ContentAuthenticity 0.78.4

c2pa.net

.NET bindings for c2pa Rust library.

Description

This repository provides a .NET-friendly API surface over the native c2pa_c C ABI exposed by the upstream c2pa-rs project.

• Interop bindings are generated automatically: the build runs the clangsharppinvokegenerator .NET tool (ClangSharp P/Invoke Generator) against the c2pa.h header and emits platform-specific binding files under lib/Bindings/*. The dispatcher in lib/C2paBindings.cs selects the correct platform/architecture implementation at runtime.
• Typed models are generated from JSON Schema for safety: the generator/ project is a Roslyn incremental source generator that reads the C2PA JSON schemas (e.g., Builder/Reader/Settings) and emits strongly-typed C# models during compilation. This keeps the high-level API strongly typed (compile-time checks + IntelliSense) instead of relying on loosely-typed JSON strings.

Usage

The Reader and Builder classes have strongly-typed models generated from JSON Schema.

Read an asset and use the typed ManifestStore

using ContentAuthenticity;
using static ContentAUthenticty.Reader;
var assetPath = "./my-image.jpg";

using var reader = Reader.FromFile(assetPath);

// Raw JSON (if you need it)
string json = reader.Json;

// Strongly-typed view of the manifest store
ManifestStore store = reader.Store;

Console.WriteLine($"Embedded: {reader.IsEmbedded}");
Console.WriteLine($"Active manifest: {store.ActiveManifest}");

store.Manifests.TryGetValue(store.ActiveManifest, out var manifest)
Console.WriteLine($"Title: {manifest.Title}");
Console.WriteLine($"Format: {manifest.Format}");

// Example: if the manifest has a thumbnail resource reference, you can fetch it
if (manifest.Thumbnail is not null)
{
   using var thumbOut = File.Create("./thumbnail.bin");
   reader.ResourceToStream(new Uri(manifest.Thumbnail.Identifier), thumbOut);
}

// Round-trip back to JSON using the same schema-driven serializer options
string roundTripped = store.ToJson();

Create a typed manifest definition and sign an asset

using ContentAuthenticity;
using static ContentAuthenticity.Builder;

// Build a minimal typed manifest definition.
// The schema requires `NoEmbed` to be set.
var definition = new ManifestDefinition
{
   NoEmbed = false,
   Title = "my-image.jpg",
   Format = "image/jpeg",
   InstanceId = Builder.GenerateInstanceID(),
   ClaimGeneratorInfo =
   [
      new Builder.ClaimGeneratorInfo { Name = "c2pa.net" }
   ],
   Assertions =
   [
      new ActionAssertion(
      [
         new ActionV1("c2pa.edited"),
      ]),
      new CreativeWorkAssertions(
         new CreativeWorkAsertionData
         {
            Type = "MyType",
            Context = new {
               "SomeName" = "SomeValue"
            }
         }
      )
   ]
};

using var builder = Builder.Create(definition);
// Optional: add extra resources that the manifest may reference (thumbnails, etc.)
builder.AddResource("thumbnail", "./thumbnail.jpg");
builder.AddIngredient(...)

// Signing requires an `ISigner` implementation (see `example/` projects for working signers).
Signer signer = Signer.FromSettings();/* Signer.From(someISigner) */

var input = "./my-image.jpg";
var output = "./my-image.signed.jpg";

// Writes a signed asset to `output` and returns the embedded manifest bytes.
byte[] manifestBytes = builder.Sign(signer, input, output);

Prerequisites

• .NET 10.0 SDK or later
• Rust toolchain (for building the native c2pa-rs library)
• Git with submodule support
• ClangSharp

Development

1. Clone the Repository

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/duggaraju/c2pa.net.git
cd c2pa.net

If you've already cloned the repository without submodules, initialize them:

git submodule update --init --recursive

2. Update Submodule to Specific Release Tag

The c2pa-rs submodule is automatically updated by a GitHub Actions workflow that monitors the upstream repository for new C FFI release tags matching the pattern c2pa-c-ffi-vx.x.x. When a new tag is detected, the workflow:

1. Updates the submodule to point to the new tag
2. Creates a pull request with the update details
3. Includes the tag information and release notes link in the PR description

The workflow runs automatically every 6 hours, but can also be triggered manually:

# Go to Actions tab in GitHub UI
# Select "Update c2pa-rs Submodule" workflow
# Click "Run workflow"
# Optionally specify a specific tag (e.g., c2pa-c-ffi-v0.75.21)

Manual Update (if needed):

If you need to manually update the submodule to a specific release tag:

# Navigate to the submodule directory
cd c2pa-rs

# Fetch all tags from the remote repository
git fetch --tags

# List available c2pa-c-ffi tags
git tag -l 'c2pa-c-ffi-v*'

# Checkout to a specific release tag (replace with desired version)
git checkout c2pa-c-ffi-v0.75.21

# Return to the root directory
cd ..

# Commit the submodule update
git add c2pa-rs
git commit -m "Update c2pa-rs submodule to c2pa-c-ffi-v0.75.21"

3. Build the Project

Option 1: Using .NET CLI (Recommended)

# Build the entire solution
dotnet restore && dotnet tool restore
dotnet build

# Build
dotnet build
# or build in Release Mode.
dotnet build --configuration Release

Option 2: Using Visual Studio

1. Open c2pa.net.sln in Visual Studio
2. Select the desired configuration (Debug/Release) and platform (x64)
3. Build → Build Solution (Ctrl+Shift+B)

4. Run Tests

# Run all tests
dotnet test

# Run tests with verbose output
dotnet test --verbosity normal

5. Run Example

# Navigate to the example CLI project
cd example/Cli

# Run the example
dotnet run

6. Package

Create a nuget package for publishing.

cd lib
dotnet pack

Project Structure

• lib/ - Main .NET bindings library (ContentAuthenticity.Bindings)
• tests/ - Unit and integration tests
• example/ - Example CLI application demonstrating usage
• generator/ - Code generator for creating .NET bindings from Rust
• c2pa-rs/ - Git submodule containing the Rust c2pa library

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. Missing c2pa_c.dll: Ensure the Rust library is built first:

   cd c2pa-rs
   cargo build --release -p c2pa-c-ffi --no-default-features --features "rust_native_crypto, file_io"
   

2. Missing Rust Tooling: Ensure that you have cargo installed and right toolset present (e.g cross compiling for ARM64):

   rustup target add aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
   

3. Submodule not initialized: If you see build errors related to missing Rust code:

   git submodule update --init --recursive
   

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Update the submodule to the appropriate c2pa-rs version if needed
4. Make your changes
5. Run tests to ensure everything works
6. Submit a pull request