transclusion · in your tab

Quote the web without copying it

Ted Nelson's Xanadu promised transclusion: include-by-reference, where a quote keeps its identity and provenance and the link back to its source can never break. It was never honest, because nothing forced the quote to equal the source. Here it is honest: a transcluded span is a verified dregg:// finalized read, running client-side in WebAssembly in this tab. The displayed bytes are the source's committed bytes — content-addressed, receipt-pinned, quorum-attested. Amend the source and a live quote follows; tamper the bytes and the quote refuses to open; and every quote registers a receipt-pinned backlink, so "who quotes me" is a verifiable fact, not a rotting index.

✕ the verifier is unavailable — nothing on this page is verified.
The WebAssembly transclusion engine failed to load, so no finalized read ran and no provenance was checked. Every quote below stays a darkened placeholder — exactly what an honest client shows when it cannot verify. A failed check is never a pass; a forgery is never painted.

1 · The document and its sources — side by side

The left column is a document that transcludes two published sources. Each quote is a real verified finalized read: the wasm engine publishes the sources into a genuine 3-of-3 quorum web of cells, then includes them. The right column shows each source's full committed text with the quoted range marked — Nelson's "see the quote in its home." Jump links connect the two.

federation height: —

the quoting document — essay

What the charter promises —

◯ awaiting the verifier — nothing shown here is a quote yet unverified placeholder

— and what the field notes add:

◯ awaiting the verifier — nothing shown here is a quote yet unverified placeholder

the sources — full committed text, quoted range marked

source · constitution
unpublished — the verifier has not spoken
—
source · field-notes
unpublished — the verifier has not spoken
—
the dial above chooses what the essay's quote shows: live re-resolves the same dregg:// ref on every render (the unbreakable link — it follows every amend); snapshot keeps the pin taken when the page loaded (I-confluence — the pinned receipt stays a valid leaf forever).

2 · Try to forge the quote

A lying node serves different bytes under the same citation. The client runs the genuine content→commitment→receipt→root→quorum verification, and the forged quote cannot be opened: it is refused with the named error, and the forged bytes are never rendered as content.

—

3 · A quote is a read, not a key

Projecting a transclusion for a viewer goes through the real membrane: the viewer's held authority is met with the source's lineage, and the result can only ever attenuate — a quote confers no authority over the source beyond observing the cited value. A viewer whose authority cannot meet the lineage sees the span darkened: the citation survives, the bytes are withheld.

what this viewer sees

◯ project a viewer to render their view —

the projection readout

—

4 · Backlinks — who quotes the constitution?

The other half of Nelson's two-way link. Every include registers the observing document in a reverse index, pinned to the receipt and content commitment it quoted — so a backlink is a verifiable claim ("essay quoted value V at receipt R"), never a hand-maintained pointer that dangles. Amend the source above, then re-quote: the new observation pins the new value, and the old one visibly remains a citation of the old value. Quotes are dated, not overwritten.

5 · Carry a verified quote to your page

One script tag makes any website carry a dregg-verified quote. transclude.js (shipped beside the dregg.works verify badge) fetches the source document's bytes from any untrusted host, hashes them in the visitor's browser, and matches the hash against the on-chain commitment fetched from a node the visitor can point anywhere. Only a match paints the span verified. A mismatch paints a refusal; an unreachable node leaves the darkened placeholder. A failed check is never a pass. 

<script src="https://<your-host>/transclude.js"></script>

<blockquote data-dregg="dregg://<64-hex cell id>#b=120-240"
            cite="https://any-host.example/charter.html"
            data-node="https://devnet.dregg.fg-goose.online">
  Your fallback text — shown darkened until the bytes verify,
  and NEVER replaced by bytes that failed the check.
</blockquote>

data-dregg names the source cell (the fragment #b=start-end selects a byte range of the committed document); cite is where the untrusted bytes come from; data-node picks which node answers for the on-chain commitment — the visitor's choice, cross-checkable. The host merely ships bytes; it is never asked to be believed.

Named floor: this demo's federation is the in-tab WebOfCells (a genuine ledger + a 3-of-3 quorum attestation, structurally verified); the embeddable script's trust root is the node the visitor selects. Everything shown is the executable counterpart of the Lean Dregg2.Deos.Transclusion theorems: transclusion_is_observed_finalized_read, transclusion_forge_refused, transclusion_no_amplify, transclusion_stable_under_source_advance.

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