# Certificates

Each monthly close issues one certificate per account: a PDF for humans
and an equivalent JSON document (schema 2.1.0) for systems. Personal
plans receive a contribution certificate per category instead, stating
the account's share of a pooled retirement.
It is an activity record with exactly four sections, and it is engineered
so the strong assertion (what was retired) is never blurred with the
modeled one (what was estimated).

## Section A: Retirements

Confirmed retirements only, grouped by category, each with the approved
statement, project attribution as the supplier presents it (project name,
registry code, vintage), and the supplier reference. Water, carbon, and
renewable energy never share a block, no cross-category totals exist, and
RECs are never presented as carbon credits.

A funded order awaiting supplier confirmation appears in the console as
pending but **never on a certificate**. When it confirms, the period's
certificate regenerates to include it.

## Section B: Footprint estimate (informational)

The period's footprint estimate, shown for information. It did not
determine the quantities retired, which are the plan's fixed basket. The
section carries the methodology version (pinned), billable tokens by model
class, and the three estimates with their central values and 90 percent
ranges. The estimate disclaimer and the usage-phase
scope note are required adjacencies: the software cannot render a figure
without them, and CI fails if it could. Methodology notices (unclassified
model share over 15 percent, hidden-reasoning multiplier) appear here when
they fired.

## Section C: Required disclosures

Standing disclosures the record depends on, rendered from the same
configuration the software enforces:

- Water geography: restoration occurs in the project watershed identified
  in Section A, which may differ from the watersheds where AI
  infrastructure consumes water.
- REC resource type and the supplier's certification disclosure status,
  and that a REC is not a statement about the electricity that served
  your usage.
- Holder of record: R3CKON LLC retires in its own name for your benefit.
- Carbon project type: both basket projects are emission reductions, not
  removals.
- That restored water gallons and water footprint gallons are different
  quantities and are not compared or netted.
- The FTC two-year timing disclosure, when a funded reduction occurs two or
  more years after purchase.
- The retirement basket line: the fixed monthly basket the plan retires,
  which is not derived from the estimate. (Certificates issued
  under prior pricing models carry the disclosure line of the model they
  were issued under.) See
  [Billing](/docs/billing).
- That the certificate is not an audit and not a verification of the
  footprint estimate.

## Section D: Permitted use

A plain statement of what the record supports: activity claims using the
approved language in Schedule A of the [Terms](/terms), with filled
examples. Statements outside the schedule are outside the license. See the
[claims playbook](/docs/claims).

## Verifying a retirement

1. Take the supplier reference from Section A.
2. Contact the supplier (Bonneville Environmental Foundation) or, for
   carbon credits, look the project up on the registry linked from the
   [disclosures page](/disclosures). The retirement is recorded in
   R3CKON LLC's name, for platform users; your name does not appear.
3. Compare the project attribution and vintage on the certificate against
   the registry record.

Customers do not take title to instruments; R3CKON LLC purchases and
retires in its own name for the customer's benefit.

## The JSON document

The JSON mirrors the PDF field for field: `schemaVersion`, `issuer`,
`accountName`, `periodStart`, `periodEnd`, and the four sections
(`sectionA_retirements` with per-category entries and supplier references,
`sectionB_basisOfQuantity` with figures, disclaimers, token classes and
notes, `sectionC_requiredDisclosures` as a string list, and
`sectionD_permittedUse`). Fetch it from the console or via
`GET /api/admin/overview` (the `certificates` array), and the PDF via
`GET /api/admin/certificates/{id}/pdf`.