How It Works
The six-step proof process
From a governed event to an independently verifiable, replayable record.
Decision Evidence Canonical digest Receipt Verification Audit / review
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01
Governed event
An action or decision by an AI or automated system is captured as a governed event under defined authority.
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02
Content binding
The event's material content is bound into the record so the proof is about this exact content, not a detached reference.
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03
Proof construction
A verifiable proof structure is constructed over the content-bound event.
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04
Authoritative signing
The proof is signed under controlled, authoritative signing so its origin can be established.
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05
Evidence preservation
The signed, content-bound proof is preserved as a durable evidence record.
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06
Verification and replay
The record carries what is needed to check its proof and replay its governed sequence.
Receipt anatomy
What a governance receipt records
The example below is a labelled, synthetic illustration. It contains no production identifiers and no secrets, and the page makes no call to any verifier.
Synthetic example — not a live record
- Event reference
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Identity of the governed event.
evt:governed/2026/sample-0001 - Content binding
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The bound representation of the event's material content.
cb:sha-256:SYNTHETIC-EXAMPLE-DIGEST - Authority context
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The human/institutional authority under which the event occurred.
authority: institution / role (synthetic) - Proof structure
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The constructed verifiable proof over the content.
proof: consistency-structure (synthetic) - Signature
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The authoritative signature establishing origin.
sig: authoritative-signing (synthetic) - Preservation reference
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Where and how the record is preserved.
preservation: evidence-store/ref (synthetic) - Timestamp & sequence
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Position of the event in the ordered record.
seq: 000123 · ts: 2026-07-19T00:00:00Z (synthetic) - Trust tier
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The tier of assurance the record currently carries.
tier: signed content-bound proof (synthetic)
A receipt describes what it is and what it is designed to enable. It makes no claim of an always-on, unauthenticated endpoint and no guarantee of a fixed retention duration.
Reading the result
Four states, kept distinct
A record check is read one dimension at a time. UNKNOWN is not VERIFIED. FAILED is not a warning. NOT CHECKED is not FAILED.
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VERIFIED
The dimension was checked and the check passed. Verification is reported per dimension; dimensions are never reduced to a single overall result.
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FAILED
The dimension was checked and did not pass. Failure codes are reported verbatim, never softened into a warning.
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UNKNOWN
The dimension could not be determined. An unknown is reported as unknown — it is never presented as verified.
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NOT CHECKED
The dimension was not run. An absent check is stated as absent, never counted as a pass.