Getting started with the .NET Reader

Install the .NET MOCA Reader, open an example package, search it and cite what you find, then run the conformance corpus. You need the .NET 10 SDK, and Node.js 22 or later for the corpus runner.

1. Install the Reader

dotnet new console -o moca-start
cd moca-start
dotnet add package OpenMoca.Reader

2. Get an example package

support-kb is a small customer-support knowledge base: a refund policy in English and French, a shipping guide, and an internal account-deletion procedure. It is signed, one node has a signed review, and the refund policy quotes the customer terms it came from, which travel inside the package.

curl -fsSLO https://github.com/openmoca/moca-spec/releases/download/v0.6.0/support-kb.moca
curl -fsSLO https://github.com/openmoca/moca-spec/releases/download/v0.6.0/example-trust-root.json

The trust root says whose signatures you accept, and for what. This one trusts the example keys, which are published on purpose: use it for the examples only. To make your own, see your trust root.

3. Open it

Replace Program.cs:

using OpenMoca.Reader;
using OpenMoca.Reader.Attestations;

var pkg = await MocaReader.ReadPackageAsync("support-kb.moca", new ReadOptions
{
    TrustRoot = TrustRoot.LoadFile("example-trust-root.json"),
});
if (!pkg.Valid)
{
    foreach (var d in pkg.Diagnostics) Console.Error.WriteLine($"{d.Code} {d.Message}");
    return 1;
}

Console.WriteLine(pkg.Digest);
Console.WriteLine(string.Join(", ", pkg.Capabilities));
return 0;

dotnet run

sha256:4992176b90ea0992037617ee56d5dcafecf60aeb400cfa9369c9164453df96da
core, localized, located-evidence, reviewed, self-contained-evidence, signed

The digest covers every file in the package: change one byte and it changes. signed and reviewed appear because the signatures verify against your trust root; without one, they are reported as unverifiable. ReadPackageAsync never throws for a bad package: problems come back as diagnostics with stable codes.

4. Search and cite

Replace Program.cs again:

using OpenMoca.Reader;
using OpenMoca.Reader.Attestations;
using OpenMoca.Reader.Search;

var pkg = await MocaReader.ReadPackageAsync("support-kb.moca", new ReadOptions
{
    TrustRoot = TrustRoot.LoadFile("example-trust-root.json"),
});
var library = new Library().Add(pkg);
var search = new MocaSearch(library, new LexicalBackend(library), audiences: ["public"]);

var hits = await search.SearchAsync("How long is the refund window?", new SearchOptions { Limit = 1 });
if (hits.Count == 0) throw new InvalidOperationException("no result");
var hit = hits[0];

Console.WriteLine(hit.Text?.Trim());
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine($"Source:   {hit.Node.Title} ({hit.Node.Ref})");
Console.WriteLine($"Package:  {hit.Package.Id} {hit.Package.Version}, signed: {hit.Package.Signed}");
Console.WriteLine($"Digest:   {hit.Package.Digest}");
var reviewers = string.Join(", ", hit.Trust.AttestedReviews.Select(r => r.Reviewer));
Console.WriteLine($"Reviewed: {(reviewers.Length > 0 ? reviewers : "no")}");
Console.WriteLine($"Evidence: {(hit.Evidence.All(e => e.Matched == true) ? "every quote found in its source" : "not all checked")}");

dotnet run

Each result is a citation record: the text, plus the package, version and digest it came from, a versioned reference to the node, its trust signals, and its evidence, marked Matched when the quote was found in the original. Show your users where an answer came from, and log the digest with the answer so you can prove later what was read.

The search left out the internal account-deletion procedure: you asked for the public audience only, and nothing a caller does can widen that. It also leaves out content that is superseded, out of force or deprecated, unless you set IncludeAll.

When you hand results to a model, pass the text as quoted reference material, never as instructions (Reader contract §12). OpenMoca.Reader.AgentFramework does this for Microsoft Agent Framework agents.

5. Run the conformance corpus

The corpus is how every MOCA Reader, in any language, shows it reads packages the same way. moca-spec’s runner drives this Reader through its conformance adapter:

cd ..
git clone --depth 1 --branch v0.6.0 https://github.com/openmoca/moca-spec.git
git clone --depth 1 --branch v0.6.0 https://github.com/openmoca/moca-reader-dotnet.git
dotnet build moca-reader-dotnet/tests/OpenMoca.Reader.ConformanceAdapter -c Release
cd moca-spec
npm ci
node scripts/run-conformance.mjs --reader "dotnet run --no-build -c Release --project ../moca-reader-dotnet/tests/OpenMoca.Reader.ConformanceAdapter"

All 196 conformance case(s) pass.

Framework bindings: Microsoft.Extensions.AI embedders, a Microsoft Agent Framework context provider, and a Microsoft.Extensions.VectorData store backend.
Consuming packages: your own retrieval stack, structure, dense search and MCP.
moca-examples: a command line and a chat over a package.