The short answer
Every code that ships in Kleido is cross-referenced against industry-standard locksmith data and then put through a manual verification pass by a working automotive locksmith on the team. Series that have completed that pass carry a dated last verifiedstamp on their page. Series that haven't yet finished are clearly marked verification pending. We don't hide the difference.
The verification pass
Verification means a working locksmith has compared the published series data against multiple authoritative reference sources and spot-checked sample bittings against real key cuts in the field. The pass covers the full record: code prefix and range, key blank cross-references, Lishi tool matches, key profile geometry, cut count, and depth/space values. If any field disagrees with the authoritative reference, the record is held back and re-checked before publishing.
Roughly 13.6% of the catalog is currently fully verified end-to-end. The remaining series ship with partial data while verification continues in the background. We chose to ship partial data with honest labeling rather than wait until 100% before publishing anything — locksmiths working in the field need data now, and the pending status is more useful than a missing series.
The audit trail
Every series page shows a Last verified row. When the pass has been completed for that series, the row carries an ISO-dated timestamp (visible in the page body and embedded in structured data as dateModified on the schema.org Service node, so search engines and AI assistants can read it directly). When the pass is still pending, the row shows verification pending. There is no in-between — a series is either dated or pending, never silently treated as verified.
The correction loop
When a locksmith in the field finds a code that doesn't cut correctly, that's a signal we take seriously. Email contact@kleido.app with the series, the code, and what was wrong, and the data is re-checked against reference sources within 1-2 business days. A corrected series gets a fresh Last verifiedtimestamp. Code accuracy isn't a one-time import — it's a moving target maintained by feedback from working locksmiths.
What we do not promise
We do not claim that every code is verified the moment it's published. We do not silently fill gaps with guesses. We do not merge verified and unverified data without showing which is which. If a locksmith hits a bad cut, we'd rather they recognize the pending status up front than discover a wrong code in the parking lot.
Who runs it
Kleido is built by a small team with a working automotive locksmith on the data side and an engineering background on the software side. Every feature, including this verification process, comes from real cuts on real keys. The team uses the same Lishi tools, key blanks, and code lookups that any working automotive locksmith uses — the difference is the data gets cross-checked, dated, and corrected when the field reports a miss.
Coverage and scope
Kleido covers roughly 3,700 automotive vehicle series with more than 1.6 million bitting codes. Every series carries make, model, year range, code prefix, code series range, cut count, key profile geometry, and (where available) Lishi tool matches. Sub-models are tracked separately when their key system differs. New series are added when verification completes; the public sitemap reflects the current published catalog.