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General FAQ

Newton Protocol is a decentralized policy engine for onchain transaction authorization, built as an EigenLayer Actively Validated Service (AVS). It lets you encode, verify, and enforce rules — such as spend limits, sanctions screening, or KYC gates — directly within smart contracts. See What is Newton? for a full overview.
Newton currently supports Ethereum Sepolia (11155111) as both a source and destination chain, and Base Sepolia (84532) as a destination chain. Ethereum Mainnet support is forthcoming. See Supported Networks.
API keys can be created via the Newton Dashboard API using SIWE (Sign-In with Ethereum) or email OTP authentication at dashboard.api.newt.foundation, or by emailing product@magicnewton.com. See Dashboard & API Keys.
Newton data oracles compile to WebAssembly (WASM) components. You can write them in:Any language that compiles to WASM and supports the WIT interface can be used.
Standard validation (_validateAttestation) uses the PolicyClientRegistry to automatically resolve your contract’s policy configuration. It costs more gas but is simpler to use.Direct validation (_validateAttestationDirect) bypasses the registry. It uses less gas but requires your contract to manage its own policy reference.See Validation Methods for details.
Two-phase consensus (Prepare-Commit) takes approximately 4 seconds. See Consensus & Security.
Yes. Use newt_simulateTask via the SDK or Gateway RPC to simulate a full policy evaluation without any on-chain interaction. You can also test individual components:
  • newt_simulatePolicy — test Rego policy logic with provided inputs
  • newt_simulatePolicyData — test a WASM data oracle
  • newton-cli regorus eval — evaluate Rego locally with Newton crypto extensions
See Testing & Debugging.
A Policy is a reusable Rego program that defines evaluation logic (e.g., “block transactions over $10,000”). A PolicyClient is a smart contract that references a specific policy and its configuration parameters (thresholds, allowlists). Multiple PolicyClients can use the same Policy with different parameters. See Core Concepts.

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Common Errors

Cause: You submitted a task with the same intent hash that is already being evaluated.Fix: Wait for the existing task to complete, or modify the intent (e.g., change the nonce or timestamp) to produce a different hash.
Cause: The attestation proof failed BLS signature verification on-chain.Common reasons:
  • The attestation has expired (check expiration field)
  • The operator set has rotated since the attestation was produced
  • The attestation was produced for a different chain
Fix: Request a fresh attestation and submit it before expiration. Ensure the chainId in your intent matches the chain where the PolicyClient is deployed.
Cause: The Gateway could not find the policy associated with the provided PolicyClient address.Fix: Verify:
  1. The PolicyClient address is correct and deployed on the expected chain
  2. The PolicyClient has a policy set (use newton-cli policy-client status)
  3. The PolicyClient is registered with the PolicyClientRegistry
Cause: Your API key is missing, invalid, or lacks the required permission.Fix:
  • Ensure your Authorization: Bearer <key> header is present
  • Check that your key has the required permission level (rpc_read for simulations, rpc_write for secret storage)
  • Verify the key has not been revoked
Cause: Your PolicyClient contract was deployed with an older SDK version that is incompatible with the current protocol.Fix: Run newton-cli version check-compatibility to identify the issue, then newton-cli version migrate for automated migration.
Cause: The WASM component’s run function is not returning valid JSON, or the HTTP fetch is failing silently.Fix:
  1. Test locally: newton-cli --chain-id 11155111 policy-data simulate --wasm-file policy.wasm --input-json '{}'
  2. Verify your run function returns a JSON string (not an object)
  3. Check that HTTP requests use the correct URL and headers
  4. Ensure secrets are stored if your oracle requires API keys
For a complete list of error codes, see the Error Reference.

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Getting Help