Evidence
Receipt and execution evidence produced by WitnessOps operations.
Evidence is not every artifact a system emits. In WitnessOps, evidence is the subset of artifacts that supports later review, challenge, and verification.
1. Problem this page solves
Operational systems produce many outputs: logs, UI state, exports, notes, and runtime byproducts.
This page defines what counts as evidence in WitnessOps and what does not, so later trust decisions are based on checkable artifacts instead of presentation surfaces.
2. What you should understand after reading
After this page, you should understand:
- which artifact classes make up the evidence surface
- what each class is for in review and verification
- what is directly captured vs derived later
- what remains outside proof and therefore trust-based
3. Mechanism-first evidence model
WitnessOps evidence is best understood in this order:
| Artifact class | Primary role | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Receipts | atomic governed event records | proves a specific step or decision was recorded |
| Execution chains | ordered continuity across receipts | shows event order and missing or altered sequence risk |
| Proof bundles | portable packages of proof-bearing artifacts | enable offline verification without calling back to runtime |
| Sensitive artifacts | raw high-risk payloads, such as credentials, tokens, or user-linked content | may support findings but require strict handling and minimization |
| Mappings and export surfaces | indexes and manifests linking context to artifacts | improve retrieval and review, but are not proof by themselves |
4. Observed vs inferred
| Layer | What it includes | Confidence boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Directly captured | receipt fields, digest links, chain continuity fields, declared proof-bundle artifacts | verifiable from emitted artifacts |
| Derived | operational narrative built from receipt order and artifact relationships | depends on correct interpretation of captured evidence |
| External trust inputs | identity provenance, scope-source quality, policy-source correctness, outside legal or organizational approvals | not independently proven by the artifact chain |
5. Trust assumptions you must keep explicit
WitnessOps signs and links evidence artifacts, but does not independently prove every upstream system feeding those artifacts.
Keep these assumptions explicit:
- signatures prove artifact integrity relative to what was signed
- references to identity, scope, and policy depend on external systems being accurate
- raw outputs may be operationally useful but are not automatically proof-bearing
A receipt is evidence. A dashboard is presentation. A raw output may be neither.
6. Next-page handoff
Next, read Receipts to understand the atomic evidence statement and what a single receipt proves.
Then use:
- Execution Chains for continuity across multiple events
- Receipt Spec for field-level technical diligence
- Sensitive Artifact Handling for high-risk payload controls