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Cryptographic Attribution

Non-repudiable, cryptographically-attributed provenance for every AI decision. Who — or which NHI — called what Guardian, under what policy, at what time. Signed and anchored so the chain of custody is provable to a third party.

What it is​

Cryptographic Attribution is the provenance discipline woven through the Glass Box Ledger. Every verdict entry binds together the actor (human user, API key, or non-human identity), the Guardian version, the policy hash, the input hash, the outcome, and the timestamp — all under a KMS signature, all chained, all anchored. The result is a chain of custody for an AI decision that the actor cannot repudiate and a third party can verify.

Why it matters​

  • "Which agent did this?" becomes answerable. As autonomous NHIs take more actions, attributing each action to a specific identity, Guardian, and policy is the foundation of accountability.
  • Non-repudiation. A signed, chained, anchored entry cannot be forged or backdated — not by the actor, not by Trinitite.
  • Liability and forensics. When something goes wrong, the attribution chain tells you exactly who/what decided what, under which policy version — the forensic record an incident review or a regulator needs.
  • Composes with NHI Federation. Every federated identity's decisions are attributable back to the source identity provider and privilege tier.

How it works​

  1. Bind. Each ledger entry binds actor + Guardian version + policy hash + input hash + outcome + timestamp.
  2. Sign. KMS-HMAC over the canonical envelope.
  3. Chain. Each block's hash chains to the prior block.
  4. Anchor. Merkle roots anchored externally (RFC 3161 + Sigstore Rekor).
  5. Verify. A third party recomputes the chain and verifies the signature + anchor in a browser.

Get started​

  • Attribution is automatic on every governed call.
  • Query the chain of custody via the Logs API.
  • Share an attributed decision via the Public Verification API.

→ Evidence & Verification — the substrate attribution rides on. → NHI Federation — attributing non-human actors. → Glass Box Ledger — the architectural deep-dive.

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