Keep the original download and inspect provenance again after every delivery transformation. A source file containing AI metadata does not prove that a cropped export, messaging attachment or platform derivative still contains it. The useful question is which evidence is present in the exact file the destination receives.
Establish the destination's requirement
Read the receiving platform's own rules. For example, Google Merchant Center's AI guidance requires generative-AI images to include the applicable IPTC DigitalSourceType information and says not to remove embedded AI-source fields. That is a Merchant Center requirement; do not present it as the universal policy of every marketplace.
Write down the required field or credential and the file being submitted. An image caption saying “made with AI” may be useful disclosure, but it is not automatically the machine-readable metadata that an uploader expects.
Do not collapse different provenance systems
IPTC metadata can classify how an image was created. Content Credentials can carry a provenance record whose validation depends on the credential system and available evidence. These are related concepts, not interchangeable checkboxes.
Use an external metadata reader to inspect the fields and an appropriate credential verifier to inspect the credential. Follow the terminology in the IPTC user guide. If a tool does not provide a credential, do not create a label implying that it did. A manually supplied truthful description also does not recreate a lost original signature.
Worked example: an invented product-artwork delivery
This fictional example concerns a decorative product banner, not evidence of an actual platform acceptance test. The designer stores three copies: original download, edited delivery PNG and a copy downloaded after the platform processes the upload.
Their ledger has four columns: filename, editing step, observed AI-source field and observed credential status. The original contains a source field. The editor's first export omits it. The designer changes the export workflow, produces a second candidate and checks the resulting bytes rather than merely ticking an option. The platform derivative is then inspected separately because its processing is another transformation.
Choose an export workflow that preserves evidence
In an external application that supports the relevant metadata, inspect its export settings. Photoshop's Content Credentials guidance describes export choices, including attachment to the file and cloud publication. Attached information can be lost during later online processing, so its presence must be checked after sharing.
Keep the unmodified source and editing project alongside the final delivery. If a destination strips provenance, document that limitation and ask its support channel how to satisfy its requirement. Repeated screenshots or unexamined conversion services usually make the evidence trail harder to follow.
Deliver a truthful provenance note
State which copy was inspected, with which external tool and what was actually observed. Separate “field present” from “credential validates” and from “platform accepted upload.” None proves the other two. Do not include sensitive prompts or unrelated personal metadata simply because a provenance workflow has fields for them.
Create the artwork through Image Prompt when appropriate, then perform this inspection outside Imagild. The delivery is complete when the recipient has the intended image plus an accurate account of its surviving provenance, with no invented claim that a missing credential was preserved.