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+# SeedPass interop — managed accounts groundwork
+
+Status: pointer / pre-work — 2026-08-18. Nothing in this repo implements it yet.
+
+## Where the shared spec lives (and why not here)
+
+The **SeedPass Vault & Identity Specification** is the format contract for the
+planned managed-accounts direction: one deterministic BIP-85 account tree that
+SeedPass (the sovereign superset) and BitLogin (an identity-management subset
+client) operate together, without requiring each other.
+
+Canonical location:
+
+> `SeedPass/docs/seedpass_vault_identity_spec.md`
+> (branch `port/typescript-web-extension` until PR #989 merges, then `main`)
+
+It deliberately lives in the SeedPass repo, not here, because that is where
+its **conformance oracle** lives: the spec is extracted from working code, and
+`scripts/cross_impl_check.py` (38 checks) plus the Python-generated fixtures
+in `js/packages/test-vectors/` are what a conforming implementation tests
+against. The spec's own change-control section says that where the document
+and the code disagree, the code and the cross-impl suite win. A copy here
+would drift — the exact failure the spec's preservation rules exist to
+prevent. Do not vendor it; link it.
+
+## The load-bearing rules (summary, not a substitute for reading it)
+
+- **Entry index = permanent cryptographic coordinate.** "Alice is managed
+  account #184" regenerates the same identity forever. Allocation is
+  watermark-based and ids are never reused, even across sync deletion
+  (spec §7).
+- **No shadow account numbers** (§8.4): BitLogin must never keep its own
+  mapping of account numbers to derivation indexes. The entry id is the
+  account number.
+- **Namespaced metadata** (§8.3): BitLogin's own data (roles, permissions,
+  org records) goes in `bitlogin:`-namespaced fields or `bitlogin_*` record
+  kinds. Both SeedPass implementations already carry unknown kinds through
+  byte-for-byte (enforced by cross-impl Phase L).
+- **Rank and independence rules for capsule unlock** (§11.1): a managed
+  identity must never be able to unlock the root that provisioned it, and an
+  unlocking key must not derive from the vault it unlocks. Normative — design
+  against them from the start.
+- **Subset writing** (§8.5): implement `managed_account` + `nostr` + your own
+  namespaced kinds; never create kinds you cannot correctly derive.
+
+## What this repo would consume
+
+- **`@seedpass/core`** (TypeScript, browser-safe: WebCrypto + noble/scure) —
+  the same library the SeedPass CLI uses. Importing it makes derivation
+  agreement true by construction rather than by re-implementation; the
+  Python implementation remains the independent cross-check.
+- **The fixtures + cross-impl suite** as the conformance test: any vault
+  BitLogin touches must survive a SeedPass open-and-save round trip
+  unchanged, and vice versa (spec §8.6).
+
+## Relationship to `docs/spec.md` (BitLogin v0.6)
+
+This repo's existing spec covers the current product: portable Nostr accounts
+(login name + password + recovery phrase, encrypted capsules on relays).
+The SeedPass interop is a **future layer**, not a replacement — managed
+accounts would make BitLogin an interface to a SeedPass-rooted deterministic
+tree, per the rules above. Reconciling the two specs (in particular: this
+repo's capsule format vs SeedPass §11.1 capsule unlock, and whether a
+BitLogin account's keypair can be a SeedPass-derived child) is the first
+design task when that work starts.
+
+## Preconditions before building on this
+
+1. SeedPass PR #989 (independent security review of the TypeScript core)
+   lands and merges. Everything above sits on `@seedpass/core`; do not build
+   an identity product on it before that review.
+2. `@seedpass/core` is published (or vendored by commit pin) — it is not on
+   npm yet.