How the check works

The process is designed to be boring, repeatable and inspectable. A failed check stops the release rather than being edited away.

1. Freeze the official files.

   The raw BSB downloads are copied without editing and their byte sizes and SHA-256 fingerprints are recorded.

2. Build one canonical text.

   ScriptureLeaf uses the official BSB translation table as its canonical build source. Unicode is normalised to NFC. Headings, translator notes and cross-references are kept as reader data but excluded from the canonical Scripture-text hashes.

3. Hash chapter, book, Bible.

   Each chapter gets a fingerprint. Each book fingerprint is made from its ordered chapter fingerprints. The whole-Bible fingerprint is made from the ordered book fingerprints. One changed character therefore changes the affected chapter, its book and the Bible fingerprint.

4. Build ScriptureLeaf from that frozen source.

   The verifier regenerates all 1,189 reader chapter files and checks 31,102 verse-number slots through the same deterministic presentation rules used by the site.

5. Compare separate published copies.

   Witness adapters align verse references, preserve the original strings, separate exact characters from same-word-sequence presentation differences, wording differences and structural gaps, and record source lineage. Enabled repository witnesses are pinned to exact commits; derived mirrors remain labelled as derived.

6. Publish, never replace.

   A release lives permanently at its dated URL. If the BSB source changes, ScriptureLeaf creates a new release and a verse-level changelog rather than silently replacing the old record.

Canonical rules for release 2026-09-06

Unicode

NFC

Line endings

LF

Headings in Scripture hash

No

Translator notes in Scripture hash

No

Cross-references in Scripture hash

No

Verse numbers in canonical serialisation

Yes

Empty critical-text slots

Preserved

Reproduce it yourself

python3 verify/verify.py --release 2026-09-06

The verification package contains the acquisition, normalisation, hashing, witness and publishing code. A checkout at the pipeline commit recorded in the manifest should finish with MATCHES PUBLISHED MANIFEST, or identify the exact chapter-level hashes that differ.