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On-Chain Provenance

After every .upsert() call, VecLabs posts a 32-byte Merkle root to the Solana blockchain. This is the on-chain provenance system - a permanent, public, cryptographic record of your collection’s state at every point in time.

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What is a Merkle root?

A Merkle root is a single hash that summarizes the entire contents of a dataset. It’s computed by hashing every item, then hashing pairs of hashes, then pairs of pairs - until a single root hash remains. 
Vector IDs: [id_001, id_002, id_003, id_004]
                │       │       │       │
             H(001)  H(002)  H(003)  H(004)
                 \   /           \   /
              H(001+002)       H(003+004)
                       \       /
                     Merkle Root
Key property: If any single vector ID changes, the Merkle root changes completely. You can instantly detect any modification with a single hash comparison.

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What VecLabs stores on-chain

The Solana Anchor program stores per write: 
{
  merkle_root: [u8; 32],     // SHA-256 Merkle root of all vector IDs
  collection_id: String,      // your collection name
  vector_count: u64,          // number of vectors at time of write
  owner: Pubkey,              // your wallet public key
  timestamp: i64,             // Unix timestamp
  slot: u64,                  // Solana slot number
}
What is NOT stored on-chain: vector values, metadata, encryption keys. Only the structural fingerprint.

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The verification flow

const proof = await collection.verify();
Under the hood:
  1. Compute Merkle root from local HNSW index (all vector IDs in sorted order)
  2. Fetch the latest Merkle root from the Solana program
  3. Compare - if they match, proof.verified = true
  4. Return the Solana Explorer URL for the on-chain transaction

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Why this matters

For AI agents: An agent that makes a consequential decision can produce an on-chain proof that its memory state at decision time was X. The proof is permanent. No one can retroactively claim the agent was operating on different information. For enterprise compliance: Regulated industries increasingly require audit trails for AI systems. VecLabs provides a cryptographic audit trail at essentially zero cost ($0.00025/write). For data integrity: Anyone - your users, auditors, regulators - can independently verify that your knowledge base hasn’t been modified without going through VecLabs. The proof lives on a public blockchain.

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Live program on Solana

  • Program ID: 8xjQ2XrdhR4JkGAdTEB7i34DBkbrLRkcgchKjN1Vn5nP
  • Network: Solana devnet (mainnet coming)
  • Source: Open-source Anchor program in the GitHub repo