# Browsec

Browsec is an independently governed Firefox downstream exploring plural,
user-controlled trust for TLS certificates and browser extensions. It treats
the conventional global Web PKI as one trust provider among several and allows
narrowly scoped local and community trust decisions.

The project is currently developing **TrustLab**, a browser-neutral JavaScript
testbed for trust plugins, immutable TLS facts, append-only decision journals,
and scoped Boolean trust verdicts.

## Names and identity

The project and its principal components are named as follows:

- **Browsec** is the browser project: an independently governed Firefox
  downstream built around plural, user-controlled trust.
- **Velvet Hammer** is Browsec's trust engine. It combines a calm,
  comprehensible interface with strict and uncompromising security semantics.
- **TrustLab** is the browser-neutral research tool and testbed in which the
  engine, plugins, diagnostics, and policy rules are developed against both
  synthetic and live TLS evidence.
- **Browsec Trust API** is the rigid interface through which trust plugins
  observe evidence, advise the decision process, or—when explicitly granted
  authority—return scoped Boolean verdicts.

The preferred engine presentation is:

> **Velvet Hammer** — *A plural trust engine for Browsec*

Its emblem should be restrained rather than cartoonish: a polished spherical
hammer head and short handle, possibly meeting or resting above a certificate
chain link. The image represents smooth interaction around an inflexible
security boundary—not aggression.

The name also gives us a small working vocabulary: a *Velvet verdict*, a
*Hammer rule*, and *TrustLab powered by Velvet Hammer*. One sentence captures
the engine's governing temperament:

> The hammer permits no silent widening of scope.

## Project documents

- [Coarse-grained concept](CONCEPT.md)
- [Architecture decisions](ARCHITECTURE.md)
- [Certificate Investigator design](DESIGN.md)
- [TrustLab](trustlab/README.md)

## Collaborators

- **sergeych** — project creator, security architecture, and implementation
- **Codex (OpenAI)** — AI design and implementation collaborator