Getting Started

What is @kerits/core?

@kerits/core provides pure KERI primitives: types, cryptographic operations, CESR encoding, KEL validation, SAID computation, and data canonicalization. It has no I/O, no storage, and no side effects. Every function is deterministic and safe to use in any runtime (browser, Node.js, Bun, Cloudflare Workers).

Installation

npm install @kerits/core

Namespace Objects

@kerits/core organizes its API into five namespace objects for discoverability:

Namespace	Responsibility
`KELEvents`	Factory functions for building and finalizing KEL events
`Kel`	KEL event predicates, threshold checks, validation
`Said`	SAID derivation and verification via derivation surfaces
`Cesr`	CESR encoding/decoding for keys, signatures, and digests
`Signature`	Ed25519 signing namespace (see also flat `sign`/`verify`)

All functions are also available as flat re-exports for convenience:

// Namespace style
import { Kel, Cesr } from '@kerits/core';
import { deriveSaid, KEL_IXN_SURFACE } from '@kerits/core';
const { sealed, said } = deriveSaid(event, KEL_IXN_SURFACE);
const encoded = Cesr.encodeKey(rawPublicKey);

// Flat style
import { deriveSaid, encodeKey } from '@kerits/core';

Branded Types

@kerits/core uses branded types to prevent mixing incompatible string values at compile time.

import type { AID, SAID } from '@kerits/core';

// AID and SAID are string aliases with compile-time brands.
// This prevents accidentally passing a raw string where an AID is expected.
type AID  = string & { __brand: 'AID' };
type SAID = string & { __brand: 'SAID' };

Use the provided parser functions to create branded values from raw strings:

import { parseAidQb64, parseSaidQb64 } from '@kerits/core';

const aid  = parseAidQb64('DExample...');
const said = parseSaidQb64('EExample...');

Quick Workflow Example

The following example shows a typical KERI workflow: generate key pairs, CESR-encode the public keys, build an inception event using the KELEvents factory, and compute its SAID.

import {
  KELEvents,
  generateKeyPair,
  encodeKey,
  nextKeyDigestQb64FromPublicKeyQb64,
} from '@kerits/core';

// 1. Generate current and next Ed25519 key pairs
const current = generateKeyPair();
const next = generateKeyPair();

// 2. Encode public keys to CESR qb64
const currentKeyQb64 = encodeKey(current.publicKey).qb64;
const nextKeyQb64 = encodeKey(next.publicKey).qb64;

// 3. Compute the next-key digest commitment
const nextKeyDigest = nextKeyDigestQb64FromPublicKeyQb64(nextKeyQb64);

// 4. Build and finalize an inception event
const { unsignedEvent } = KELEvents.buildIcp({
  keys: [currentKeyQb64],
  nextKeyDigests: [nextKeyDigest],
});
const { event, said } = KELEvents.computeSaid(unsignedEvent, true);

console.log('AID (SAID):', said);
console.log('Inception event:', event);

Next Steps

Explore the guide pages for deeper coverage of each area:

Create a KEL — Build and extend a Key Event Log
Validate a KEL — Chain and signature validation
Sign and Verify — Ed25519 signing with CESR encoding
Work with CESR — Encode and decode CESR primitives
Compute SAIDs — Self-addressing identifier computation

Use kerits to create your KERI identity at kerits.id.