Specimen

An allowed write: a month-end journal entry

This illustrative specimen shows the proof record elan1 writes when an AI agent's month-end journal entry is allowed. It shows all 16 fields, the rules that ran, the approval, the committed change and the link to the previous record. The company, Kolam Components, is fictional and all data is illustrative.

Specimen A. A journal entry posted under month-end close rules, approved by a named person, committed by the single writer and recorded in 16 fields.

Illustrative specimenIllustrative specimen. Not customer data.

CommittedMode A · EnforcedL1 · GuardedL1 Guarded and L2 Attested available

Published 10 Oct 2026 by elan1.

01The record

Sixteen fields, read three ways.

Plain English for the meaning, the fields for the record, JSON for your tools, and the chain for how it links to its neighbours.

Illustrative specimenIllustrative specimen. Not customer data.

An approver committed journal entry je_specimen_5531 under month-end close rules, version 7, at 10:42 on 14 July 2027.

The record is number 1042 in this tenant's chain. It points to record 1041 by digest, and record 1043 points to it. The payload and the vocabulary are hashed, not stored. One governed action was counted.

Checked and recorded by elan1 Govern.

Proof record as JSONIllustrative specimen

{
  "_label": "Illustrative specimen. Not customer data.",
  "tenant_id": "tnt_specimen_01",
  "seq": 1042,
  "prev_digest": "sha256:9f3c…e41a",
  "write_id": "wr_specimen_7c2",
  "write_type": "journal_entry.post",
  "declaration_id": "decl_month_end_close",
  "declaration_version": 7,
  "policy_version": "2027.06.1",
  "actor_id": "usr_specimen_approver",
  "actor_kind": "human",
  "autonomy_level": "A2",
  "record_id": "je_specimen_5531",
  "record_version": 2,
  "payload_hash": "sha256:51b0…7d9a",
  "lexicon_hash": "sha256:e2c4…0b16",
  "recorded_at": "2027-07-14T10:42:07+05:30",
  "verdict": "committed"
}

02The path it took

Rung by rung, from STOP to METERED.

Every write takes the same route. Any rung can refuse; a refusal stops the climb and still writes a record.

0bSTOP Passed Writes are not stopped for this tenant.
1IDENTITY Passed Identity: the proposing agent, in tenant tnt_specimen_01.
2WRITE DOOR Passed journal_entry.post is on the month-end close declaration's list of write types.
3PRE-GATES Passed Pre-gates G1–G9 ran against the tenant's own data; the six that can never be skipped all passed.
4evaluate() Passed Policy 2027.06.1 evaluated the change with versioned rules. No model.
5GUARDRAIL Passed Blast radius measured against the declared limit for this write type.
6AUTONOMY Passed Above the agent's ceiling, so a named approver — not the asker — reviewed the difference and said yes. Recorded at A2.
7ACT Done The single writer committed the entry with a 10-minute single-use credential.
8PROOF Done Sealed under Seal v6 and chained to record 1041.
9METERED Done Metered: 1 governed action.

The Right Path in the reference architecture

03Field notes

What each field tells you.

F01 tenant_id to F16 recorded_at. The values are invented; the field names come from Seal v6.

Field notes, F01 to F16
Field	Name	Value in this specimen	What it tells you
F01	`tenant_id`	tnt_specimen_01	The tenant this record belongs to. Chains never cross tenants.
F02	`seq`	1042	The record's position in this tenant's chain. It only ever goes up by one.
F03	`prev_digest`	sha256:9f3c…e41a	The digest of the record before this one. It is what links the chain.
F04	`write_id`	wr_specimen_7c2	The identifier of the write intent. Every invoice line must carry one.
F05	`write_type`	journal_entry.post	The kind of write, from the declaration's list of allowed write types.
F06	`declaration_id`	decl_month_end_close	The declaration — the process's rules in seven blocks — that was checked.
F07	`declaration_version`	7	Which version of that declaration was in force at the time.
F08	`policy_version`	2027.06.1	The version of the policy rules evaluate() ran. No model, only rules.
F09	`actor_id`	usr_specimen_approver	Who acted: the named approver, or the agent that proposed the write.
F10	`actor_kind`	human	Whether the actor was a human or an agent.
F11	`autonomy_level`	A2	The autonomy level A0–A5 the write ran at; above the ceiling a person decides.
F12	`record_id`	je_specimen_5531	The record in your system of record that changed, or would have.
F13	`record_version`	2	The version of that record after the write.
F14	`payload_hash`	sha256:51b0…7d9a	A hash of the payload, not the payload itself, so personal data stays out of evidence.
F15	`lexicon_hash`	sha256:e2c4…0b16	A hash of the vocabulary the write was expressed in, so meanings cannot drift.
F16	`recorded_at`	2027-07-14T10:42:07+05:30	When the record was sealed, with the time-zone offset.

04How to verify

Check it without asking us.

At L1, the chain is the check. From L2, signatures and outside timestamps let someone else check it too.

seq 1041Previous recorddigestsha256:9f3c…e41a
seq 1042 · this recordSpecimen A · committedprev_digestsha256:9f3c…e41adigestsha256:4be1…90c7
seq 1043Specimen B · refusedprev_digestsha256:4be1…90c7digestsha256:d81f…3a52

Each record’s F03 prev_digest is the digest of the record before it, and seq goes up by exactly one. Change or remove a record and the next link no longer matches. That is what tamper-evident means at L1.

L1 Guarded · available

Recompute SHA-256 over the length-prefixed 16 fields (Seal v6).
Compare the digest with F03 prev_digest on the next record.
Check F02 seq goes up by exactly one. Walk the chain.

Tamper-evident to you; not signed.

L2 Attested · available

Receive the eight-member evidence bundle.
Check each Ed25519 signature and the Merkle root.
Check timestamps from two RFC 3161 authorities; run the free offline verifier with no network.

Signed and checkable offline, without us.

How verification works, and what it doesn’t prove

05Mapped clauses

What this record helps evidence — and what it doesn't.

Each row says what the record supports and what stays with you. No product makes you compliant on its own.

What this record helps evidence
Framework	Clause	Helps evidence	Not covered
EU AI Act	Art. 14	F10 actor_kind human: a named person, not the asker, approved before the change.	Training, competence and authority of the overseer.
EU AI Act	Art. 12	Automatic records of who acted (F09–F10), under which rules (F06–F08) and when (F16).	Whether your system is high-risk, and logging of the model's own operation.
ISO/IEC 42001	Annex A · event logging	A per-change event record you can sample for internal audit.	The AI management system itself. No certification is implied.
NIST AI RMF	MANAGE	Evidence that a risk response — a gate or an approval — ran at the moment of action.	MAP and MEASURE work: context, impacts and model evaluation.
India DPDP Act	Security; minimisation	F14 holds a hash of the payload, so personal data stays out of evidence.	Erasure duties as the Data Fiduciary stay yours; erasure alongside an append-only chain is set out in the library note on DPDP.
Companies (Accounts) Rules, 2014	Rule 3(1)	An edit log entry for the books: who changed which record, when, at which version.	The accounting software's own audit trail outside the governed path.

Clause references are our reading of each framework. Not legal advice. elan1 does not make you compliant on its own; see the regulation hubs for what each framework asks.

06Other specimens