A reissue is not complete merely because its new cover appears in a preview. The package may still carry an old creator, the wrong language, or an incomplete reading order. Visual cover presentation and bibliographic fields live in different parts of the publication. A reliable EPUB metadata check therefore begins with one edition card and maps every promised value to one final EPUB.
The controlled book contains four synthetic chapters, edition 3.1, and one cover PNG. This article uses only the cover-added output, studio-415-260903.110000.epub, as primary package evidence. Counts from an earlier intermediate export are not combined with the final result.
Freeze one edition card before export
The edition card records title STUDIO-415 検証本, creator 検証用著者, publisher 検証用出版者, language ja, edition 3.1, cover file cover-cycle4.png, and four chapter files. Title, creator, publisher, and language are values to read from the OPF. Edition 3.1 is traced through Rune’s volume setting and the generated colophon. The cover is checked through both the manifest’s cover-image role and the reference from cover.xhtml.
Putting the values on one card does not make them one test. A matching creator cannot excuse a wrong language. A PNG in the ZIP is not accepted as the cover unless the package identifies its role. Four chapter documents do not compensate for a navigation list that exposes only three chapter links.
Timestamp the card and identify its inputs with digests. Avoid labels such as “latest,” which become ambiguous as soon as another export exists. Every correction should change one named field while preserving the accepted ones.
Send bibliography, edition, and cover through separate operations
The retained run used rune epub series set for title, creator, publisher, and language. It used rune epub volume set --number 0 --version 3.1 for the edition, followed by rune epub cover set for the PNG. The four chapter files were selected and ordered before a deterministic export.
Separate operations create useful return points. If only the language is wrong, resetting the cover adds an unnecessary variable. The saved command JSON, standard error, and exit status establish what Rune accepted as input, but a zero exit code does not prove that the final package contains the intended values. The package must be closed and reopened.
The chapter inputs were chapter-1.md through chapter-4.md. Their selection and order were recorded as four items. An alternate order or an intermediate cover state is not part of the handoff candidate.
Identify the final publication by its digest
The primary file is studio-415-260903.110000.epub. Its SHA-256 is c0db14b45646f26b7e9cf675a07f446021d85d0596cdc1a2b6055fee31d64158, its size is 17,551 bytes, and its ZIP contains 14 entries. Every OPF, navigation, spine, and image value below comes from this same file.
A filename by itself is too weak because intermediate exports can have similar names. The handoff receipt groups digest, export time, and size, and supplies the same path to the inspection step. Rune’s bounded local inspection returned valid=true with no listed issues.
That structural result does not remove the need to compare individual fields. A readable EPUB can still contain bibliographic values that are perfectly valid XML but wrong for this edition.
Read four OPF fields and edition 3.1 in their proper places
The reopened OPF returned title STUDIO-415 検証本, creator 検証用著者, publisher 検証用出版者, and language ja. Each value matched the edition card. Compare exact values rather than approximate appearance; trailing space, an obsolete spelling, or the wrong language code remains a failure.
Edition 3.1 is a separate assertion. The run supplied it through the volume setting, and the colophon in this same final package contains 電子書籍 ver 3.1 発行. Do not count the edition as one of the four OPF values or invent an OPF version field that was not measured. The receipt can now say two precise things: the four bibliographic fields match, and the intended edition appears in the output’s colophon.
If a value differs, first establish that the card is authoritative. Then correct only that field, export to a new filename, and compare the old and new OPF or colophon. Preserve the rejected package instead of overwriting the evidence of what failed.
Count an eight-item spine and four chapter links
The final spine contains eight items in reading order: cover.xhtml, title.xhtml, nav.xhtml, p001.xhtml, p002.xhtml, p003.xhtml, p004.xhtml, and colophon.xhtml. This is a count of the complete reading sequence, not simply the number of manuscript chapters.
The navigation document contains four links, from STUDIO-415 検証章1 through 検証章4, targeting p001.xhtml through p004.xhtml. Every target exists in the ZIP. Spine count and navigation count answer different questions, so both remain on the receipt.
If only three chapter links appear, do not rebuild the accepted bibliography. Inspect the fourth chapter’s inclusion flag and target. Preserve the accepted eight-item sequence where possible, repair the navigation input, then reopen all four links from the new package.
Verify one cover as a role, a reference, and a file
The manifest contains one image resource, Images/cover.png, marked with the cover-image property. cover.xhtml references ../Images/cover.png, and that target exists. No body illustration was supplied, so the final publication contains one image reference, the cover. Package inspection found zero missing resources.
A visible preview is not evidence for the manifest role. Conversely, a correct manifest role cannot guarantee identical proportions, margins, or placement in every reader. This local acceptance is narrower: one cover resource, one cover role, one XHTML reference, an existing target, and no missing package file.
For a cover failure, compare the card’s source path, the cover set result, the manifest entry, and the ZIP target in that order. Freeze the four OPF values and chapter order while repairing only the cover route.
Hand off one package and label the unmeasured work
Acceptance requires all values to come from the same final digest: four matching OPF fields, edition 3.1 in the colophon, eight spine items, four navigation links, one cover-image resource, and zero missing resources. If any number was taken from another output, the audit is not complete.
The retained run did not upload to a retailer, obtain KDP acceptance, inspect storefront edition display, or measure the book in physical devices and third-party readers. It also does not establish image rights. Those are separate checks that should receive this exact final digest and their own acceptance records.
Rune Studio’s current product scope is described on the official site. OPF, manifest, navigation, and spine are general publication structures governed by the W3C EPUB 3.3 specification, not evidence of a particular retailer result. Keeping the edition card, final digest, and unmeasured boundaries together makes the handoff precise without claiming more than the package inspection proved.