# How do I verify a model download? Publisher: Hugging Bay As of: 2026-10-21 Canonical: https://huggingbay.xyz/docs/verify ## How do I verify a model download? Open /verify, paste its 64-character SHA-256, or choose or drop the saved file. Your browser hashes every byte locally and sends only the digest. A match returns public hosted file paths and recorded repositories, revisions, quantization labels and repository licence metadata. Unknown fields remain unknown. ## What does the badge verify? The badge checks whether that exact SHA-256 currently matches an eligible public hosted file in the Hugging Bay index. It links to /verify?sha256=. Same bytes may have several sources. Read the linked result and its timestamp; cached images on other sites may lag. ## Is my file uploaded? No. File bytes stay in the browser or local CLI. Only the SHA-256 is sent to the public lookup API. The request may appear in normal service logs. ## Which API should an agent call? GET /api/v1/verify?sha256=<64-hex-digest> returns hugging-bay.verify.v1 JSON. known is true only for a match. status is matched or unknown. Read generatedAt, scope, limitations and matches. GET /api/v1/verify/badge/.svg returns a live SVG. File uploads and POST are refused. ## How do I use the SDK, CLI or MCP? Use JavaScript Client.verify(sha256) or Client.verifyFile(path). Run hbay verify to hash locally and look up the digest. Hosted MCP profile=verify accepts verify with {"sha256":"<64-hex>"}. Run hbay mcp and call verify with {"path":"model.gguf"}. Supplying sha256 retains the existing offline byte comparison instead. No local path or file bytes are sent to the lookup API. These SDK/CLI calls require the updated source; installed releases may lag. ## How do I embed the badge? After a match, copy the Markdown snippet from /verify into a model card, README or Hugging Face repository. Its image URL contains the complete digest and its link opens verification for those same bytes. The badge changes to unknown if no eligible match remains. ## What do revision, quantization and licence mean? Revision is the file source revision when recorded. Quantization comes from file metadata or a filename label, with its source identified. Licence is current repository metadata, not legal permission or proof of the historical licence for those bytes. Missing values are null. Follow the catalog and licence lineage links. ## What does no match mean? Unknown means this bounded public hosted-model index has no eligible match. It does not mean the file is malicious or altered. Private, removed, blocked, external-only and currently ineligible files do not qualify. Compare with a digest from a trusted publisher when needed. ## Does a match prove a model is safe or fits my machine? No. SHA-256 equality identifies bytes. It does not prove authorship, safety, licence permission, quality, or hardware compatibility. Review the source, licence and other evidence before use. ## Is verification free and what are the limits? Verification is public and needs no account when enabled. Results contain at most 10 eligible files; deployments may return fewer. Per-client and shared Byte Match rate limits apply. HTTP 429 means retry after Retry-After. HTTP 503 means unavailable or busy, never an unknown result. ## When was this documentation checked and where are the sources? As of 2026-10-21. This page documents the Hugging Bay verification contract and links directly to its JSON API, Byte Match lookup and public hash receipts. These capabilities require HB_VERIFY_BADGE=1 and HB_BYTE_MATCH_LOOKUP=1; the verification flag defaults off. Sources: https://huggingbay.xyz/verify and https://huggingbay.xyz/byte-match.