swhid-verification-tool 0.1.8

A verification framework to map PURLs to verified SWHIDs

SWHID Verification Tool

A verification framework designed to map Package URLs (PURLs) to verified Software Heritage Identifiers (SWHIDs). This tool ensures cryptographic and structural provenance by establishing a verifiable link between software distributions and their canonical source code archived in the Software Heritage (SWH) ecosystem.

The Semantic Gap

In modern software development, we interact with dependencies using package-level identifiers (e.g., lodash@4.17.21 or requests@2.31.0). However, these packages are mutable and vulnerable to supply chain tampering.

To guarantee reproducibility and security, we need cryptographic, content-addressed identifiers like Software Heritage Identifiers (SWHIDs). Currently, there is a semantic gap between the package managers and the archive. This tool bridges that gap by automatically resolving package releases to verified SWHIDs across 5 major registries: PyPI, npm, Cargo, Go Modules, and Maven Central.

📊 Showcase Dataset

We have generated a verified showcase dataset containing 25 of the most popular packages across all 5 ecosystems. The resulting SPDX 3.0 JSON-LD manifest is available at dataset/showcase_manifest.jsonld.

Verification Statistics

Metric	Count	Percentage
Total Packages	25	100%
Inferred (Medium Confidence)	18	72.0%
Verified (High Confidence)	1	4.0%
Partial (Low Confidence)	1	4.0%
Errors/Failed	5	20.0%

Note: The "Inferred" status indicates that the repository was successfully matched and verified in the Software Heritage archive, but the specific version tag was not found in the latest snapshot. Running the tool with a Software Heritage API token resolves rate-limiting errors (HTTP 429) encountered during "Save Code Now" triggers.

Key Features

• Multi-Ecosystem Support: Specialized verification strategies for PyPI, Crates.io (Cargo), and Maven Central.
• High-Confidence Provenance:
  • PyPI: Extraction of commit SHAs from Sigstore/PEP 740 attestations via Fulcio certificates.
  • Cargo: Deterministic normalization and restoration of original project state for byte-for-byte matching.
  • Maven: SCM metadata resolution and verification of cleaned source artifacts.
• SPDX 3.0 Compliance: Generation of RDF-compatible JSON-LD manifests using official SPDX models.
• Automated Archival Integration: Proactive use of the Software Heritage "Save Code Now" API.
• Installation Verification: Local filesystem scanner to audit installed packages against verified SWHID ground truth.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.9+
• [Optional] A Software Heritage API Token for higher rate limits.

Setup

git clone https://github.com/OdysseasKalaitsidis/SWHID_POC
cd SWHID_POC
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # Use .\venv\Scripts\activate on Windows
pip install -r requirements.txt

Configuration

The tool can be configured via environment variables or a .env file:

Variable	Description	Default
SWH_TOKEN	Software Heritage API Authentication Token	None
CACHE_DIR	Directory for caching resolution results	./cache
LOG_LEVEL	Logging verbosity (DEBUG, INFO, ERROR)	INFO

Usage

Quick Start

Map a single PURL to a verified SWHID immediately:

python -m swhid_tool.cli swhid-map pkg:pypi/six@1.17.0

Batch Processing

Generate an SPDX 3.0 dataset for multiple PURLs:

python -m swhid_tool.cli batch-process input_purls.txt output_report.jsonld

Integrity Auditing

Verify a local directory against a verified manifest:

python -m swhid_tool.cli verify-path /path/to/installed/library manifest.jsonld

REST API

Deploy as a service using FastAPI:

python -m uvicorn swhid_tool.api:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

Architecture

The system utilizes a strategy-based pattern to decouple ecosystem-specific logic from the core resolution engine.

graph TD
    CLI[CLI / API] --> Manager[SWHID Manager]
    Manager --> PURL[PURL Parser]
    Manager --> StrategyRouter{Strategy Router}
    StrategyRouter --> PyPI[PyPI Strategy]
    StrategyRouter --> Cargo[Cargo Strategy]
    StrategyRouter --> Maven[Maven Strategy]
    PyPI --> SWH[SWH API / Archive]
    Cargo --> SWH
    Maven --> SWH
    Manager --> Exporter[SPDX 3.0 Exporter]
    Exporter --> JSONLD[JSON-LD Manifest]

Validation and Standards

Verification findings are exported as SPDX 3.0 documents. Compliance with RDF standards is ensured through SHACL shape validation using the integrated test_validation.py suite.

Documentation

Detailed guides for different stakeholders:

• User Guide: CLI reference, API specifications, and troubleshooting.
• Developer Guide: Extending the tool to new ecosystems and core internals.
• Maintainer Guide: Best practices for enabling high-confidence verifiability.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see the Developer Guide for setup instructions and coding standards.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

This project was developed as part of the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2026 program, under the mentorship of Software Heritage.