Open standard · v1.2 (rev. 10) · CC-BY 4.0

Decision Provenance Standard™

Audit-ready provenance for decisions made by humans and AI together — a record you can find in thirty seconds and trust, with a human signature on every consequential decision.

Read the Standard What is it? (1 page) Download

⚠ Read this first — what the Standard is not

The records are input, not evidence.
It informs regulatory frameworks without satisfying them.
Conformance is self-declared; no body certifies it.
It is not legal advice and not a regulatory substitute.

The one idea

As AI authors more of the work, “how was this decided, and who is accountable?” gets harder to answer. The Standard turns that question into a structured record — through four fixed building blocks that compose into audit-ready decision provenance.

The Charter

For a recurring decision class, it names what it governs, who owns it, the mode it runs in, where its records live, and what reopens it.

Two Modes

Mode 1 (human-authored, AI-checking) and Mode 2 (AI-authored, human-reviewing). Every record declares its mode; AI-authored content carries a disclosure block.

Human signature & seal

A record becomes affirmed only when a named human signs — then it is sealed and tamper-evident. There is no passive promotion.

Conformance levels

Three cumulative, self-declared levels: Charter-Conformant, Mode-Disambiguated, Continuously Auditable. No third party certifies them.

Read the Standard

The normative core plus four companions and the governance appendix. Each is a self-contained reading page with its own table of contents.

Core Normative

Charter, the two Modes, the disclosure block, the human-signature lifecycle, mode-drift safeguard, conformance, and the firewall.

Companion A

Regulatory Cross-References — the Standard's primitives as input to named frameworks.

Companion B

Worked Charter Library — full worked examples across Mode 1 and Mode 2.

Companion C

Implementation Guidance — pre-conditions and the install path.

Companion D

Diagrams — the eight reference figures with full text alternatives.

Appendix G

Governance & References — version-stability rules, bibliography, trademark/licensing.

Learn

Plain-language ways in — before, or instead of, the normative text.

One-pager Start here

What it is, the one idea, the four blocks, and what it is not — on a page.

Glossary

Every load-bearing term defined once: Charter, Modes, the disclosure block, the seal, conformance, the firewall.

FAQ

Is it legal advice? Does it make me compliant? Who certifies it? Mode 1 vs 2, Article 50, licensing.

Diagram gallery

The eight reference figures on one page, each with a full text alternative.

Explainer (full)

The complete plain-language walkthrough, with diagrams.

Explainer (concise)

A ten-slide entry-point version for a first read or a quick share.

Compliance & frameworks

The Standard is the decision-provenance record that feeds your compliance work. It never replaces it.

Comparison to frameworks

EU AI Act, GDPR, NIST AI RMF, ISO 42001, NYC LL144, Caremark, COSO, SOX, SOC 2 — as input that informs, never satisfies. A “does NOT do” column on every row.

Regulatory Cross-References

The substantive, per-framework mapping (Companion A).

The firewall Cite this

The load-bearing limits, on one bookmarkable page for counsel and auditors.

Adopt

For implementers and the engineers who maintain the records.

Implementation Guidance

The operational pre-conditions and how to land the Standard in practice (Companion C).

Badges

Write your own self-declaration, with your own AI assistant if you like, and get one piece of code: the badge, with your declaration inside it. Self-declared; no one certifies it.

Reference files

Machine-readable reference files (MIT): schemas, state machines, the signal list, the reporter contract and a test plan. The Standard does not depend on them.

Announcement

What it is, why now, what's available, and how to start.

Downloads

All six documents as PDF, Markdown and HTML, plus the complete release bundle with checksums. Earlier versions stay available.

Where things are

Everything that makes up the current release, and how the pieces fit together.

The Standard's text

Version 1.2, reading edition rev. 10, released 2026-09-28: read online. The exact Markdown, with PDF and HTML, is on the downloads page, with SHA-256 checksums. Earlier versions stay available unchanged: version 1.1, rev. 9 (read online, release bundle, checksums) and version 1.0, rev. 8 (read online, release bundle, checksums).

Machine-readable files

Reference release 5.1.2 at /standard/v5.0/: JSON schemas, state machines, the conformance-signal list, the reporter contract and the test plan. The folder keeps its v5.0 name so existing links keep working.

How they fit

Text v1.2 (rev. 10) is paired with reference release 5.1.2 (Standard §11.2); text v1.1 (rev. 9) was paired with 5.1.1, and rev. 8 with 5.1.0. Where the text and the files disagree, the text is the binding one.

Source and corrections

The published text is on this website. Its source and the reference files live in github.com/decision-provenance-standard/standard, where corrections are proposed and made in the open. Only a tagged release changes the Standard.

Comments and proposals

Open an issue or a pull request on the standard repository. Security problems: please report them privately.

Downloads

Version 1.2 (reading edition rev. 10): the six documents as PDF, Markdown and HTML. A complete release bundle (all three formats, the figures, and reference release 5.1.2) is below; the machine-readable files are also published at /standard/v5.0/.

Core

PDF · Markdown · HTML

Companion A

PDF · Markdown · HTML

Companion B

PDF · Markdown · HTML

Companion C

PDF · Markdown · HTML

Companion D

PDF · Markdown · HTML

Appendix G

PDF · Markdown · HTML

Download the full release bundle (.zip) — with SHA-256 checksums. Version 1.1 (rev. 9) and version 1.0 (rev. 8), including its Word files, stay available unchanged on the downloads page.