjs — CLI: query the temporal log.
scripts/witness/init.mjs — CLI: bootstrap into a fresh project.
scripts/witness/verify.mjs — CLI: validate signature + markers.

In ruflo's CI

v3-ci.yml job witness-verify runs after the behavioral smoke tests and before publish. Failure modes:

Failure	Cause
`signatureValid: no`	manifest hand-edited; re-run regen
`regressed: > 0`	a documented fix lost its marker since issuance
`missing: > 0`	a cited dist file no longer exists; rebuild or remove the entry
`scope: source-only`	signature + source markers checked; generated entries intentionally skipped

Frequently asked questions

What does the Witness AI skill do?

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.

Why use Witness on TypingMind?

Because you install it once and use it with any model. Witness is plain Markdown rather than provider-specific code, so the same skill runs on GPT-5, Claude, Gemini, Grok, or a local model — and you can switch model mid-chat without it breaking. TypingMind runs on your own API keys, so you pay providers directly instead of a per-seat subscription, and your skills and chats stay in your own storage.

How do I install Witness in TypingMind?

Open Plugins → Skills → Install from GitHub in TypingMind and paste https://github.com/ruvnet/ruflo/tree/main/plugins/ruflo-core/skills/witness. TypingMind reads its SKILL.md and installs it as a skill you can enable per chat.

Which AI models can use Witness?

Any model you connect in TypingMind. AI skills are plain Markdown instructions rather than provider-specific code, so GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, and local models can all load this skill when a request matches it.

How many AI models can I use with Witness?

As many as you like. As long as a model supports skills, you can use Witness with it — GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, Mistral, Llama and more — all on TypingMind with your own API keys.

Is the Witness AI skill free?

Yes. It is published on GitHub by ruvnet under the MIT license. You only pay your own AI provider for the tokens you use.

What are AI skills?

An AI skill is a reusable instruction bundle that teaches an AI model how to do one specific task. It follows the open Agent Skills format: a SKILL.md file with a name and description, plus any scripts, templates or reference files the model may need. The model reads the instructions only when your request matches the skill, so an installed skill costs nothing until it is used.

How are AI skills different from plugins or MCP servers?

A plugin or MCP server gives a model new tools to call — code that runs somewhere and returns a result. An AI skill gives the model knowledge and process instead: how to approach a task, which steps to follow, what good output looks like. Skills are plain Markdown, so they need no server, no API key and no runtime, and they work with any model.

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Overview

Installation

Install in TypingMind

Install in another agent

Use it in TypingMind

Works with any AI model

Skill instructions

Witness — cryptographic fix-regression tracking

Quick start (any project)

Temporal queries (ADR-103)

Anti-patterns

Files

In ruflo's CI

Frequently asked questions

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