Defining Work Scopes

The work scope defines what work a hypercert covers. It uses three logical operators to precisely bound which activities are included and which are excluded.

The three operators

OperatorMeaningLogic
allOfAll of these tags must applyAND
anyOfAt least one of these tags must applyOR
noneOfNone of these tags can applyNOT

These operators filter from a maximal scope (all work by the named contributors in the specified time period) down to exactly the work being claimed.

Examples

Simple scope: all IPFS work

JSON
{
  "allOf": ["IPFS"]
}

Includes all activities tagged "IPFS". Nothing else.

Excluding specific work

JSON
{
  "allOf": ["IPFS"],
  "noneOf": ["library-x"]
}

All IPFS work except anything related to library-x.

Multiple implementations

JSON
{
  "allOf": ["libp2p"],
  "anyOf": ["go-libp2p", "js-libp2p"]
}

Work must be related to libp2p (allOf) and must be either the Go or JavaScript implementation (anyOf). The anyOf is needed because a single piece of work can't be both Go and JavaScript simultaneously — they're mutually exclusive options.

Non-overlapping partitions

You can split a broad scope into non-overlapping hypercerts:

JSON
// Hypercert A: IPFS implementation work (Go or Rust)
{
  "allOf": ["IPFS"],
  "anyOf": ["Go-Implementation", "Rust-Implementation"]
}


// Hypercert B: all other IPFS work
{
  "allOf": ["IPFS"],
  "noneOf": ["Go-Implementation", "Rust-Implementation"]
}

Together, these two hypercerts cover all IPFS work with no overlap. Every activity falls into exactly one.

Using work scopes in the SDK

Pass the scope operators when creating a hypercert:

TypeScript
const result = await repo.hypercerts.create({
  title: "libp2p Go implementation, Q1 2026",
  description: "Networking stack improvements for go-libp2p.",
  workScope: {
    allOf: ["libp2p"],
    anyOf: ["go-libp2p"],
  },
  workTimeframeFrom: "2026-01-01",
  workTimeframeTo: "2026-03-31",
  rights: {
    name: "Public Display",
    type: "display",
    description: "Right to publicly display this contribution",
  },
});

For a simple scope with a single tag, you can pass a string:

TypeScript
workScope: "Documentation"

Key points

  • If work scope is empty, the hypercert covers all work by the named contributors in the specified time period — the maximal scope.
  • Scope tags are domain-specific. The protocol defines how tags combine, not what tags mean. Each community defines its own vocabulary.
  • Non-overlap is not enforced by the protocol. It emerges from shared tag vocabularies and coordination between issuers. Applications can check for overlap at creation time.

See also