Governance Note

Authority vs Software: Deterministic Governance Before Execution

Governance authority is a deterministic role: it declares context, defines boundaries, and issues decisions that can be audited. Software produces evidence; authority interprets it. Legacy Lens keeps these roles separate and refuses claims that the evidence cannot support.

What governance authority does

Authority declares scope, context, and non-claims. It sets the rules for what counts as sufficient evidence and records those declarations alongside the findings.

Why provability matters

Deterministic guarantees are bounded by what source artifacts can prove. When a boundary exists, authority records it and stops. This prevents implicit promises that cannot be defended in audit or regulator review.

Governance consequence

Decisions issued without clear authority boundaries are non-defensible. Decisions issued with explicit boundaries, hashes, and context are replayable and survive scrutiny.

Authority boundary statement

Where provability terminates, authority terminates.

Evidence and verification

Context declarations and decisions are included in the evidence bundle.
Hashes bind governance notes to the same immutable record as findings.
Replay produces identical governance statements alongside technical evidence.

Verified authority record

View a verified bundle showing recorded governance context: Download authority record (PDF)