Self-verification is not proof.

1. 01

   Objective and authority enter together

   A human states an outcome and, in the same act, declares the authority envelope it may be pursued under: permitted scope, explicit denials, budget ceiling and expiry. Admission is a check against that envelope, not a formality.

2. 02

   DoneState executes durably

   The run becomes a durable object. Leases prevent concurrent execution, idempotency keys prevent repeated side effects, and every state transition is recorded before the next begins.

3. 03

   Consequential effects go through AgentProof

   Anything with real-world consequence is prepared, authorised against exact state, executed exactly once and signed. The receipt is the durable artefact, not the log line describing it.

4. 04

   OpsTruth observes from outside

   The verifier reads repository, stack, test, build, CI, secret, config, route, runtime and deployment evidence at an exact commit. It holds no write authority over any of it.

5. 05

   Verification closes the state

   An attestation from the verifier is what moves a run from AWAITING_VERIFICATION to VERIFIED. Nothing inside the execution path can perform that transition.

Specimens are illustrative shapes, not records of real runs.

Definition — Proof & State

Proof & State is AI work accountability infrastructure: DoneState executes under declared authority, AgentProof authorises consequential actions and signs receipts, and OpsTruth verifies the result read-only from outside the execution path.