Attestation with orbit CLI

Verify, download, and inspect build provenance attestations using Sigstore bundles with in-toto attestation format and SLSA provenance predicates. This feature supports supply chain security by letting you confirm artifact origin, signer identity, and build metadata.

Prerequisites

1. orbit CLI installed — if which orbit fails, install with:

- macOS/Linux (Homebrew): brew install jorgemuza/tap/orbit - macOS/Linux (script): curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jorgemuza/orbit/main/install.sh | sh - Windows (Scoop): scoop bucket add jorgemuza https://github.com/jorgemuza/scoop-bucket && scoop install orbit

1. A Sigstore attestation bundle (.jsonl or .json) for the artifact you want to verify or inspect
2. For download: a profile with a GitHub service configured (attestation bundles are fetched from GitHub)

Quick Reference

All commands follow the pattern: orbit attestation <command> [arguments] [flags]

Alias: orbit attest <command> [arguments] [flags]

All commands support -o json and -o yaml for structured output. For full command details and all flags, see references/commands.md.

Core Workflows

Verifying an Artifact

Verify that an artifact matches its attestation bundle, confirming build provenance, signer identity, and source repository.

# Verify a local binary against a bundle
orbit attestation verify ./my-binary --bundle attestation.jsonl

# Verify with owner, repo, and signer identity checks.
# --owner and --repo must equal the owner and repository the provenance source
# URI names, compared case-insensitively; using either also requires the source
# to be hosted on --source-host (default github.com). --signer-identity must be
# an anchored prefix of the builder ID (matched from the start, ending on a '/',
# an '@', or end of string); its scheme://host/owner/repo head folds case, the
# workflow path and git ref after it do not. Nested namespaces work too:
# --owner mygroup/subgroup --repo myproject.
orbit attest verify ./artifact --bundle bundle.json --owner my-org --repo my-repo \
  --signer-identity "https://github.com/my-org/my-repo"

# Same, against a self-hosted forge instead of github.com
orbit attest verify ./artifact --bundle bundle.json --source-host git.example.com \
  --repo my-org/my-repo

# Verify a pre-computed digest
orbit attestation verify abc123def456... --bundle att.json --digest-algorithm sha256

# Output verification result as JSON
orbit attestation verify ./my-binary --bundle att.json -o json

Downloading an Attestation Bundle

Fetch the attestation bundle for an artifact digest from a GitHub repository.

# Download attestation bundle by digest
orbit attestation download sha256:abc123... --repo owner/repo

# With explicit digest algorithm
orbit attest download abc123... --repo owner/repo --digest-algorithm sha256

Inspecting a Bundle

Display the full contents of an attestation bundle, including SLSA provenance, signer identity, builder, source, and materials.

# Inspect a bundle file
orbit attestation inspect attestation.jsonl

# Output as JSON for processing
orbit attest inspect bundle.json -o json

Common Patterns

Verify a release binary end-to-end:

# Download the attestation bundle
orbit attestation download sha256:abc123... --repo my-org/my-repo

# Verify the binary against the downloaded bundle
orbit attestation verify ./my-binary --bundle attestation.jsonl --owner my-org

# Inspect the bundle for detailed provenance info
orbit attestation inspect attestation.jsonl

Get JSON for scripting: Any command supports -o json for machine-readable output:

orbit attestation verify ./my-binary --bundle att.json -o json | jq '.signer'

Check who signed an artifact:

orbit attestation inspect bundle.json -o json | jq '.signer'

Verify with strict signer identity:

orbit attest verify ./artifact --bundle bundle.json \
  --owner my-org \
  --repo my-org/my-repo \
  --signer-identity "https://github.com/my-org/my-repo/.github/workflows/release.yml"

Important Notes

• Sigstore format — Attestation bundles follow the Sigstore bundle specification. Verification uses the in-toto attestation format with SLSA provenance predicates.
• Digest algorithms — Supported algorithms are sha256 (default) and sha512. Use --digest-algorithm to specify.
• Profile for download — The download command requires a profile with GitHub access (-p <profile>) since it fetches bundles from GitHub repositories. The --repo flag is required.
• Local-only commands — The verify and inspect commands work with local files and do not require a profile or network access (unless fetching a bundle).
• Output formats — All commands support -o json and -o yaml for structured output suitable for scripting and CI pipelines.