Skip to content

Verified component qualification

ZapTrace qualifies component trust in bounded cohorts. Qualification is evidence-first and deliberately separates machine-verifiable readiness from human engineering review, trust-tier promotion, and release/fabrication approval.

A component can be review-ready while still remaining heuristic, release_eligible=false, and human_review_required=true.

Cohort A

The first qualification cohort is committed in data/qualification/verified-core-cohort-a.yaml:

  • esp32-c3-mini-1
  • usb-c-16p (GCT USB4105-15-A-120)
  • ap2112k-3.3
  • bme280
  • atecc608b

The cohort snapshot is evaluated as of 2026-09-05 with a 90-day freshness horizon for lifecycle and sourcing evidence.

Machine readiness

The gate checks every critical component field for:

  • authoritative manufacturer or authorized-distributor source type;
  • source locator and identity;
  • exact source identity via raw source_sha256, or a digest-bound repository capture for mutable lifecycle/sourcing web claims;
  • source version/capture identity;
  • extraction method and date;
  • lifecycle/sourcing freshness;
  • exact physical package pin map;
  • committed footprint proof identity and source digest;
  • footprint pad/pin/courtyard consistency.

Footprint proofs are committed under data/library/evidence/footprints/ and bind the reviewed component footprint name to the exact vendored KiCad source file SHA-256.

Machine blockers are separate from human blockers. A missing or unstable source identity cannot be hidden by a reviewer approval. For mutable manufacturer/distributor pages, ZapTrace does not pretend that a CDN/anti-bot HTML response is a durable manufacturer document. Instead, lifecycle/sourcing evidence may bind to a committed JSON claim capture using source_capture_path plus source_capture_sha256. The capture must match component ID, source type, locator, identity, source version, capture date, critical field, and the committed component field value. This fallback is limited to lifecycle/sourcing; it does not replace raw document hashes for immutable manufacturer documents.

Human review boundary

The gate reports but never invents:

  • field reviewer identity and review date;
  • high-confidence reviewer judgment;
  • risky-package review approval;
  • release and fabrication review scopes.

Those are explicit human actions. The gate does not set trust_tier=verified, does not create reviewed_by metadata, and does not make a component release eligible.

Current Cohort A snapshot

docs/reports/component-qualification-cohort-a-2026-09-05.json is the committed deterministic snapshot.

Current result:

  • review-ready: 5 / 5;
  • machine-blocked: 0 / 5;
  • human-review-required: 5 / 5;
  • release-eligible: 0 / 5;
  • report SHA-256: 4db763b3fd1ce9fca5db69d78f3fb7578807afa39da6ae9a5152724ee963ada2.

The former machine blockers are now bound to reproducible authoritative evidence:

  • usb-c-16p: a SHA-bound GCT USB4105 mutable-web capture for lifecycle and manufacturer-catalog sourcing claims;
  • ap2112k-3.3: raw Diodes GL-106 Rev 249 Master CoC PDF bytes, SHA-bound to the current manufacturer document that lists the orderable SOT25 part as active;
  • atecc608b: a SHA-bound Microchip ATECC608B mutable-web capture for the lifecycle claim (not-recommended-for-new-designs).

These evidence bindings make the three records machine-review-ready; they do not promote trust, invent reviewer identity, approve procurement, or override the underlying manufacturer status. All five cohort records still require explicit engineering review before any verified/release/fabrication claim.

Run the gate

Strict mode fails when any machine blocker remains; the current Cohort A snapshot passes this machine-only gate:

uv run python scripts/ci_component_qualification_gate.py \
  --output component-qualification.json

To write the same evidence snapshot without making strict-mode exit status part of the caller contract:

uv run python scripts/ci_component_qualification_gate.py \
  --report-only \
  --output component-qualification.json

The report schema is committed at schemas/component-qualification-report-v1.schema.json.

Non-claims

Review readiness does not prove manufacturer approval, component authenticity, physical hardware behavior, thermal adequacy, EMC/SI/PI performance, assembly success, fabrication correctness, regulatory compliance, or production suitability. Physical and qualified engineering review remain separate gates.