Technical Reference

Glossary

Definitions of key terms in the Attested Governance protocol, cryptographic verification, and runtime integrity enforcement.

Core Concepts

Attested Governance Artifact(AGA)

Core

A cryptographically signed policy object that defines integrity constraints, telemetry policies, and enforcement mappings for a governed subject. The foundational unit of the Attested Intelligence protocol.

Policy Artifact

Core

A sealed governance object containing integrity baselines, telemetry stream definitions, enforcement rules, and cryptographic signatures. Immutable once signed.

Evidence Bundle

Core

A portable package containing the policy artifact, signed receipts, chain state, and verification tools. Designed for offline verification in air-gapped environments.

Sentinel Runtime

Core

The Local Governance Engine that monitors governed subjects, evaluates drift against policy constraints, and executes enforcement actions with signed receipts.

Technical Terms

Continuity Chain

A hash-linked sequence of receipts where each receipt includes the hash of the previous, creating a tamper-evident execution history.

Enforcement Receipt

A cryptographically signed record documenting a policy decision (CONTINUE, QUARANTINE, TERMINATE). Includes timestamp, policy reference, and action details.

Integrity Drift

Any deviation between observed subject state and the sealed integrity baselines. Triggers enforcement actions per policy mapping.

Launch Gate

The mandatory entry point for governed runs. Validates policy signature and time window before allowing subject execution.

Telemetry Policy

Defines up to five monitoring streams with cadence, drift rules, missing data tolerance, and enforcement mappings.

VerifiedBundle

The portable, offline-verifiable evidence package exported after a governed run. Contains all cryptographic proofs needed for independent verification.

Cryptographic Primitives

Ed25519

Elliptic curve signature algorithm used for signing policy artifacts and receipts. Provides 128-bit security with 64-byte signatures.

SHA-256

Cryptographic hash function used for content addressing, chain linking, and integrity verification throughout the protocol.

RFC 3161 TSA

Time-Stamping Authority protocol providing trusted timestamps for receipts. Enables temporal ordering verification.

HKDF-SHA256

Key derivation function used to derive per-stream signing keys from the Vault Root Seed.

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