Writing CAWG identity assertions

The Creator Assertions Working Group (CAWG) identity assertion enables a credential holder to prove control over a digital identity and to use that identity to document a content creator’s role(s) in an asset’s lifecycle.

The SDK can write and sign claims for CAWG identity assertions provided using an X.509 certificate.

note

CAWG identity assertions can also be created using an identity claim aggregator, but the SDK only read and validate claims for these kinds of assertions. It cannot write them.

Using an X.509 certificate

When providing an identity assertion by using an X.509 certificate, the value of signer_payload.sig_type must be cawg.x509.cose. The signature value must be a COSE signature as described in the CAWG Identity Assertion technical specification.

An identity assertion using an identity claims aggregator has this general form in JSON:

"assertions": [
  ...
  {
    "label": "cawg.identity",
    "data": {
      "@context": [
        "https://www.w3.org/ns/credentials/v2",
        "https://cawg.io/identity/1.1/ica/context/"
      ],
      "type": [
        "VerifiableCredential",
        "IdentityClaimsAggregationCredential"
      ],
      "issuer": "did:web:connected-identities.identity.adobe.com",
      "validFrom": "2025-04-29T17:34:44Z",
      "verifiedIdentities": [
        {
          "type": "cawg.<type>",
          "username": "<string>",
          "uri": "<uri>",
          "verifiedAt": "<DateTime>",
          "provider": {
            "id": "<string>",
            "name": "<string>"
          }
        },
        ...
      ]
    }
  }
]

Verified identity types

The following table describes the allowed values of the type property of verifiedIdentities array elements.

Value	Meaning
cawg.document_verification	The identity provider verified one or more government-issued identity documents presented by the content creator.
cawg.web_site	The content creator has proven control over a specific domain to the identity claims aggregator._
cawg.affiliation	The identity provider is attesting to the content creator’s membership in an organization. This could be a professional organization or an employment relationship.
cawg.social_media	The content creator has demonstrated control over an account (typically a social media account) hosted by the identity provider.
cawg.crypto_wallet	The content creator has demonstrated control over an account (typically a crypto-wallet) hosted by the identity provider.

note

The above table is based on the CAWG identity assertion technical specifications.

Example

"assertions": [
  ...
  {
    "label": "cawg.identity",
    "data": {
      "@context": [
        "https://www.w3.org/ns/credentials/v2",
        "https://cawg.io/identity/1.1/ica/context/"
      ],
      "type": [
        "VerifiableCredential",
        "IdentityClaimsAggregationCredential"
      ],
      "issuer": "did:web:connected-identities.identity.adobe.com",
      "validFrom": "2025-04-29T17:34:44Z",
      "verifiedIdentities": [
        {
          "type": "cawg.social_media",
          "username": "xyz",
          "uri": "https://www.instagram.com/xyz",
          "verifiedAt": "2024-10-08T18:04:08Z",
          "provider": {
            "id": "https://instagram.com",
            "name": "instagram"
          }
        },
        {
          "type": "cawg.social_media",
          "username": "xyz",
          "uri": "https://www.behance.net/xyz",
          "verifiedAt": "2024-10-22T19:31:17Z",
          "provider": {
            "id": "https://behance.net",
            "name": "behance"
          }
        },
        {
          "type": "cawg.social_media",
          "username": "J Smith",
          "uri": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsmith",
          "verifiedAt": "2024-10-08T18:03:41Z",
          "provider": {
            "id": "https://linkedin.com",
            "name": "linkedin"
          }
        },
        {
          "type": "cawg.social_media",
          "username": "xyz",
          "uri": "https://twitter.com/xyz",
          "verifiedAt": "2024-10-08T18:03:49Z",
          "provider": {
            "id": "https://twitter.com",
            "name": "twitter"
          }
        }
      ],
      "credentialSchema": [
        {
          "id": "https://cawg.io/identity/1.1/ica/schema/",
          "type": "JSONSchema"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
  ...
]