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System Walkthrough

End-to-end governance workflow.

From artifact creation through runtime governance to offline-verifiable evidence. Eight steps, cryptographically proven.

Step 01at build

Artifact Creation

At approval time, a governance artifact encodes integrity parameters, permitted operations, measurement rules, governance policies, and validity period. Ed25519-signed; tamper-evident once sealed.

Step 02at build

System Launch

The Governance gateway verifies the Policy Artifact signature, confirms time validity, and parses governance parameters. Any failed check seals a denial decision; the handler that blocks execution is wired per deployment. Default state is denial.

Step 03runtime

Initial Measurement

The portal computes an initial integrity measurement and compares it to the sealed baseline. A mismatch seals a denial decision; the handler that blocks execution is a per-deployment integration point.

Step 04runtime

Continuous Monitoring

During execution, the portal measures at the cadence the artifact specifies: binary integrity, configuration, dependency checksums, environment metadata, and system telemetry.

Step 05runtime

Drift Detection

Any deviation from the sealed baseline is caught through deterministic hash comparison. The portal identifies which measurement class triggered the mismatch.

Step 06runtime

Governance Decision

The portal renders the artifact-defined decision and seals it as a signed receipt. At the agent boundary that is TERMINATE, QUARANTINE, or ALERT_ONLY; for safety-critical systems it emits an attested SAFE_STATE decision the control system carries out. The handlers that effect the action are integration points wired per deployment.

Step 07runtime

Receipt Generation

Every decision generates a signed receipt: measurement result, policy decision, timestamp, previous receipt hash, portal signature, hash-linked into a tamper-evident chain.

Step 08at audit

Evidence Bundle & Verification

Execution produces a portable bundle: the governance artifact, the receipt chain, Merkle inclusion proofs, and checkpoint references. Anyone can verify it offline.

Sample Data

End-to-end trace.

drone-governance-trace · illustrative 3-receipt scenario
1. Artifact Created 2026-03-17T14:00:00Z sealed_hash: sha256:3a1f...b7c2
2. Subject Launched 2026-03-17T14:00:01Z initial_hash: MATCH
3. Monitoring Active cadence: 100ms 847 measurements: PASS
4. Drift Detected 2026-03-17T14:01:25Z hash: sha256:9f4b...d12a != sealed
5. Quarantine Engaged 2026-03-17T14:01:25Z outputs severed (wired per deployment), inputs continue
6. Receipt Generated seq: 848 prev_leaf: sha256:00ab...ff91
7. Chain Updated leaf_hash: sha256:d7e2...4c03
8. Bundle Verified PASS (artifact: OK, receipts: 3/3, chain: CONSISTENT)

All hashes truncated. Sample data from the reference implementation drone governance scenario.

Next

Read the architecture behind each step.

The technology overview walks through every cryptographic primitive, every governance mode, and every verification step the gateway takes between artifact seal and evidence bundle.