Use this glossary when reading ProveKit docs, debugging artifacts, or writing integration runbooks.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| ACIR | Abstract Circuit Intermediate Representation emitted by Noir before backend-specific lowering. |
| Artifact provenance | The branch, commit, toolchain, lockfile, command line, feature flags, hash choice, and checksum record for a generated file. |
| BN254 | Elliptic curve whose scalar field is used for ProveKit’s field arithmetic. Well-supported on EVM chains, making it a natural fit for the Groth16 recursive wrap. |
| Circuit | The constrained computation being proven. In the default flow it is authored as a Noir package. |
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| FFI | Foreign Function Interface. ProveKit exposes a C ABI for mobile and native hosts that cannot link Rust directly. |
| Hash choice | The Merkle commitment hash selected by prepare --hash: skyscraper, sha256, keccak, blake3, or poseidon2. |
| Noir | Circuit language used by ProveKit’s primary authoring flow. |
| PKP | ProveKit prover key file (.pkp), produced by prepare, consumed by provers. |
| PKV | ProveKit verifier key file (.pkv), produced by prepare, consumed by verifiers. |
| Proof | Serialized proof output, proof.np from the CLI, or JSON proof values in WASM and server flows. |
| Public inputs | Values intentionally exposed by the circuit and bound into verification. Your application is responsible for interpreting them. |
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| R1CS | Rank-1 Constraint System used by the ProveKit proving pipeline. |
| Recursive verifier | Go/gnark wrapper that verifies a ProveKit proof inside an outer Groth16 proof for cheap on-chain settlement. |
r1cs.json | Recursive-verifier R1CS export generated from a matching verifier key and proof. |
params_for_recursive_verifier | Recursive-verifier parameter file generated from a matching verifier key and proof. |
| Skyscraper | Custom BN254-tuned hash engine used as ProveKit’s default Merkle commitment and Fiat-Shamir transcript hash. |
| Verifier server | HTTP service in tooling/verifier-server that downloads artifacts and orchestrates proof verification. |
| Witness | Private and public assignment values used to satisfy the circuit during proving. |
| WHIR | Hash-based polynomial commitment scheme used inside ProveKit’s Spartan-based proof system. Provides the base proof’s commitment layer and gives WHIR its name. |
