Docs: first verdict in under a minute

Everything a pipeline integrator needs, in the order you need it: one keyless call, what the JSON means, what your pipeline should do with each verdict, then a key for production. The deeper background lives on the method page; this page is the shortest correct path to a working integration.

1Your first verdict, no key needed

The verify endpoint is open for evaluation, rate limited per IP. This call checks a live sample image with known ground truth:

curl -X POST https://chronoverify.com/v1/verify \
  -F "url=https://chronoverify.com/samples/sample_camera.jpg"

Or upload a file of your own:

curl -X POST https://chronoverify.com/v1/verify \
  -F "file=@photo.jpg"

The response (trimmed) looks like this:

{
  "verdict": "consistent",
  "confidence": 0.72,
  "summary": "Metadata layers agree and no editing signals fired.",
  "capture_time": { "value": "2026-03-14T09:21:30", "source": "exif" },
  "capture_device": { "make": "ChronoTest", "model": "CT-1" },
  "location": { "present": false },
  "c2pa": { "present": false, "validated": false },
  "signals": [
    { "name": "jpeg_quality_estimate", "layer": "pixel",
      "direction": "neutral", "detail": "..." }
  ],
  "integrity": { "sha256": "9f2c...", "format": "JPEG" }
}

Six fields carry most integrations: verdict and confidence drive routing, capture_time and capture_device and location are the recovered evidence, and integrity.sha256 is a reproducible file fingerprint you can store for audit and dedup. signals lists every check that ran, each with a layer, a direction, and a plain-language detail, so a reviewer can see why the verdict happened. The full field-by-field contract is in the verdict JSON Schema.

2What your pipeline should do with each verdict

There are exactly five verdicts. ChronoVerify is conservative by design: a manipulation verdict requires two independent pixel signals to corroborate, and Content Credentials count as validated provenance only when the signature verifies against the official C2PA and CAI trust lists.

You can watch every one of these verdicts happen against six sample images with known ground truth, which also make a safe test corpus for your integration tests.

3Go to production

Get a key. Start free: POST /v1/keys/free with an email field returns a cv_live_ key with 100 verifications a month, no card, one key per email, shown once in the response. For volume beyond that or signed reports, buy credits on the pricing page ($5 minimum, pay as you go, or a flat monthly plan); a paid key is shown once on the welcome screen right after payment, and usage and balance live on your dashboard. Send your key as a Bearer token:

curl -X POST https://chronoverify.com/v1/verify \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer cv_live_..." \
  -F "file=@photo.jpg"

Limits and formats. JPEG (including iPhone HDR gain-map files), PNG, WEBP, AVIF, TIFF, HEIC and HEIF, BMP, and GIF, up to 40 megapixels and 25 MB. Content Credentials can be carried by JPEG, PNG, WEBP and AVIF; the rest are accepted for metadata and pixel checks. The keyless path is for evaluation; keyed requests get production rate limits. Requests that fail are never billed.

Errors worth handling.

Beyond one-off verdicts. Add -F "permalink=true" to store the verdict (never the image) at a shareable unlisted URL, useful for audit trails and handing evidence to a reviewer. For a signed, timestamped PDF audit record of a verification, call POST /v1/report with the same file and your key; anyone can validate the record later at /tools/report. Images are analyzed in memory and never stored unless you opt into a permalink.

4Skip the boilerplate

Maintained clients and agent integrations, all optional:

• TypeScript / JavaScript: npm: chronoverify (ships a CLI: npx chronoverify verify photo.jpg)
• Python: PyPI: chronoverify
• AI agents (MCP): one-click install for Claude, Cursor, and VS Code, or auto-discover the hosted endpoint from /.well-known/mcp.json
• Frameworks: copy-paste recipes for OpenAI, Claude, LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, n8n, and plain REST
• Browser: a right-click verification extension is headed to the Chrome and Firefox stores

Machine-readable surface, if you are wiring this up programmatically: /openapi.json (OpenAPI spec), /v1/verify.schema.json (verdict schema), /v1/onboarding (onboarding as JSON), and /llms.txt (site map for language models).

What it does and does not tell you

ChronoVerify is provenance-first, not a deepfake classifier. A clean verdict confirms that provenance is intact, not that the scene in the photo is true, and pixel-forensic signals degrade on recompressed or stripped copies. The integrity layer (hash and signature) is cryptographic and reproducible; the verdict layer is probabilistic and labeled as such. The method page documents each layer's failure modes.