Metastructured Data

Data loses its context the moment it crosses an API, a pipeline, or a model. A figure that was carefully verified inside Staple becomes just a number once it lands in a downstream system, with no way for the next reader to confirm where it came from or whether it has been changed. Metastructured Data fixes that.

Metastructured Data attaches a cryptographically signed record to a value or a file: source document, extraction timestamp, signing key and model version, and confidence. It does not change the file. It is a way to store and transfer data with provenance baked in, and it underpins Staple's Audit Readiness capability in the Trust Layer. You can see it applied on the data verification page.

Valid Versus Trusted

Anyone can generate a key and produce a cryptographically valid signature, but a valid signature from an unknown key tells a verifier nothing about who signed it. Metastructured Data separates two questions: is the signature valid, and is it trusted. Trust comes from a key endorsed through the network, giving a chain back to a known root. Verification itself needs no setup, a recipient can check a document immediately.

Signed Envelope Or Embedded Proof

• A self-contained signed envelope wraps the data, its metadata, a timestamp, and an Ed25519 signature, for APIs, databases, and pipelines.

• An embedded proof folds the signature into the data itself. The data looks identical, the proof is inside, and it survives JSON round-trips. Supported file types include PNG, JPG, WebP, SVG, PDF, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

• Content hashing uses BLAKE3 for content-addressed storage and deduplication, and the payload can optionally be encrypted with the same key used for signing.

Where It Is Live At Staple

Metastructured Data is applied today to API gateway responses and to manual downloads from the Staple interface. Coverage of webhook payloads is planned as part of the webhook revamp. We describe the current state plainly rather than implying blanket coverage.

An Open Standard, Not Lock-In

The approach is published as an open standard with open-source tooling, so a customer is never locked into Staple to verify a document. The open-source Python SDK for sign, embed, and verify is the msd-sdk-python package, and the hosted identity and endorsement layer is the MSD Network dashboard. Developers building on this should also read the API documentation.

For the protocol itself and the SDK and network in depth, see MSD Protocol and MSD SDK and Network under Open Trust Infrastructure.

What Metastructured Data Does Not Do

It does not alter or re-render your document, and it does not require the recipient to trust Staple to verify a signature. It proves provenance and detects change. It does not, by itself, decide what your business should do when a check fails.

Evidence

Global insurance and wealth provider

A global insurance and wealth provider with more than 108 billion pounds in assets under administration needed auditable proof that captured and redacted data had not been altered after processing. Staple sealed each value with a signed record and reached 98.95 percent accuracy in data capture and redaction with full auditability.

98.95% capture and redaction accuracy, sealed and verifiable

Related Capabilities

• Explainable Verification

• Data Integrity and Tamper Evidence

• Trust Layer

Talk To Us About Metastructured Data

See how signed provenance travels with your data into your ERP and beyond, and how downstream teams verify it without depending on Staple.

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