Protocol

CRAIGS defines a protocol for decision integrity.

It does not describe how systems behave. It establishes what can be proven to have occurred when they act.

Most systems depend on reconstruction. Records are assembled after the fact and treated as if they represent the original event.

The protocol rejects that assumption.

Each decision must be anchored to verifiable state at the moment of action. Truth is not derived from persistence, aggregation, or replay. It is established at the point where the system commits.

This creates four conditions:

Authority — a decision originates from a defined and attributable source.
Integrity — the decision resists silent or implicit alteration.
Provenance — the conditions surrounding the decision remain visible.
Verification — the decision can be independently confirmed.

If these conditions cannot be satisfied, the record is not authoritative.

There are no assumed states between valid and invalid. The protocol is binary.