Aura CLI Recovery Demo (CLI + Simulator)

This demo shows Bob onboarding with guardians, losing his device, and recovering with help from Alice and Carol. It mirrors the scenarios/integration/cli_recovery_demo.toml flow that the CLI now drives through the simulator.

Story

• Alice and Carol each create their own authorities.
• Bob creates his authority and requests Alice and Carol to become guardians.
• Alice and Carol accept the guardian requests; together they form a guardian authority for Bob (threshold 2).
• A three‑party group chat is created and messages flow.
• Bob loses his device; guardians coordinate recovery and restore Bob.
• Bob rejoins the chat with full history intact.

Running the Demo

From the repo root (inside nix develop):

cargo run -p aura-terminal -- scenarios run --directory scenarios/integration --pattern cli_recovery_demo

This uses the CLI scenario runner plus the simulator to execute the guardian setup and recovery choreography and logs to work/scenario_logs/cli_recovery_demo.log.

Cryptographic Notes

Single-Signer Onboarding: When a user first creates their account (Alice, Bob, Carol each independently), the system uses standard Ed25519 signatures instead of FROST threshold signatures. This is because:

• FROST requires at least 2 signers (threshold >= 2)
• New accounts start with only one device
• Ed25519 uses the same curve as FROST, so signatures are cryptographically compatible

Once Bob adds Alice and Carol as guardians and configures the threshold to 2-of-3, subsequent signing operations that require guardian approval use the full FROST threshold protocol.

See Crypto Architecture for details on signing modes.

What Happens in Each Phase

1. alice_carol_setup

   • Create Alice and Carol authorities (simulated).
   • Each uses Ed25519 single-signer mode for initial key generation.

2. bob_onboarding

   • Create Bob authority (Ed25519 single-signer mode initially).
   • Bob sends guardian requests to Alice and Carol.
   • Alice and Carol accept.
   • Guardian authority configured for Bob with threshold 2 (now using FROST).

3. group_chat_setup

   • Alice creates a group chat and invites Bob and Carol.
   • All members join; context keys derived for the chat.

4. group_messaging

   • Normal chat messages among all three; history is persisted.

5. bob_account_loss

   • Simulated total device loss for Bob; he cannot access his authority.

6. recovery_initiation

   • Bob initiates recovery; Alice and Carol validate and approve the request.
   • Guardian approval threshold (2) is met.

7. account_restoration

   • Threshold key recovery runs; Bob’s chat history is synchronized back.

8. post_recovery_messaging

   • Bob sends messages again and sees full history; group remains functional.