AURA trust-check adapter

Opt-in, read-only counterparty reputation for agent hosts. One HTTP GET answers "can I trust this agent before I delegate work or settle a payment?"

Zero dependencies — pure Python stdlib. Vendor the aura/ folder, no pip install.
Read-only — the only network call is GET /check?did=.... No auth, no API key.
No coupling — does not sign, hold keys, move funds, or touch your wallet.
Off by default — nothing runs until you call it. Disabled = delete the import.

Enable (opt-in)

It's a gate you call explicitly at a trust boundary — there is no global hook, no monkey-patching, no background calls. Wrap the action you want to protect:

from aura import before_settle, AuraUntrusted

def settle(counterparty_did: str, amount: float) -> None:
    try:
        before_settle(counterparty_did)        # rejects high_risk + unknown
    except AuraUntrusted as e:
        log.warning("blocked: %s", e)
        return                                  # your policy decides what to do
    pay(counterparty_did, amount)               # your existing logic, untouched

Prefer to read the verdict yourself instead of raising?

from aura import aura_verdict

v = aura_verdict(counterparty_did)
print(v.verdict)   # trusted | caution | high_risk | new | unknown
print(v.reason)    # human-readable explanation
print(v.score)     # composite 0..1, or None when there's no history
print(v.ok)        # True for trusted/caution

# v.dimensions tells you *which* axis is weak, not just the aggregate:
if v.dimensions and v.dimensions.get("financial_integrity", 1) < 0.4:
    require_manual_review()   # placeholder for your own policy

v.ok reflects the verdict class (True for trusted/caution), not the outcome of require_trust() — the gate's default allow also lets new through. Use the gate's return/raise for the decision, v.ok for display.

Verdicts

verdict	meaning	`ok`
`trusted`	strong on-chain track record (composite ≥ 0.70)	✅
`caution`	mixed history (0.40–0.70)	✅
`high_risk`	poor track record (< 0.40)	❌
`new`	registered identity, no interactions yet	❌
`unknown`	no track record — or AURA was unreachable	❌

Policy knobs

# Reject brand-new agents too (strict):
before_settle(did, allow=("trusted", "caution"))

# Treat an *unreachable* AURA as a pass (fail-open). Off by default —
# absence of evidence is not evidence of trust.
before_settle(did, fail_open=True)

# Point at a self-hosted / staging gateway:
before_settle(did, base_url="https://my-aura-mirror.example", timeout=5)

require_trust is an alias of before_settle for non-payment call sites.

Failure behavior

aura_verdict() never raises on a network or parse error — it returns an unknown verdict with the reason set. The gate then decides:

default (fail_open=False) — unknown is rejected → an unreachable AURA blocks the action. Fail-closed.
fail_open=True — unknown from an unreachable endpoint is allowed through, so AURA can never take your flow down. Fail-open.

This keeps the trust signal purely additive: if you remove the adapter or AURA is down, your existing allow/deny logic runs exactly as before.

Tests

Offline — every call replays a recorded /check body, no network:

python -m pytest aura/tests -q

Covers all five verdict classes, the gate's allow-list + fail_open, the unreachable path, and input validation. See tests/fixtures.py for the recorded response shapes.

Boundary & threats

See THREAT_MODEL.md — what the verdict does and does not prove, and the failure modes a verifier should account for.

Carry the AURA badge

Show your live trust verdict in your own README — it updates automatically and links back to your AURA profile:

[![AURA Verified](https://agent.auraopenprotocol.org/badge?did=YOUR_DID)](https://agent.auraopenprotocol.org/check?did=YOUR_DID)

A shields-style badge colored by verdict (trusted green, caution amber, high_risk red, new blue, unknown grey). Add &score=1 to show the composite score. No DID yet? The bare badge is a generic mark:

[![Powered by AURA](https://agent.auraopenprotocol.org/badge)](https://auraopenprotocol.org)

What's behind the verdict

AURA Open Protocol — W3C DID identity plus 8 on-chain reputation dimensions on Base L2 (task_completion, delivery_speed, output_quality, honesty, financial_integrity, security_compliance, collaboration, dispute_history). Docs: AURA developer docs

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