alethech

Verifiable agent continuity protocol — local-first, zero-LLM, zero-blockchain. The art of un-concealing transmission integrity.

Copyright (c) 2026 AliceLabs LLC.

From Greek ἀλήθεια (aletheia, "truth as un-concealment") + τέχνη (techne, "art, craft"). The art of revealing that a memory was not modified after being signed.

This is the reference implementation of the protocol specified in docs/implementacion-nucleo-minimo.md (rev 2 + rev 3 identity layer).

what this is

alethech provides cryptographically verifiable, portable memory continuity for AI agents. It signs memory commits with Ed25519, links them in a hash-linked DAG, rotates keys without losing identity, and can seal a verified history into one encrypted .aleth file for transfer between compatible runtimes and devices.

What this repo IS:

• A cryptographic protocol implementation (Ed25519 + SHA-256 + JCS RFC 8785)
• An encrypted portable memory container (.aleth, scrypt + AES-256-GCM)
• A neutral verified adapter view for plugins and chat integrations
• 9 CLI commands (init, commit, evidence, verify, export, import, migrate, key rotate, key revoke)
• A test suite with mutation-guard paths (each guarantee has a test that fails when the check is defeated)
• MIT licensed, published on PyPI as alethech

What this repo is NOT:

• It is NOT a memory store or retrieval system
• It is NOT the legacy memex project (Python/ChromaDB memory server)
• It has no MCP server, no Docker, no auto-update, no LLM calls
• It depends only on cryptography and click — no mem0ai, no chromadb, no ollama

The legacy memex codebase (167 commits, AliceLabs Proprietary License) is preserved in a separate repository: eddyflores100-lang/memex-legacy. It is not part of this repo and not installed by pip install alethech.

the property

This memory set forms part of a cryptographically verifiable history associated with a determined identity, whose commits can be independently verified with respect to their integrity, cryptographic authorship, and provenance relations.

When a reference checkpoint exists, it can additionally be verified that the presented history continues from that checkpoint.

The protocol does NOT prove that the agent's claims are true — only that they were signed by the identity that claims them. The truth being un-concealed is the truth about transmission integrity, not about content.

status

Released version 0.8.5; main contains the 0.9 portable-memory work in progress. CI runs the Python suite on 3.10–3.13 plus cross-language conformance and .aleth interoperability across Python, Rust, and TypeScript. No LLM, no required cloud, no blockchain, no consensus.

install

pip install alethech

For development:

git clone https://github.com/eddyflores100-lang/alethech.git
cd alethech
pip install -e ".[dev]"

usage

alethech init                              # generate identity + genesis commit
alethech commit --content <json-file>      # create signed MemoryCommit
alethech evidence --tool <name>            # create signed EvidenceCommit
  --input <file> --output <file>
alethech verify                            # verify the whole store, offline
alethech export --output <dir>             # portable package
alethech import --input <dir>              # import external memory
alethech key rotate                        # rotate operational key
alethech key revoke --key-id <id>          # revoke a key
alethech migrate --to v0.2                  # migrate identity layer

portable encrypted memory (.aleth)

Alethech 0.9 development adds a single encrypted file designed for drag-and-drop transfer:

from alethech import Alethech

agent = Alethech.initialize("./working-store")
agent.commit({"fact": "portable memory"})
agent.seal("memory.aleth", "your-passphrase")

# Plugin-style path: dropped file -> unlock -> verify -> neutral context
context = Alethech.drop_context("memory.aleth", "your-passphrase")

The .aleth container uses scrypt + AES-256-GCM. Its authenticated payload can be opened byte-exactly by the Python, Rust, and TypeScript implementations in CI. The portable file may carry the encrypted operational signing key so history can continue on another device, but it excludes root.key and recovery.key.

See docs/ALETH_CONTAINER_SPEC.md and docs/ADAPTER_CONTRACT.md.

what it does NOT do

• It does NOT prove that the agent's claims are true. Only that they were signed by the identity that claims them.
• It does NOT detect rollback without an external checkpoint.
• The local working store is NOT encrypted at rest; the portable .aleth container is encrypted.
• It does NOT delegate permissions between agents.
• It does NOT call any LLM.

what the name means

alethech comes from:

• aletheia (ἀλήθεια) — Greek for "truth", more precisely "un-concealment" (Heidegger's reading: truth as the act of revealing what was hidden)
• techne (τέχνη) — Greek for "art, craft, technique"

So alethech = "the art of un-concealing". The protocol un-conceals:

• whether a memory was modified after being signed
• who signed it
• what signed timestamp was recorded (NOT physical signing time — only the timestamp recorded in the artifact)
• what its provenance is
• whether the chain of custody is intact

It does NOT un-conceal whether the content is true — that's the agent's responsibility, not the protocol's.

tests

python -m pytest tests/

The Python test suite covers:

• crypto primitives (Ed25519, SHA-256, base64url, base32)
• JCS canonicalization (RFC 8785) — 56 conformance vectors including:
  • integer/float serialization per ECMAScript Number.prototype.toString()
  • -0 serializes as "0" (per RFC 8785 erratum, NOT preserved)
  • scientific notation format (positive exponents keep '+', negative strip leading zeros)
  • decimal vs scientific threshold (1e21 / 1e-6)
  • UTF-16 key ordering with surrogate pairs
  • string escaping (control chars, non-ASCII preservation)
  • NaN/Infinity rejection
• agent_id derivation (cryptographic binding to public_key)
• MemoryCommit signing, tamper detection, wrong-key rejection
• EvidenceCommit signing (supports both legacy and V2 identity)
• all 9 CLI commands (init, commit, evidence, verify, export, import, migrate, key rotate, key revoke)
• checkpoint emission + rollback detection + causal continuity (ancestry check)
• identity_mismatch detection
• export/import roundtrip preservation
• tampered manifest rejection
• key rotation with cutoff_head reachability guarantee
• ancestry_check mutation guard (3 code-level defeats)
• recall-seam defeats (2 data-level mutations: active-keys tampering, cutoff_head mutation)
• root_id binding (RootAuthority ↔ IdentityRecord ↔ ControlEvent)
• checkpoint continuity (checkpoint HEAD must be ancestor of current HEAD)
• IdentityRecordV2 signature verification (against root public key)
• import causal continuity (ancestry check before writing)
• import hardening (symlinks, path traversal, archive bombs, artifact hash verification)

repository structure

alethech/                    # this repo — cryptographic protocol only
├── alethech/                # source: crypto, objects, store, verify, cli, canonical
│   └── integrations/        # langchain + memex hooks
├── alethech-rs/             # Rust SDK (31 tests, cross-validation)
├── alethech-ts/             # TypeScript SDK (15 tests, Web Crypto API)
├── tests/                   # Python behavioral, adversarial, mutation and conformance tests
├── conformance/             # 15 adversarial conformance vectors
├── docs/                    # protocol specification
├── examples/                # basic_usage.py
├── INTEGRATION.md           # how to integrate with memex via MemexAlethechHook
├── CHANGELOG.md             # version history
├── SECURITY.md              # threat model + vulnerability policy
├── CONTRIBUTING.md          # dev setup + PR process
├── CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md      # Contributor Covenant
├── CITATION.cff             # academic citation
├── LICENSE                  # MIT
├── README.md                # this file
└── pyproject.toml           # alethech 0.9.0, deps: cryptography + click only

cross-language validation

The protocol is implemented in three independent languages:

All three use the same NIST SHA-256 test vectors, RFC 4648 base32 vectors, and RFC 8785 JCS conformance vectors. The cross-language claim is backed by an executable harness:

python conformance/cross_language_check.py

This runs all three implementations against the same shared fixtures in conformance/ and asserts byte-exact agreement on canonical bytes for accepted fixtures. The default run is fail-closed: exit 0 = all three ran and agree, 1 = disagreement, 2 = an implementation/runtime is unavailable. CI builds the Rust helper and executes the three-runtime harness. See conformance/CROSS_LANGUAGE.md for the contract and how to add a 4th implementation.

license

MIT.

related repositories

• eddyflores100-lang/memex-legacy — Legacy Memex codebase (167 commits, AliceLabs Proprietary License). Python/ChromaDB memory system with MCP integration. Preserved for historical reference. NOT installed by pip install alethech.

Copyright (c) 2026 AliceLabs LLC. MIT License.