State Cards, Capture Sessions, and Capsules

State Cards, Capture Sessions, and Capsules

StatePort separates the object you work with from the immutable technical material underneath it.

State Card
└─ Capture Session
   ├─ semantic action timeline
   ├─ meaningful checkpoints
   ├─ selected Saved state
   ├─ Recorded Journey, when available
   └─ referenced State Capsule material

State Card

A State Card is the named Library item you select, inspect, reproduce, revise, compare, or share.

It presents the safe information needed to choose the next action, such as:

• name, description/objective, and source context;
• Saved state and Recorded Journey availability;
• authentication and protected-value requirements;
• checkpoints, actions, replayable exchanges, and console evidence;
• sharing readiness;
• latest-run evidence and relevant recovery states.

Technical IDs, digests, low-level provenance, and storage details remain secondary disclosures.

Capture Session

A Capture Session is the bounded versioned reproduction recording behind a State Card. It contains:

• approved semantic user actions;
• meaningful automatic and manual checkpoints;
• a selected Saved state;
• Recorded Journey coverage and manual barriers where applicable;
• safe Capture context;
• curation, compatibility, integrity, and provenance;
• references to immutable browser/API replay material.

Saved state and Recorded Journey are two ways to reach the useful state from the same Reproduce launcher. StatePort stops rather than guessing when current code has drifted or a semantic action is missing, ambiguous, unsafe, or unsupported.

When Capture contains only one saved screen and no user action, its Recorded Journey opens that final checkpoint and completes with zero steps.

Older compatible Cards may contain less evidence or have no Recorded Journey. StatePort does not invent actions or a Journey that were never captured.

State Capsule

A State Capsule is immutable ordinary reproduction material referenced by the Capture Session.

Within supported scope it may contain route, safe browser/form state, selected redacted HTTP evidence, request occurrence identity, integrity metadata, and redaction/exclusion evidence.

Ordinary portable State Capsule material does not contain raw session cookies/tokens, Authorization headers, your browser profile, local Auth Binding values, or a database/server-memory/environment snapshot.

Protected local values

A supported sensitive value explicitly retained by the creator is not turned into ordinary portable State Capsule data.

Instead, StatePort keeps it behind the OS-protected machine-local boundary and stores only the safe relationship required by the local workflow. Using a retained value requires explicit authorization for the reproduction run. Card-only transfer omits the value; the recipient can enter a missing password during replay.

If Review confirms Discard, StatePort leaves the original finalized Capture immutable, creates a sanitized derived Session, and replaces that protected automatic step with a manual Journey barrier. The saved Card can then use ordinary credential-free sharing when no other blocker remains.

Share and Export offer selected protected values and a Protected Persona as separate transfer choices. When both are available, the selector starts with Card only so the replay values remain visible. To include required Private replay data for Original environment, select it in the protected-values list. A Persona can be selected explicitly; it does not replace Private replay data.

Revisions and response experiments

Changes do not silently rewrite a source Capture Session or State Capsule.

For a supported replayable JSON response, Desktop can expose a bounded redacted projection in Form, Tree, or JSON mode. You review the exact safe diff, apply a validated overlay, and save the result as an immutable revision.

The editor does not grant general access to captured request data, headers, cookies, credentials, binary bodies, or arbitrary original payloads. Unsupported, stale, oversized, or unverifiable projections are not editable.

Authentication remains separate

A State Card may declare a non-secret Auth Persona requirement. The machine-local Auth Binding that satisfies it remains outside ordinary portable State Card material.

A Development Profile login is also machine-local. If another device or a Clean Session needs authentication, StatePort uses the approved local recovery instead of silently transferring hidden login state.

Sharing

One supported State Card can be packaged as a temporary encrypted ordinary share:

State Card
→ encrypted portable bundle
→ recipient imports locally
→ recipient chooses current local target and authentication
→ Reproduce

Ordinary sharing excludes machine-local protected values, browser-profile contents, local Auth Bindings, and local sign-in state. Share/receive/import is available in Free Capture; Developer access is required only when the recipient chooses to execute the reproduction against current code.

An imported State Card gets its own creation time when it is first added to the recipient’s library. Importing the same Card again keeps that original local creation time. The recorded Capture Session still retains the source capture time.

Some Cards require separately protected replay data for Original environment. The sender must explicitly select Private replay data when creating a protected link or exporting a file, and the recipient must accept it. A Card-only import can still reopen against a compatible Local app. If you first imported the Card alone, accepting its protected version adds the required data to that local Card without resetting its creation time.

Choosing Open final state or Replay journey rechecks the captured starting page needed for that path. One path can be available while the other lacks its required page. Saved State can start from an earlier reconstruction checkpoint; a Journey uses its recorded starting point or the checkpoint after a separately satisfied sign-in.

Original environment uses required Private replay data in Clean Session. Local app runs your current code with its own browser state and sign-in, using either Clean Session or Development Profile. Source cookies and private replay data are never transferred into the local browser. If a Journey needs sensitive input that was not included, it pauses for you to enter it. Changed requests must still match captured responses or an explicitly configured local route; unmatched requests are blocked.

When a newly saved Card keeps the recorded sign-in in its replay path, Original and Local follow those steps from their starting browser state. Saving the resulting sign-in as a Persona keeps it available for reuse. This Card asks for missing sign-in input during replay. A separately selected authentication setup keeps its own sign-in requirement.

Export State Card offers the same protected-value and Persona choices as Share. To include required replay material, explicitly select Private replay data. If it is missing on your device, request it from the sender or recapture. Sending the Card alone remains possible, with its replay limitation shown.

File import and link opening use the same preview and acceptance steps. Review the Card, then import it alone or select the protected material to accept. Existing Card matches and protected upgrades follow the same rules for both methods. After a failed file import, choose the file again to start a fresh review.

File transfer works offline. Anyone with the exported file can access the data you included; it is not password-protected. An already delivered file cannot be revoked. Imported protected material stays subject to its existing local expiry, scope and per-run consent. Older ordinary State Card files remain supported.

A one-card share is not a Team workspace. Shared organization libraries, members/seats, organization policies, audit/admin controls, and persistent Team storage remain separate future capabilities.