Capture Mode
NOUN · NODE FIELD · AI PROVENANCE
Capture mode records who created a node in a Thread: witnessed — recorded mechanically by the instrumentation layer; declared — asserted by the agent or developer; or derived — computed by Thread at finalization. Capture mode caps node type: only witnessed nodes can be Confirmed, and only derived nodes can be Opaque.
In plain language
The oldest problem with any self-reported record is the self. If an agent can mark its own claims as verified, "verified" means nothing — it's the agent grading its own homework. Capture mode breaks that loop structurally: the strongest state in a Thread can only be created by the instrumentation layer, machinery the agent doesn't control. Green nodes are recorded by infrastructure, not asserted by the agent.
The same rule closes the other escape hatch. An agent can't hide behind gray, because opacity can't be declared at all — Opaque nodes are derived by Thread itself, computed from the gap between what the output claims and what the graph supports. The agent narrates the middle of the story; it never gets to write the beginning or the end.
See it live
Thread TT-0001 predates capture modes — it's hand-built and human-verified, and its page says so plainly. The first machine-witnessed Threads arrive with the product.
Pull Thread TT-0001 →Related terms
TERM COINED BY TRUSTTHREAD · FIRST PUBLISHED 2026-07-18 · DEFINITION V1 · THIS PAGE IS THE CANONICAL SOURCE