What Author Keys do

Author Keys tell DeadLetter how to treat your Conversations, if they're authorised, who you are and where to post results to.

In other words they're vital, should you expect to receive information back from DeadLetter servers.

Author Key Identity

We use deadID as a universal identifier. Your actual ID is never used in a conversation. This means your in-control of your information, how it's used and what DeadLetter uses it for.

By using deadID URLs, your user information is unique & decentralised as the primary function of deadID URLs is to point to the location of a private deadID Profile document (see below).

Basic Structure of an Author Key

A DeadLetter Author Key once created should follow the structure set-out-below.
The first line defines the Authour;
  @Do-ID:NAME_YOURNAME

Followed by the Publisher (in this case DeadLetter);
  *DEADLETTER//CREATOR V1.08

Next the Author Key's common address;
  [email protected]{keys.deadletter.io/MY.AK}

The contents between the brackets is the key name, it must be the address (URI) your Author Key can be found at, but is often different to your 'root' domain.

            

  

 @Do-ID:NAME_YOURNAME
 *DEADLETTER//CREATOR V1.08
	
 [email protected]{keys.deadletter.io/MY.AK}


*END*

Authorising Conversations

To prevent a third party from using your Author Key to sign untrusted Conversations you're required to explicitly list each 'approved' Conversation within your public key.

For example to authorise a Conversation, add it's deadID URL with a trusted attribute;
  trusted_Cnvrstn//@conversation_URL

If you'd like to explicitly deny a Conversation, add it's deadID URL with a denial attribute;
  denied_Cnvrstn//@conversation_URL

You can could also deny all Conversation you haven't explicitly trusted. For post-production or active Conversations we strongly suggest including this;
  [email protected]

                      

  

 @Do-ID:NAME_YOURNAME
 *DEADLETTER//CREATOR V1.08
	
 [email protected]{keys.deadletter.io/MY.AK}
	
 trusted_Cnvrstn//@conversation_URL
 denied_Cnvrstn//@conversation_URL
	
 [email protected]	


*END*

Handling Libraries

DeadLetter CI frequently abbreviates or substitutes (shorthand) phrases with symbols, your Author Key tells DeadLetter RI how to treat these when handling your information.

One frequent abbreviation is your root domain name, used to replace the placeholder(s) inside of libraries;
  @ = dld.domain.com
    api.domain.com
   domain.com = MYDOMAINNAME.COM

What this means is DeadLetter expects to discover your information at https://*.MYDOMAINNAME.COM, therefore if your domain is 'mydomainname.com' the location DeadLetter expects to discover your Conversation(s) would be;

 - https://MYDOMAINNAME.COM
 - https://MYDOMAINNAME.COM/conversation_URL

                      

  

 @Do-ID:NAME_YOURNAME
 *DEADLETTER//CREATOR V1.08
	
 [email protected]{keys.deadletter.io/MY.AK}
	
 trusted_Cnvrstn//@conversation_URL
 denied_Cnvrstn//@conversation_URL
	
 [email protected]	
	
 ?bnd -- @_all
  @ = dld.domain.com
  	  api.domain.com
   	domain.com = MYDOMAINNAME.COM		


*END*

Dead Inputs

If the name didn't give it away, all inputs for DeadLetter are posted to predefined URI(s). Otherwise known as Parcel endpoints the payload and type can be configured.

To define your input URI's we use;
?DRP PARCEL- G C #Do-ID+H3ks7-9Js23

When we have more than one it's a good idea to add a Value ;
?DRP PARCEL- G C #Do-ID+H3ks7-9Js23 -- VAL_HF826g

This defines your input URL as;

https://parcel.deadletter.io/v4/chad/{do-id}-H3ks7-9Js23

You can learn about Parcel endpoints here.

Dead Outputs

If you're wondering about outputs these are set within the Conversation(s) or accompanying Libraries.

            

  

 @Do-ID:NAME_YOURNAME
 *DEADLETTER//CREATOR V1.08
	
 [email protected]{keys.deadletter.io/MY.AK}
	
 trusted_Cnvrstn//@conversation_URL
 denied_Cnvrstn//@conversation_URL
	
 [email protected]	
	
 ?bnd -- @_all
  @ = dld.domain.com
  	  api.domain.com
   	domain.com = MYDOMAINNAME.COM		


	
 ?DRP PARCEL- G C #Do-ID+H3ks7-9Js23
			


*END*

Creating a Key

You can create one from scratch using our Parcel Keys 'API' or just follow our quick deployment guide.

Quick deployment

Maintaining your Author Key

Managing your Author Key is pretty simple, using basic terminal tools like cURL

Learn how