Artifact Anatomy

A DAWG artifact is a portable, validated record of a browser reproduction. It contains captured evidence after sanitization and packaging; it is not a copy of the original application, browser profile, or runtime environment.

From capture to artifact

1. DAWG records the selected browser tab and any configured local inputs into a private session directory.
2. The sanitizer rewrites supported diagnostic and capture streams, then the OPA policy decides whether packaging may continue.
3. The packager validates the replay trace and records the artifact as an OCI Image Layout with content-addressed blobs.
4. DAWG registers the resulting directory in the local catalog. You can replay it locally, export it as a .dawg archive, or transfer it through an OCI registry.

OCI image layout

A packaged artifact directory has this shape:

<artifact-directory>/
├── dawg-manifest.json
├── oci-layout
├── index.json
└── blobs/
    └── sha256/
        └── <digest>

oci-layout and index.json identify the directory as an OCI Image Layout. Each blob is addressed by its SHA-256 digest. dawg-manifest.json is DAWG's validated description of the artifact: its schema version, logical ID, title, capture metadata, sanitization result, determinism settings, expected outcome, diagnostic summary, and layer descriptors.

The artifact ID and descriptors identify specific content. Changing retained evidence produces a new artifact identity rather than modifying the original one in place.

Layers and evidence

The manifest lists only the layers present in a capture. The current layer types are:

Layer	Contents	Notes
Environment	Environment lock data	Optional tar layer.
Database fixture	Normalized database fixture	Optional zstd-compressed tar layer.
Trace	rrweb events, browser actions, frontend HTTP data, and structured logs	zstd-compressed tar layer. A usable trace needs rrweb events, timestamps, and a FullSnapshot.
Cassette	Third-party replay cassette data	Optional zstd-compressed tar layer.
Diagnostics	Console, network, error, and browser device-profile records	zstd-compressed tar layer. Network records retain explicit evidence states.
Diagnostic bodies	Eligible retained Enhanced Diagnostics bodies	Optional zstd-compressed tar layer containing already-sanitized body files.

The trace provides a visual rrweb replay. It does not re-execute recorded clicks, restore cookies, or start the original application code. Diagnostic evidence is available for review and export, but is not injected into the replayed page.

Portable .dawg archives

A .dawg file is a ZIP-based transport archive containing the OCI layout. It is portable between DAWG installations, but importing it does not trust its contents automatically. DAWG stages and validates archive paths, links, entry counts, decompressed size, compression ratio, OCI descriptors, digests, and the DAWG manifest before adding it to the local artifact store.

Integrity and compatibility

DAWG verifies blob digests against the descriptors in the manifest before it reads evidence. The schema version controls which artifact fields are required. New artifacts use 0.4.3-omega; its flagged revisions require an Engine that supports the Omega review schema. Older supported schemas remain readable: artifacts from 0.2.3-naughty onward can be inspected, imported/exported, and replayed, though older artifacts can have no diagnostic evidence layers. The browser extension remains display version 0.3.5_middlechild; review flags do not require an extension update.

Privacy and fidelity boundaries

Sanitization runs before packaging, but it is not a confidentiality guarantee. Review an artifact before sharing it. In particular:

• rrweb masks DOM input fields, while the separate action stream and request metadata can contain entered values before sanitization;
• Safe diagnostics do not retrieve response bodies through CDP;
• Enhanced Diagnostics retains only eligible bounded text or structured bodies, and records captured, redacted, preview-only, truncated, blocked, unavailable, not-requested, or capture-failed when needed;
• browser device metadata includes only browser-exposed hints. MAC addresses, hostnames, and reliable IP addresses are unavailable, and DAWG does not call an external IP-discovery service.

See Sanitizer Policy for the policy and redaction boundaries.

Reviewed artifacts

Flagged review revisions

Chromium Editor adds portable review flags to an artifact without changing its captured evidence. A point flag records one timeline offset; a range flag records start and end offsets. Flags also carry a title, optional note, category, and severity. Save draft retains validated flags locally for the selected source artifact, so they can be reopened and edited before publication.

Save artifact creates a separate immutable flagged revision. The new manifest records the review root, parent artifact ID, revision number, review time, and flags; its OCI descriptors and logical identity are recomputed. The source stays unchanged, and later revisions preserve the same root while using the immediately edited revision as their parent. Flag titles and notes are portable content, so review them before sharing. Flags guide replay navigation; they do not delete evidence or modify rrweb state.

Evidence-removal copies

Replay can also remove complete diagnostic categories or selected retained body references. DAWG creates a separate reviewed artifact for that operation. It repackages the remaining evidence with recomputed descriptors and a new logical identity; the source artifact remains unchanged. Removed bodies are represented as unavailable in matching network records and are never recreated.

Inspect an artifact

Use the Desktop Inspect action or these CLI commands:

dawg inspect <artifact-directory>
dawg diagnostics inspect <artifact-directory>

Use dawg artifacts export to create a portable .dawg archive, or dawg artifacts import to validate and add one to the local catalog.