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Concepts

What the registry stores, how a domain is matched to it, and where the limits of an answer are.

Sites and domains

A site is the entry: an id, a name, a canonical domain, a category, and a list of allowed domains. A domain is one of those allowed entries. One site can hold many domains; a domain is listed under exactly one site.

The canonical domain is the one the entry names as its primary. A lookup reports it as canonical_domain regardless of which of the allowed domains you asked about.

How a domain matches

Matching is on labels, never on substrings. notliorith.net does not match liorith.net. A lookup reports which kind of match it was in site.match_type.

Entry formstext

example.com      matches example.com and every subdomain
*.example.com    matches subdomains only, not example.com itself
**.example.com   matches example.com and every subdomain (explicit form)

A bare entry already covers subdomains — the starred forms exist to say so explicitly, and to allow the case where only subdomains should count.

Entry states

An entry is not simply present or absent. The state says how the registry currently stands to that site, and a lookup returns it verbatim in site.status.

active — acceptedCurrent entry. The registry lists the site as part of the network and in operation.

deprecated — valid with caveatStill recognised, but on its way out — a domain being replaced, for example. Proofs still verify, with their own result code.

inactive — neutralRegistered but not in operation. Proof verification is refused while an entry is in this state.

suspended — rejectedRecognition is paused. Proofs are refused. The entry remains listed so the state is visible rather than silent.

former — neutralThe registry no longer recognises this entry. It is kept for the record; proofs are refused and the domain is absent from the public domain list.

registered: true only says the domain is on file. Read site.status before treating an entry as current — an answer about a suspended site is still a registered answer.

Categories and the legal flag

categorystringWhat the site is for. Free-form but curated; the current set is returned by /legal under categories, so you can filter without hardcoding a list.

legalbooleanWhether the Liorith Legal Center is responsible for this domain. Network members that are not operated by Liorith carry entries but no legal responsibility, and the flag keeps the two apart.

The /legal endpoint lists only domains with the flag set, and deliberately reports nothing about operating state. Scope and status are different questions and answering both in one list invites reading one as the other.

The blocklist

The blocklist names domains that are not accepted inside the Liorith Network — typically because they imitate a Liorith property, or because Liorith will not vouch for them. It is checked before any registry entry, so a blocked domain answers blocked even if an entry exists.

It is not a finding about the operator, and it is not a fraud accusation. It records a decision about our own network, nothing more. Treat it as we do not stand behind this domain, not as this domain is criminal.

What an answer does not say

Every /check response carries a does_not_imply array for exactly this reason. The three standing limits:

It is not a safety or reputation rating of the domain.
not_registered does not mean the domain is bad or does not exist. The registry only lists Liorith properties and network members.
A lookup never proves that a particular link or request came from that site. That is what /verify and a signed proof are for — a lookup always reports proof_checked: false.