Why integrity manifests + checksums exist

Audit‑grade by default

Even public downloads ship with verification artifacts so you can confirm you have the exact file we published — without trusting us blindly.

What is an integrity manifest?

A small file (typically JSON) that lists what was published: versions, included files, and their hashes. It is the “inventory + identity” of a release.

What are checksums?

Cryptographic fingerprints (SHA‑256) of files. If even one byte changes, the checksum changes — making tampering or accidental corruption detectable.

Why it matters in regulated work

Regulated execution needs tamper‑evident artifacts and a clean audit narrative (“what changed / why / who approved”). Verification removes “which version is this?” friction and makes handovers defensible.

How to verify (≈ 1 minute)

Compute SHA‑256 for the downloaded file and compare it to the value in MANIFEST.sha256 (or MANIFEST.json).

macOS / Linux
shasum -a 256 "FWL_YourFile.pdf"
Windows (PowerShell)
Get-FileHash "FWL_YourFile.pdf" -Algorithm SHA256

Verification is independent: it works offline and does not require trackers, accounts, or “phone‑home”.

Site release integrity (optional)

For the website itself, we publish a site-level integrity manifest + checksums so teams can verify deployments end‑to‑end.