Knomee protocol
Current specification guide, reconciled 15 October 2026. Markdown is canonical. Versioned schemas, contract sources and release manifests define exact encodings.
Scope and authority
Knomee records permanent judgments about stable entities. It separates identity, subject identity, original expression, semantic claims, spending and settlement. This repository owns protocol economics, contracts and deployment records. The web runtime owns authentication, the shared review SDK, signing, publication and public projections. GoodTakes owns film and television discovery.
Accounts and rating targets
Reviewer authentication, identity and available capacity are checked independently of the target. Any address may be rated in the current open-target release. A target does not need activation, minting or prior oracle admission. Mint provenance and duplicate-identity reconciliation can supply later evidence; they do not gate an ordinary review. A product must use a stable, deterministic target mapping.
See open rating targets. Removing target activation does not remove reviewer authorization or permit arbitrary contract calls.
Original text and reaction
A review contains optional text and an optional emoji. At least one is required. The exact emoji is retained independently of interpreted claims, including skin tones and joined sequences. No emoji is inferred when the participant chooses none.
Text reviews use the reaction as tone context. Explicit praise and criticism take precedence over that context. An emoji supplies no factual evidence. Emoji-only reviews use deterministic meaning without an AI request: thumbs up is overall approval, thumbs down is overall disapproval, and other emojis express the selected reaction without inventing an assessment or factual claim.
Current writes use claim bundle v3, draft/approval/request v4 and assistant input
v4. Public indexes and manifests use v2. The signed bundle hash binds
originalReaction and the original prose. Old formats are not converted or
silently republished. See the signed reaction specification.
Semantic claims
A text review can contain several independently directed statements. Source spans refer to UTF-8 bytes in the original prose; emoji-only spans reference the exact reaction bytes. Meaning, direction, source lineage and integer quantities stay bound together. Splitting a statement must not multiply its economic weight.
AI proposes a breakdown within the authorized budget. It must not invent facts, reverse explicit meaning or conflate a negative event with criticism of its subject. Advanced mode exposes individual meanings, directions and allocations for editing.
VIBE, QUALIA and VITA
| Capacity | Purpose | Direct cost |
|---|---|---|
| VIBE | Endorse or challenge an evaluation | Positive weight costs 1; negative weight costs 2 |
| QUALIA | Assert or deny a factual statement | Both directions cost 1 per unit |
| VITA | Identity evidence and related capacity | Separate identity policy |
The lanes cannot subsidize one another. Budgets are ceilings, not proof of balance. Unused capacity remains unused. Simple mode uses VIBE; optional QUALIA controls belong in Advanced mode. Emoji-only reviews allocate no QUALIA.
Supporting both lanes does not require funding both on every review. Classifying an assertion and backing it are separate decisions: a description remains a source-linked description with no assessment when QUALIA is disabled or zero. It must not disappear or become VIBE praise merely because it is unfunded. Advanced mode can fund eligible VIBE claims, eligible QUALIA claims, or both, within independently authorized ceilings. A factual-only draft must not acquire an invented endorsement to make it publishable. An all-unfunded draft is not a funded review. QUALIA backing records an assertion or denial, not verified truth.
One live VIBE contributes one direct unit of weight. Reputation affects future replenishment, not a hidden multiplier on present spending. Original commitments remain immutable. Reaffirmation cannot overfill a position or create independent confirmation. A new same-subject judgment forfeits earlier positive eligibility while retaining downside. The V5 economic specification and VITA specification define the detailed structure. Experimental coefficients are not selected merely by appearing in code.
Submission and durable recovery
Simple mode offers one submit action after account terms have been accepted. It stores the exact intent, shows an owner-visible pending card immediately and runs interpretation, preparation, authorization, IPFS publication, transaction submission and confirmation in the background. Advanced mode exposes the underlying detail.
Authorization is bounded to the exact review and disclosed spending and fee ceilings. Terms acceptance is not an unlimited signing grant. A retry reconciles the original intent and transaction; uncertainty must never create a second spend. Only a confirmed receipt and valid public projection make a pending take public.
Firebase sessions persist and refresh silently while valid. Sign-out, revocation, disabled accounts and missing credentials remain real boundaries. Session persistence does not turn an operation-specific authorization into an indefinite grant.
Public evidence and history
Content-addressed bundles retain original expression, claims and allocations. Contract-backed takes cannot be edited, withdrawn or refunded. A changed position creates another charged take. Public views may select the current format without rewriting earlier signed records or claiming complete chain-history coverage.
Oracles append evidence and deterministically replay history through an exact cutoff. They do not unilaterally resolve individual claims. Equal inputs and pinned projector versions must yield the same state commitment.
Current deployment boundary
The current development release is Ethereum Sepolia, chain 11155111, described by the open-target release manifest. Blue daily allowances are 500 VIBE and 1000 QUALIA. The separate 50 VITA bridge remains distinct. Earned roots remain paused. This is not a Base mainnet release.
Inherited daily replay qualification, earned-capacity policy, batching, weekly caps and forecasting must not be represented as activated features. See the current roadmap and forecast boundary.
Reading the specifications
The documentation map distinguishes active specifications, operational records and historical evidence. HTML is a build projection of Markdown, with source downloads and content hashes. Edit Markdown, then regenerate the site.