Delivery protocol · updated 26 July 2026

Published release manifests: delivery without disclosure.

A publishing system should not turn every internal record into a public corpus. A Published Release Manifest is a stable JSON endpoint created only after a source record and release have been explicitly approved.

The publication gate

1. An owner or editor creates a private work and source record.
2. The source record is approved and locked.
3. The private Release Manifest Generator can create an editable metadata draft from the selected work, version, and approved source record.
4. The release is created, approved, and published.
5. Only a published release with the metadata_public access mode receives a public endpoint.

The generator is deliberately bounded: it records release identity, version, access conditions, source-record provenance, and explicit exclusions. It does not extract or publish protected text, source-record JSON, reader data, or credentials.

Endpoint shape

The URL is deterministic:

GET /api/releases/{work-slug}/{release-version}

It provides work identity, release version, publication time, provenance, access conditions, and the approved metadata manifest. It does not provide source-record JSON, book chapters, excerpts, reader information, authorization tokens, or private releases.

Access rules

• Private: no public endpoint is returned.
• Authorized reader: no public endpoint is returned; a future authenticated delivery system must enforce entitlement.
• Metadata public: only a published release is returned, with a content-derived ETag and no-store delivery so a withdrawn release stops resolving immediately.

Why the distinction matters

Machine readability is not a license to expose a manuscript. The useful public layer is a bounded description of an approved release; protected text remains behind the access model chosen by the rights holder.

Inspect the public Context Pack Explorer for a concrete metadata-only example. Use the Source Ledger Validator before creating a record, and manage publication from the authenticated Editorial Release Gate.