Disclosure Policy: What We Publish vs Keep Private
Last updated: 2026-03-01
Purpose
The Scintilla Locate Protocol Engineering Handbook is a public engineering document.
It exists to make the design, governance, and operational philosophy of the protocol legible
to contributors, auditors, and ecosystem partners.
However, not every element of the Scintilla engineering system should be public.
This page defines the boundary between public protocol knowledge and private operational knowledge. The goal is to ensure transparency and auditability without exposing operational security risks or proprietary engineering advantages.
Guiding Principles
The disclosure policy follows four core principles:
1. Protocol Transparency
Anything that affects protocol correctness, security, or economic integrity must be public.
Examples:
- Protocol specifications
- Deterministic algorithms
- Cryptographic constructions
- Verification procedures
- Economic security principles
- Governance processes
These elements must remain auditable so that the protocol can be trusted independently of any single organization.
2. Operational Security
Details that could enable attacks against the protocol’s infrastructure must remain private.
Examples:
- Internal infrastructure topology
- IAM roles, account IDs, network layouts
- Internal endpoints and service identifiers
- Operational runbooks and incident response procedures
These are implementation details that do not affect protocol verification.
3. Engineering Doctrine vs Implementation
The handbook describes engineering doctrine, not the full internal implementation.
Public:
- Architecture patterns
- Workflow models
- Interface contracts
- Agent responsibilities
- Verification gates
Private:
- Exact infrastructure deployment configuration
- Agent prompt templates
- Internal policy thresholds
- Runtime cost controls and rate limits
4. Public Protocol, Private Factory
Scintilla Locate is designed as public infrastructure.
However, the AI‑augmented protocol factory used to develop the system may contain internal tooling and processes that remain proprietary.
This mirrors the structure used by many successful open protocols:
| Layer | Public | Private |
|---|---|---|
| Protocol rules | ✓ | |
| Cryptographic verification | ✓ | |
| Economic security model | ✓ | |
| Engineering methodology | ✓ | |
| Implementation tooling | ✓ | |
| Infrastructure deployment | ✓ | |
| Prompt libraries | ✓ |
What We Publish
The handbook and public repositories may include:
- Protocol specifications
- Deterministic algorithms
- Data schemas and interface contracts
- Example vectors and test fixtures
- Governance structures
- Architectural diagrams
- Engineering methodology
These materials enable independent implementations and verification.
What We Keep Private
Certain elements remain internal to protect security and engineering advantage.
Examples include:
- Prompt engineering libraries
- Agent orchestration prompt chains
- Production security thresholds
- Economic policy tuning parameters
- Infrastructure configuration
- Internal incident response procedures
- Proprietary operational analytics
Why This Balance Matters
A decentralized protocol must be auditable in order to be trusted.
At the same time, responsible engineering requires operational security and sustainable competitive advantage.
This disclosure policy ensures that:
- The protocol remains open and verifiable
- The ecosystem can build on top of it
- The engineering organization can operate securely and sustainably
Evolution
As Scintilla Locate matures, the boundary between public and private knowledge may evolve.
In general, the protocol will trend toward greater transparency over time, especially where doing so improves:
- protocol verifiability
- ecosystem participation
- economic neutrality