Monorepo for Tangled
tangled.org
blog: vouching on tangled
Signed-off-by: oppiliappan <me@oppi.li>
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blog/posts/vouching.md
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blog/posts/vouching.md
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---
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atroot: true
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template:
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slug: vouching
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title: combat LLM spam by building a web-of-trust
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subtitle: vouching on tangled
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date: 2026-04-29
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authors:
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- name: Akshay
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email: akshay@tangled.org
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handle: oppi.li
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draft: true
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---
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Tangled now has native support for
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[vouching](https://github.com/mitchellh/vouch/)! You can
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vouch or denounce users that you interact with. Vouched
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users will have a green shield icon beside their profile
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pictures, and denounced users will have a red one. You can
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use this to inform decisions about an interaction. You can
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also see the vouch/denounce decisions made by your circle.
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## why vouch?
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Vouching serves as a signal of trust to your circle.
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The bar to submit code to a project has never been lower
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thanks to LLM based tooling. LLM tools are really good at
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creating "uncanny valley" submissions. Code that looks
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correct but is subtly wrong. The onus is on maintainers to
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now take the time to review such submissions. To ease this
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burden, maintainers from across the Tangled network can now
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vouch for or denounce contributors that misuse these tools
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and create a maintenance burden.
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## mindful design
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Such systems need careful consideration. Vouching on Tangled
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includes the following to begin with:
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- vouching/denouncing with a text-based reason field
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- attenuation: you can only view decisions made by you and
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your circle
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- no consequences to being denounced: at present, denounced
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users aren't blocked from the project, but simply have a
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red warning label in parts of the UI
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Some additions that I want to put in down the line:
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- decay of vouches: maintainers and contributors tend to
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move on from projects over time, so vouches should decay
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as time passes, and be renewed every now and then
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- evidence trails: vouching for a user right after merging a
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PR should add the PR to the vouch record as a piece of
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evidence
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## how it works
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When you vouch for or denounce somebody on Tangled, you
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create a **public** record on your
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[PDS](https://atproto.com/guides/glossary#pds-personal-data-server).
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The record includes:
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- whether you vouched for or denounced somebody
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- an optional reason for doing so
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The Tangled appview then aggregates vouch data from across
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the network, and displays vouch "hats" over profiles at
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points of interaction:
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- in issues and issue comments
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- in pull-requests and pull-request comments
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A hat appears over a user only if you have directly
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vouched/denounced them, or if somebody you have vouched for,
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has vouched/denounced them.
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Additionally, there are no consequences for a denounced
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user. Only a hat. You can click on the hat to see who
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vouched/denounced this user in your circle. The consequences
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may change eventually, but for now you can use the hat to
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inform a decision.
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Start building your web of trust on Tangled today.