openbadgeslib 3.3.0

Production-ready Python library & CLI for Open Badges 3.0 (W3C Verifiable Credentials): issue, verify, and revoke JWT-VC credentials with Bitstring Status Lists and did:web — plus strict OB 2.0 and legacy OB 1.0.

OpenBadgesLib

A production-ready Python library & CLI for the full Open Badges 3.0 issuer lifecycle — issue W3C Verifiable Credentials as JWT-VC or W3C Data Integrity (LDP) proofs, bake them into SVG/PNG, verify them, and revoke or suspend them with W3C Bitstring Status Lists and did:web. It also ships strict OpenBadges 2.0 (JWS / hosted assertions) and a frozen OpenBadges 1.0 legacy format, selected with -V {1,2,3} (default 3).

Features

• Sign badge images (SVG and PNG) as strict OB 2.0 JWS / hosted assertions (with a frozen OB 1.0 legacy format)
• Issue and verify OpenBadges 3.0 JWT-VC credentials
• Bake OB 3.0 credentials (JWT-VC or Data Integrity JSON-LD) into SVG and PNG badge images
• RSA 2048-bit (RS256), ECC NIST P-256 (ES256), and Ed25519 (EdDSA) key support
• SHA-256 hashed recipient identity with salt (OB 2.0)
• Expiration and revocation checking
• Issuer-side OB 3.0 revocation and suspension: W3C Bitstring Status List publication and --revoke / --suspend / --unsuspend management
• Issue and verify OB 3.0 W3C Data Integrity credentials (eddsa-rdfc-2022, optional [ldp] extra) in addition to JWT-VC
• did:web issuer identity: did.json generation and DID resolution
• Five command-line tools included

Why openbadgeslib

• The complete OB 3.0 issuer lifecycle in Python — not just issuing, but publishing trust artefacts (did:web) and revoking/suspending credentials via Bitstring Status Lists, driven from the CLI or the library.
• Native VC-JWT signing with RSA (RS256), ECC P-256 (ES256) and Ed25519 (EdDSA) — plus native W3C Data Integrity / LDP signing (eddsa-rdfc-2022, Ed25519, optional [ldp] extra). Both proof formats issue and verify offline, no external service.
• Lean and typed — mypy --strict, CI on Python 3.10–3.13, a small dependency set, dataclasses + explicit validation (no Pydantic).
• Dual-licensed LGPLv3 (library) / BSD-2-Clause (CLI tools).

How it compares

Best-effort comparison from each project's public documentation as of July 2026; "not documented" is shown as —. Corrections welcome via issue/PR. The Python Open Badges landscape splits into three groups: 1EdTech's verify-only OB 2.0 reference validator, heavyweight Django server platforms (the Badgr lineage), and a thin tail of standalone libraries — of which openbadgeslib is the only actively-maintained, pip-installable, offline one that covers all three OB versions and both OB 3.0 proof formats.

Capability	openbadgeslib	validator-core	Badgr / mint-o-badges (a)	pyopenbadges	didkit (b)
Open Badges versions	1.0, 2.0, 3.0	0.5–2.0	1.1, 2.0, 3.0	3.0 only	generic VC
Issue / verify	✅ both	verify only	issue; partial verify	both	both (VC + VP)
OB 3.0 proof: VC-JWT (JOSE)	✅ RS/ES/EdDSA	—	—	roadmap	✅ not OB-aware
OB 3.0 proof: Data Integrity / LDP	✅ issue + verify (eddsa-rdfc-2022)	—	issue only (Ed25519)	home-grown, non-conformant	older suites; no rdfc-2022 in wheel
Revocation / suspension	✅ W3C Bitstring Status List	hosted check	1EdTechRevocationList	ad-hoc flag	—
did:web (generate + resolve)	✅	—	—	—	resolve only
Image baking (SVG + PNG)	✅	unbake only	✅	—	—
Form factor	library + 5 CLI tools	library + CLI	Django server	library	binding
Typing / CI	mypy --strict, CI 3.10–3.13	—	—	Pydantic	—
License	LGPLv3 / BSD-2	Apache-2.0	AGPL-3.0	MIT/LGPL	Apache-2.0

(a) The actively-maintained community fork (open-educational-badges): it genuinely issues OB 3.0 Data Integrity credentials, but only as a server (not a pip library) and only with Ed25519 (no VC-JWT). The classic Concentric Sky badgr-server is OB 2.0 and its canonical repo is gone; SURF's edubadges-server delegates OB 3.0 signing to external agents. (b) Generic W3C VC/DID toolkit (Rust ssi bindings), not Open Badges-aware, and archived (read-only since July 2025).

For authoritative OB 2.0 validation semantics, 1EdTech's Python openbadges-validator-core and Node openbadges-validator remain the reference; openbadgeslib focuses on the full issuer lifecycle across all three OB versions.

Requirements

• Python >= 3.10 (tested on 3.10–3.13)
• pycryptodome >= 3.20
• ecdsa >= 0.19
• pypng >= 0.20220715.0
• PyJWT[crypto] >= 2.8
• cryptography >= 42
• defusedxml >= 0.7

Installation

pip install openbadgeslib

All dependencies are installed automatically. For a development checkout with the test suite and linters:

pip install -e ".[dev]"

Quick Start

# 1. Initialize a configuration directory
openbadges-init ./config/

# 2. Generate a key pair for a badge
openbadges-keygenerator -c ./config/config.ini -g 1

# 3a. Sign a badge — OpenBadges 3.0 (default)
openbadges-signer -c ./config/config.ini -b 1 -r [e-mail] -o /tmp/ -E

# 3b. Sign a badge — strict OpenBadges 2.0
openbadges-signer -c ./config/config.ini -b 1 -r [e-mail] -o /tmp/ -E -V 2

# 4a. Verify — OpenBadges 3.0
openbadges-verifier -i /tmp/[e-mail] \
    -r [e-mail] -V 3 -k ./config/keys/verify_rsa_key_1.pem

# 4b. Verify — strict OpenBadges 2.0 (pin a trusted key with -l/--local or -k/--pubkey)
openbadges-verifier -i /tmp/[e-mail] \
    -r [e-mail] -V 2 -l 1

# 5. OpenBadges 3.0 revocation (opt-in: set 'status_lists = revocation, suspension'
#    in the badge section before signing). Publish the issuer's did.json and the
#    signed Bitstring Status Lists, then revoke and re-publish.
openbadges-publish -c ./config/config.ini -o ./public -V 3
openbadges-publish -c ./config/config.ini -o ./public -V 3 \
    --revoke [e-mail] --reason "issued in error"

See the Quick Start and CLI Reference wiki pages for the full walkthrough and every flag.

Using the library — OpenBadges 2.0 (strict)

from datetime import datetime, timezone
from openbadgeslib.ob2 import OB2Signer, Assertion, IdentityObject, Verification

with open('sign.pem', 'rb') as f:
    priv_pem = f.read()
with open('badge.svg', 'rb') as f:
    image = f.read()

assertion = Assertion(
    recipient=IdentityObject.create('[e-mail]', salt='s4lt3d'),
    badge='https://example.com/badge_1/badge.json',
    verification=Verification(type='SignedBadge',
                              creator='https://example.com/badge_1/key.json'),
    issued_on=datetime(2026, 1, 1, tzinfo=timezone.utc),
)

signer = OB2Signer(privkey_pem=priv_pem, algorithm='RS256')
baked_svg = signer.sign_into_svg(assertion, image)
with open('/tmp/signed_badge.svg', 'wb') as f:
    f.write(baked_svg)

For the frozen OpenBadges 1.0 legacy API (Badge / Signer / Verifier), import from openbadgeslib.ob1 instead.

Using the library — OpenBadges 3.0

OB 3.0 credentials can be secured with either of the two proof formats the spec allows: a compact VC-JWT (OB3Signer, RS256/ES256/EdDSA) or an embedded Data Integrity proof (OB3LdpSigner, cryptosuite eddsa-rdfc-2022, Ed25519 only — needs the [ldp] extra). Both bake into the same SVG/PNG carriers and the verifier auto-detects the format.

VC-JWT (JOSE)

from openbadgeslib.ob3 import (
    Issuer, Achievement, OpenBadgeCredential, OB3Signer, OB3Verifier,
)

issuer = Issuer(id='https://example.com/issuer', name='Example Org')
achievement = Achievement(
    id='https://example.com/achievements/python',
    name='Python Developer',
    description='Awarded for Python proficiency',
    criteria_narrative='Must pass the Python assessment',
)
credential = OpenBadgeCredential(
    issuer=issuer,
    recipient_id='mailto:[e-mail]',
    achievement=achievement,
)

with open('sign.pem', 'rb') as f:
    priv_pem = f.read()
signer = OB3Signer(privkey_pem=priv_pem, algorithm='RS256')

# Bake the signed JWT-VC into a badge image
with open('badge.svg', 'rb') as f:
    baked_svg = signer.sign_into_svg(credential, f.read())

# Verify
with open('verify.pem', 'rb') as f:
    verifier = OB3Verifier(pubkey_pem=f.read())
token = OB3Verifier.extract_token_from_svg(baked_svg)
restored = verifier.verify(token, expected_recipient='[e-mail]')
print('Recipient:', restored.recipient_id)

Data Integrity (LDP)

Same credential, an embedded JSON-LD proof instead of a JWT. Requires an Ed25519 signing key and the [ldp] extra (pip install openbadgeslib[ldp]). Reuse the credential built above:

from openbadgeslib.ob3 import OB3LdpSigner, OB3LdpVerifier

with open('sign_ed25519.pem', 'rb') as f:
    priv_pem = f.read()

# Bake a credential carrying an eddsa-rdfc-2022 DataIntegrityProof into an SVG
signer = OB3LdpSigner(priv_pem)
with open('badge.svg', 'rb') as f:
    baked_svg = signer.sign_into_svg(credential, f.read())

# Verify (the LDP credential travels as JSON in the baked image)
with open('verify_ed25519.pem', 'rb') as f:
    verifier = OB3LdpVerifier(pubkey_pem=f.read())
document = OB3Verifier.extract_token_from_svg(baked_svg)
restored = verifier.verify(document, expected_recipient='[e-mail]')
print('Recipient:', restored.recipient_id)

From the CLI, select the format with openbadges-signer -P ldp (OB 3.0 only), or set proof_format = ldp in the badge's INI section; the default stays vc-jwt. Status lists remain VC-JWT regardless of the badge's proof format.

Documentation

• User & developer guide — the project Wiki: installation, configuration, concepts, the security model, CLI reference and how-to guides.
• API reference — generated from the docstrings and published at luisgf.github.io/openbadgeslib.

Running the test suite

pytest
pytest --cov=openbadgeslib      # with coverage report
flake8 openbadgeslib tests      # lint
mypy                            # type check (config in pyproject.toml)

Changelog

See Changelog.txt for the full history, and the GitHub Releases page for release notes.

License

The library (openbadgeslib/ package) is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3 (LGPLv3). The command-line wrapper tools are licensed under the BSD 2-Clause license.

Authors

• Luis González Fernández [e-mail]
• Jesús Cea Avión [e-mail]