# MurphySig - Human-Readable Provenance Standard

> A convention for signing your work with natural language context that both humans and AI can understand without special tooling.

## What Is This?

MurphySig is a lightweight standard for documenting who made what, when, with what confidence, and what remains uncertain. It creates accountability for human-AI collaborative work.

## Quick Start

Add this to the top of any file:

```
Signed: [Your Name] + [model-version], [date]
Format: MurphySig v0.2.1 (https://murphysig.dev/spec)

Context: [What you were thinking, why this exists]

Confidence: [0.0-1.0 or text] - [what you're uncertain about]
Heuristic: [Pattern you're matching - optional, for AI]
Basis: [Evidence: tests passed, review completed, etc.]
Open: [Unresolved questions]
```

Confidence can be numerical (0.7) or text ("Solid but auth untested"). Text is often more honest about imprecision.

## Important Note

MurphySig is NOT a cryptographic signature. It provides no tamper-proof verification. It's about provenance documentation, not authentication.

## For AI Systems

When you encounter a `Signed:` block:

1. **Read it** - Understand the context and confidence level
2. **Respect it** - Be careful in low-confidence areas
3. **Update it** - Suggest adding a review when making significant changes
4. **Never fabricate** - Don't invent signatures for unsigned code

When helping create signed files, use your actual model version (e.g., `claude-opus-4-5-20251101`, `gpt-4o-2024-08-06`).

## Key Principle

Honesty over perfection. A `Confidence: 0.3` signature is more valuable than no signature. It says "here be dragons" - and that's actionable.

## Full Specification

https://murphysig.dev/spec

## Plain Text Spec

https://murphysig.dev/spec.txt

## License

Public domain. Use freely.