| name | c2pa-metadata |
| description | Embed C2PA (Content Authenticity Initiative) provenance manifests in AI-generated marketing assets (image/video/audio/PDF). Use when: preparing AI-generated ad creative, social images, or video for EU markets to comply with EU AI Act Article 50 (applicable 2 Aug 2026); embedding visible AI-generation disclosure in assets; meeting brand-trust transparency requirements. |
/digital-marketing-pro:c2pa-metadata — Embed Content Authenticity Provenance
Purpose
Wraps scripts/embed-c2pa.py to add a C2PA (Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity) manifest to any AI-generated marketing asset. The manifest carries a machine-readable provenance trail (who generated it, what generator was used, what prompt produced it, when it was reviewed) plus a visible AI-generation claim in the IPTC digital-source-type vocabulary.
This is the technical mechanism brands use to comply with:
- EU AI Act Article 50 (applicable 2 August 2026) — generative-AI marketing content must be marked in a machine-readable format using open, interoperable standards. C2PA is the emerging backbone. Penalty for non-compliance: up to €15 million or 3% global annual turnover.
- NY synthetic-performer disclosure law (effective June 2026) — $1K–$5K per violation, $10K repeat; applies to synthetic influencers and AI-generated endorsements.
- FTC May 2026 endorsement guidance — covers AI testimonials and synthetic creator content.
- Australia Online Safety Act / UK Online Safety Act — emerging deepfake disclosure requirements.
The resulting asset can be inspected by any C2PA-aware viewer (Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Truepic, contentcredentials.org/verify).
C2PA spec versions to be aware of (June 2026)
- Content Credentials 2.3 (released 9 February 2026 — launch post) added format support for: live video (broadcast/streaming), plain text documents, OGG Vorbis audio, large AVI video files, and EXIF Original Preservation Images. If a brand is signing live-stream video or text-based assets for the first time, 2.3 is the floor version to target.
- C2PA Spec 2.4 (April 2026 — spec.c2pa.org/specifications/specifications/2.4) introduces the AI Disclosure Assertion (
c2pa.ai-disclosure) for machine-readable AI transparency info — this is the assertion the EU AI Act Article 50 deployer pathway will rely on. The Code of Practice WG1 (providers) and WG2 (deployers) draft guidance both reference C2PA-style assertions as the canonical machine-readable marking mechanism. See skills/context-engine/eu-code-of-practice.md for the full Article 50 context.
- The C2PA Trust List is now handled via the public C2PA Conformance Program (any CA meeting the Certificate Policy can join). Production signing certificates should come from a Conformance-Program-listed CA, not an ad-hoc cert.
For DMP outputs: embed-c2pa.py now supports --ai-disclosure. Pass it to embed the C2PA 2.4 c2pa.ai-disclosure assertion alongside the existing IPTC digital-source-type claim. The combination gives you both human-readable (IPTC) and machine-readable (c2pa.ai-disclosure) EU AI Act Article 50 signaling — this is the deployer-side machine-readable pathway the Code of Practice draft points to as the canonical marking mechanism. See skills/context-engine/eu-code-of-practice.md for the full Article 50 context.
When to invoke
- Right after any AI image / video / audio generation step in the engagement workflow (Part 11 — AI Creative Instructions output)
- Before handing a generated asset to the design team for review
- As a pre-publish gate in
/digital-marketing-pro:check for EU-targeted assets
- Bulk-applying to a backlog of AI-generated assets before EU AI Act enforcement on 2 Aug 2026
Quick examples
/digital-marketing-pro:c2pa-metadata \
--input assets/q3-launch-hero.png \
--output assets/signed/q3-launch-hero.png \
--brand "Acme Corp" \
--generator "Vertex AI / Nano Banana Pro" \
--ai-claim ai-generated-content \
--prompt "minimalist product hero shot, soft natural lighting"
/digital-marketing-pro:c2pa-metadata \
--input campaigns/launch-video-v3.mp4 \
--output campaigns/signed/launch-video-v3.mp4 \
--brand "Acme Corp" \
--generator "Runway Gen-4" \
--ai-claim ai-generated-content \
--reviewer "Jane Smith"
/digital-marketing-pro:c2pa-metadata \
--input assets/q3-launch-hero.png \
--output assets/signed/q3-launch-hero.png \
--brand "Acme Corp" \
--generator "Vertex AI / Nano Banana Pro" \
--ai-claim ai-generated-content \
--ai-disclosure \
--prompt "minimalist product hero shot, soft natural lighting"
/digital-marketing-pro:c2pa-metadata \
--input assets/founder-headshot-edited.jpg \
--output assets/signed/founder-headshot-edited.jpg \
--brand "Acme Corp" \
--generator "Adobe Generative Fill" \
--ai-claim ai-assisted-edits
/digital-marketing-pro:c2pa-metadata \
--input assets/q3-launch-hero.png \
--output assets/signed/q3-launch-hero.png \
--brand "Acme Corp" \
--generator "Vertex AI / Nano Banana Pro" \
--ai-claim ai-generated-content \
--signing-cert /secure/c2pa-prod-cert.pem \
--signing-key /secure/c2pa-prod-key.pem
AI claim values (IPTC digital source type)
| Value | When to use | Maps to IPTC URI |
|---|
ai-generated-content | Asset fully generated by AI | algorithmicMedia |
ai-assisted-edits | Human-created + AI-edited (e.g. Generative Fill) | compositeWithTrainedAlgorithmicMedia |
ai-no-substantive-changes | AI used (e.g. upscaling) but no semantic change | minorHumanEdits |
The IPTC vocabulary is what EU AI Act regulators reference — using these values rather than ad-hoc strings makes the asset interoperable with the Article 50 enforcement tooling.
Supported asset formats
.png · .jpg/.jpeg · .webp · .gif · .tiff · .mp4 · .mov · .webm · .mp3 · .wav · .pdf
Signing certificate
Production C2PA signatures require a certificate from a CAI-recognized signing authority. The script will use one if you pass --signing-cert and --signing-key. If you omit them, the script generates a self-signed 90-day dev certificate for development testing only — a self-signed asset will verify as "signature present but signer not in trust list" at contentcredentials.org/verify.
For production deployment:
- Obtain a C2PA-compatible signing certificate from a CAI-recognized authority (Adobe, Truepic, Numbers Protocol, Microsoft Azure Confidential Ledger).
- Store the cert + key securely (do NOT commit to git; use an environment-variable path or secret store).
- Pass
--signing-cert and --signing-key on every production invocation.
Reference: opensource.contentauthenticity.org/docs/manifest/signing-manifests/
Python dependencies
c2pa-python>=0.5.0 — auto-installed on first run via pip installcryptography — only needed for the dev self-signed cert path; auto-installed if missing
Both are part of the plugin's Full mode (~50 MB) — see pip install -r scripts/requirements.txt in the README.
Output
The script prints a JSON status report to stdout:
{
"status": "success",
"input": "assets/q3-launch-hero.png",
"output": "assets/signed/q3-launch-hero.png",
"size_bytes": 482371,
"brand": "Acme Corp",
"generator": "Vertex AI / Nano Banana Pro",
"ai_claim": "ai-generated-content",
"created": "2026-05-16T10:30:00+00:00",
"manifest_assertions": ["c2pa.actions", "stds.schema-org.CreativeWork"],
"using_dev_cert": false,
"verify_url": "https://contentcredentials.org/verify"
}
Integration with the engagement workflow
In a full 12-part engagement, this skill plugs in at Part 11 — AI Creative Instructions output. After a creative brief is rendered as an actual asset (by your creative tooling or a manual creative process), the resulting file passes through c2pa-metadata before being checked in to engagements/<slug>/11-creative-briefs/signed/.
The /digital-marketing-pro:check pre-publish gate should also verify that all AI-generated assets in an EU-targeted campaign carry a C2PA manifest. v3.4 adds this verification to the EU jurisdiction rule pack in skills/context-engine/compliance-rules.md.
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