# Erratum — draft-fossil-submanifests-00 Abstract / §1.3

| | |
|---|---|
| **Document** | `draft-fossil-submanifests-00` |
| **Section** | Abstract; 1.3 — Status of This Specification |
| **Type** | Editorial (the text says nothing implements the specification; two implementations do) |
| **Status** | Applied in `draft-fossil-submanifests-00` (2026-10-19) |
| **Reported** | 2026-10-19 |
| **Submitter** | Dan Mestas |
| **Found via** | Filing the first errata from implementation experience against a text that claims there is none |

## 1. Summary

The abstract ends "it does not describe deployed behavior, and no
implementation exists", and §1.3 opens "Nothing implements this
specification; every S-bearing artifact in existence is a test fixture."
Both were true when the draft was written. zit writes, reads and serves
sub-manifests, go-libfossil writes and reads them, and the two have been
tested against each other; the errata filed against §6.3, §7.2 and §8.1
all come from that experience. The status text must say so, and must say
what has not changed: Fossil does not implement the specification, the
flag-day property of the closed card alphabet stands, and the
provisional-phase rules of §8.2 still apply.

## 2. The text in error

Abstract: "It derives from a 2010 design note; it does not describe
deployed behavior, and no implementation exists."

§1.3, first paragraph, from "Nothing implements this specification" to
"before the first writer exists."

## 3. Corrected text

Abstract, replace the last sentence with:

> It derives from a 2010 design note. Two implementations, zit and
> go-libfossil, write and read the format and interoperate; Fossil itself
> does not implement it.

§1.3, replace the first paragraph with:

> Two implementations exist: zit writes and reads sub-manifests and
> serves them, and go-libfossil writes and reads them. The two
> interoperate, and the errata of this document record where each
> departed from the text and which side changed. Fossil does not
> implement this specification. The closed card alphabet
> ([FossilArtifact], Section 4.2.2) still makes deployment a flag day --
> every reader of a repository must understand sub-manifests before any
> writer emits one into it -- so the gates of Section 7.2 and Section 8
> keep S-bearing artifacts away from readers that do not. Conformance of
> two implementations establishes nothing about the wider ecosystem
> (Section 9). This document folds into a -01 revision of
> [FossilArtifact] only after further implementation experience; until
> then [FossilArtifact] remains authoritative for deployed behavior, and
> the provisional-phase rules of Section 8.2 apply to every repository
> containing an S-bearing artifact.

## 4. Implementations

None affected; the change is to the status text.