Audit Records

Artifact Specifications — Specification v2.0.3

Purpose

This page describes the categories of technical artifacts produced by the system. Each artifact type serves a defined role in the evidentiary and procedural record. Artifact naming in this specification is descriptive and may differ from internal system nomenclature; such deviations do not imply a functional difference in system behavior.

Governance Events

Governance events are the foundational audit record. Every system operation that modifies state, evaluates a constraint, or records an action produces a governance event. Events are structured records containing:

  • Event type identifier classifying the operation category
  • Timestamp of the event at the point of recording
  • Actor identifier linking the event to an authenticated session
  • Engagement identifier scoping the event to a specific engagement
  • Operation payload containing the event-specific data
  • Outcome indicator recording whether the operation succeeded or was denied

Governance events are append-only. They cannot be modified, redacted, or deleted after creation. The complete event history for an engagement constitutes the authoritative procedural record.

Frozen Record Manifests

A frozen record manifest is a point-in-time snapshot of engagement state produced at a defined stage in the engagement lifecycle. The manifest aggregates resolved values, recorded submissions, authority basis documentation, and procedural metadata into a single structured artifact.

Frozen records progress through a defined lifecycle: DRAFT, GENERATED, SEALED, EXPORTED. A sealed frozen record includes a cryptographic hash computed over the complete manifest contents. The hash permits independent verification that the record has not been modified since sealing.

Closure Certificates

A closure certificate is the terminal artifact of an engagement. It attests to the procedural history of the engagement — what procedures were followed, what constraints were enforced, what the terminal state contains, and the cryptographic hash of the sealed frozen record.

Closure certificates are produced by the system, not by human actors. The certificate contains no discretionary language — it records what occurred, not what should have occurred or what the outcome means. Certificate generation is the final irreversible operation in the engagement lifecycle.

Inclusion Proofs

An inclusion proof is an artifact that demonstrates a specific material was included in a specific frozen record. The proof links the material's cryptographic hash to the submission record, the processing run, and the frozen record manifest. Inclusion proofs permit independent verification that a given material contributed to the final record without requiring access to the complete record contents.

Attestation Records

Attestation records capture formal assertions made by authorized actors within the system. An attestation is attributed to a specific actor, timestamped, and linked to the engagement context. Attestations are recorded as governance events and are included in the frozen record manifest. The system records the fact of attestation; it does not evaluate the truth of the attested statement.

Constraint

All artifacts are descriptive records of system-internal state changes and procedural operations. They do not constitute independent legal rulings, findings of fact, or expert opinions. The evidentiary significance of any artifact is a determination made by the receiving court, regulator, or institution — not by the system that produced it.

Specification Version 2.0.3 — Effective Date: February 2026