Reference file: identity-handles.md
Identity and Handles
Tempest follows the AT Protocol identity model:
a DID is the durable identity key for a repository, and a handle is the user-facing name, allowing handle ownership to change without changing repository authority.
Clients resolve a handle to a DID, then trust that DID to identify the repository they are allowed to read or write. It's important to note that a DID does not imply a stable handle for the user-visible surface.
Reference Material
- AT Protocol identity spec: https://atproto.com/specs/identity
- AT Protocol handle spec: https://atproto.com/specs/handle
- AT Protocol DID spec: https://atproto.com/specs/did
- AT Protocol Lexicon: https://atproto.com/specs/lexicon
- DID Core (W3C): https://www.w3.org/TR/did-core/
- DID web method registry notes: https://w3c.github.io/did-spec-registries/#did-web
- PLC method design notes: https://w3c.github.io/did-spec-registries/#did-plc
- did:web and did:plc comparison: https://github.com/threeidchain/plc/blob/master/README.md
Identity and handle contract
- Handle values are for presentation and discovery.
- DIDs are stable and remain the truth for repository authority.
- A well-formed service binding in the DID document connects the DID to the PDS endpoints used by clients.
alsoKnownAslinks the DID to the handle so clients and tooling can cross-check ownership and move between identities predictably.
Violations
A deployment that lets handle-to-DID resolution drift becomes hard to reason about:
- Repo writes can be rejected or misrouted.
- Migration and backup tooling can target the wrong signer context.
- Crawlers and relays can lose track of ownership during sync.
- Trust checks in clients that compare handle and DID can fail.
Invariants
Operators validate these invariants in smoke and deployment checks:
- Handle resolves to the same DID that the account claims.
- DID document service routes remain stable for hosted endpoints.
alsoKnownAsand handle mapping agree after updates.- New identities and moved identities retain ownership checks consistently.
