Protocol vocabulary. Inclusion here does not establish implementation: the current Talent API
serves only the test-mode operations listed in the sandbox.
Start with the runnable quickstart and sandbox support matrix.
Parties and identity
| Term | Meaning | RSL 1.0 | HCS | C2PA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Talent | A person whose name, likeness and voice are protected through Reflections | Rights subject | ||
| Facet | One part of a talent’s identity a license can cover: name, likeness, voice, twin or knowledge | Closest: <content>, what a license covers | ||
| Posture | A talent’s standing public answers for uses with no license | Closest: a published <rsl> document | Declarations for uses | |
| Declaration | One posture answer: allowed, license_required or prohibited | <permits>, <prohibits> | Allowed, allowed with terms, prohibited | |
| Atlas | The identity graph behind resolution: names, aliases, transliterations, confirmed credits and roles, representation, facets | |||
| Name index | The signed list of every protected talent’s names, for matching on your side | Closest: a registry | ||
| Representative | An account that acts for a talent under a mandate | Representative | ||
| Mandate | A representative’s authority, with named powers such as review_outputs | Closest: a representative’s authority | ||
| License draft | Terms a representative prepares for a person to sign; it grants nothing | |||
| Licensee | The account that holds a license, such as a brand or a platform | |||
| Platform | The account that generates and calls checks and generations | Claim generator and claim signer for its output | ||
| End user | The person a platform acts for; attributed on checks, never a licensee | |||
| Connection | A licensee’s permission for a platform to use its licenses | |||
| Account | One object for brands, agencies, studios, platforms and representatives |
Licenses
| Term | Meaning | RSL 1.0 | HCS | C2PA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| License | A signed agreement between a talent and a licensee | <license> | The terms behind “allowed with terms” | |
| License revision | One signed version of a license’s terms, which never change | |||
| Terms digest | sha256: over the canonical form of a revision’s signed terms | |||
| Scope | A revision’s terms in normalized, snake_case form | Closest: <permits> and <prohibits> | ||
| Adjustment | A change to a talent’s appearance or context that a license may allow; twelve kinds | |||
| Protected attribute | Something every output must keep, such as identity.samePerson | |||
checked term | Enforced at a check, a generation or a session sample | |||
recorded term | Signed and shown, not enforced, such as conflicts | |||
| License request | A licensee’s request for a new or wider license; only a signature on the talent’s side makes a license | Clearance | ||
post_revocation | What happens to released outputs if a license is revoked: retain, cease_distribution or withdraw | |||
| Compensation | What the licensee owes the talent | Closest: payment terms in a <license> |
Decisions
| Term | Meaning | RSL 1.0 | HCS | C2PA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Use | What will be made and how it will be used: modality, kind, purpose, commercial, channels, territories | Closest: the usages in <permits> | The use a declaration covers | |
| Resolution | Finding which talent a request invokes; it never clears a use | |||
| Check | A decision before generating, POST /v1/checks | Closest: an Open License Protocol token request | Closest: clearance | |
| Decision | allow, deny or escalate | Closest: the declaration level | ||
allow | Proceed and meet every obligation | <permits> | Allowed, or allowed with terms once licensed | |
deny | Do not proceed | <prohibits> | Prohibited | |
escalate | Wait: a person with authority decides | |||
| Reason | Why a use was denied or escalated, in the license’s own words | |||
| Remedy | What would change a deny | Clearance, for license_request | ||
| Obligation | Something a platform must do for an allow to hold | Closest: conditions in a <license> | Closest: the terms of “allowed with terms” | |
| Authorization | A signed token, tlp-auth+jwt, proving a check allowed one exact request | Closest: an Open License Protocol token, type rsl | ||
| Escalation | A request waiting for a reviewer, with an expiry | |||
| Reuse | One check covering several generations of the same use for one end user |
Outputs and proof
| Term | Meaning | RSL 1.0 | HCS | C2PA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Generation | An output submitted for a decision before delivery | The asset a manifest describes | ||
| Finding | The result of one rule on an output: preserved, violated or unchecked | |||
| Held output | An output waiting for a reviewer to release it | |||
| Fingerprint | A perceptual hash and face or voice embeddings of an output, used to look it up | Soft binding | ||
| Watermark | A mark you applied and registered on a generation | Soft binding | ||
| Session | A live voice or video use under short-lived tokens and sampled checks | |||
| Sample | An audio window, transcript turn or frame from a session | |||
| Receipt | A signed record of a decision, tlp-receipt+jwt | Carried in the ai.reflections.license assertion | ||
| C2PA assertion | The ai.reflections.license assertion holding the receipt | An assertion in the manifest | ||
| Artifact digest | The SHA-256 of an output’s bytes, bound into its receipt | Closest: a hard binding | ||
| Assurance | observed (Reflections checked it) or attested (Reflections recorded what you stated) | |||
| Verification | Finding and checking the receipt behind a file, manifest or receipt ID | Manifest validation | ||
| Use status | What use of an output is permitted now: permitted, ceased, withdrawn, expired |
Consent and settlement
| Term | Meaning | RSL 1.0 | HCS | C2PA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revocation | Every narrowing of consent: a license, a facet, a mandate or all consent | Closest: a changed declaration | ||
| Suspension | A license paused by the talent or a representative, which can resume | |||
| Acknowledgement | A platform’s statement that it did what a revocation requires | |||
| Revocation feed | GET /v1/revocations, the source of truth for every revocation | |||
| Usage record | A platform’s report of units used by a generation or session | |||
| Statement | A license’s monthly amounts, reconciled against observed use |
The protocol
| Term | Meaning | RSL 1.0 | HCS | C2PA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Talent License Protocol | The open protocol the Talent API implements | Aligns with RSL 1.0 and its Open License Protocol | Aligns with HCS declarations | Aligns with C2PA manifests |
| License server | Holds licenses and decides checks; the Talent API is one | The license server named by a server attribute | The server a declaration points to for clearance | |
| Generation tool | A model provider or tool that runs generation and verifies authorization tokens | |||
| Verifier | Anyone who checks a receipt, such as a distribution platform | Validator | ||
| Human Consent Registry ID | talent.hcs_subject_id, when the talent is registered there | A rights subject’s registry entry |
Related
Terminology
Normative definitions in the Standard.
How it works
The lifecycle from prompt to receipt.