Artifact lifecycle

ProveKit is artifact-driven. A safe integration treats every generated key, proof, and recursive-verifier export as a versioned deployment object, with explicit provenance and strict pairing rules.

Artifact map

Artifact	Produced by	Consumed by	Stays paired with
.pkp	provekit-cli prepare	prove, WASM/Swift/Kotlin/Rust provers	Matching .pkv, circuit source, hash choice, commit.
.pkv	provekit-cli prepare	verify, show-inputs, generate-gnark-inputs, verifier server	Matching .pkp, the proof set, public input encoding.
proof.np	provekit-cli prove	verify, show-inputs, generate-gnark-inputs	Matching .pkv, public inputs, witness provenance.
params_for_recursive_verifier	generate-gnark-inputs	recursive-verifier/	The exact .pkv and proof.np used to export it.
r1cs.json	generate-gnark-inputs	recursive-verifier/, verifier server	The exact .pkv and proof.np used to export it.

Lifecycle policy

Record provenance for every artifact set you intend to keep: branch, commit, Cargo.lock, rust-toolchain.toml, full command line, feature flags, hash choice, and checksums. That record is what lets you reproduce or audit the set later.

Verify locally before moving a proof or any artifact across a trust boundary. A verification failure at that point is a deployment-blocker, not a debugging step. Generate recursive inputs (params_for_recursive_verifier, r1cs.json) only after the base proof verifies; those exports are bound to the exact .pkv and proof.np they came from.

For the actual CLI commands, see Generate artifacts (explicit paths) or Quickstart (default paths).

When to regenerate

Regenerate every affected artifact when any of these inputs change:

• Git branch, commit, dependency lockfile, Rust toolchain, or relevant feature flags.
• Noir source, package selection, or workspace layout.
• prepare --hash value.
• Prover inputs (when a new proof is expected).
• The proof / verifier pair used for a recursive export.
• Serialization or transport changes affecting proof JSON or public input encoding.

Never mix generations

A verifier key from one preparation run must never be used to verify a proof from a different prover key, circuit, branch, or hash choice. Treat any mismatch as a deployment failure, not a recoverable warning.

Custody and storage

File	Recommended handling
.pkp	Restrict to trusted proving hosts. It enables proof generation for the prepared circuit.
.pkv	Distributable to verifiers, but keep integrity-protected and versioned.
proof.np / proof JSON	Transport through authenticated application channels; preserve public inputs byte-for-byte.
Prover.toml / witnesses	Treat private witness values as sensitive unless your application explicitly defines them as public.
Recursive params + r1cs.json	Keep with the exact proof / verifier pair that produced them.

Deployment evidence

Before publishing or accepting an artifact set, retain:

• SHA-256 checksums (or equivalent content hashes) for every file.
• The full CLI command lines used to generate them.
• A local verify success record.
• show-inputs --hex output reviewed by the application owner.
• Negative-test evidence showing that mismatched or corrupted proofs are rejected.
• An owner and rotation plan for regenerating the set.