Diagnostics

Record Conformance Checker

Evidence level: parses a stream of STD-07 delegation records, validates it against the schema, recomputes the hashes, and returns the conformance level it actually earns against the level its emitter declares. Reach for it when a system already emits records; the Delegation Audit covers the case where it does not.

Permanent link /diagnostics/record-conformance

Overview

When to use the Record Conformance Checker.

Anyone holding a conformance claim they cannot currently check, including the team that published it.

  • A record stream exported from the system that emits it.
  • The conformance level that system publishes, if any.
  • The time the export was taken.

Estimated time: 5 minutes

Scholarly metadata

Authorship

Contact: diagnostics@ethotechnics.org

Publication details

  • Published: Dec 3, 2025
  • Last updated: Sep 6, 2026
  • Version: v1.2.0
  • DOI: Pending Zenodo deposit

License: CC BY 4.0

Credit Ethotechnics Institute Diagnostics Lab, include tool name + version, and link to the canonical permalink.

Archive snapshot: Wayback capture

Changelog

  • v1.2.0 · 2026-09-06 — Added the Delegation Audit, which walks one workflow through the six state variables.
  • v1.1.0 · 2026-01-09 — Published method cards, transparency notes, and replicability guidance for each diagnostic.
  • v1.0.0 · 2025-12-03 — Initial diagnostics suite release.

Copy citation (APA/BibTeX)

Cite this page Formats: APA, MLA, Chicago, BibTeX, RIS

Version

v1.2.0

Last updated

Sep 6, 2026

DOI

Pending Zenodo deposit

APA

Ethotechnics Institute Diagnostics Lab. (2026). Record Conformance Checker. Ethotechnics Institute. https://ethotechnics.org/diagnostics/record-conformance

MLA

Ethotechnics Institute Diagnostics Lab. "Record Conformance Checker." Ethotechnics Institute, 2026, https://ethotechnics.org/diagnostics/record-conformance.

Chicago

Ethotechnics Institute Diagnostics Lab. "Record Conformance Checker." Ethotechnics Institute. Sep 6, 2026. https://ethotechnics.org/diagnostics/record-conformance.

BibTeX

@misc{diagnostic_record-conformance,
  title={Record Conformance Checker},
  author={Ethotechnics Institute Diagnostics Lab},
  year={2026},
  howpublished={Ethotechnics Institute},
  url={https://ethotechnics.org/diagnostics/record-conformance},
  version={v1.2.0}
}

RIS

TY  - WEB
TI  - Record Conformance Checker
AU  - Ethotechnics Institute Diagnostics Lab
PY  - 2026
UR  - https://ethotechnics.org/diagnostics/record-conformance
ER  -

Methodology

Method, transparency, and replicability.

What the checker verifies from a stream, what it cannot tell you, and how the earned level is computed.

Inputs

  • A record stream as newline-delimited JSON, a JSON array, or an object with a records array.
  • Optionally the emitter's manifest, whatever its shape: the declaration is found by its fields rather than by a fixed path.
  • The conformance level the emitter declares, if it declares one.
  • The moment to judge clocks against, defaulting to now.

Procedure

  1. Paste or load the stream. Nothing is uploaded; the audit runs in the page.
  2. Set the declared level so an overclaim can be contradicted.
  3. Read the findings blocking first, then the note-level observations.
  4. Copy the readout and keep it with whatever the emitter published.

Outputs

  • The level the stream earns, and what holds it below the next one.
  • Findings graded blocking, finding, or note, each citing the clause it comes from.
  • The record ids each finding applies to.
  • A contradiction when the declared level is higher than the earned level.

Measures

  • Whether every record validates against the published STD-07 schema.
  • Whether the hashes recompute and the prior_hash chain links, so a removed or edited record shows.
  • Whether beliefs, authorizations and actions state what would end them, and whether a discrepancy was ever answered inside its clock.
  • Whether the emitter's own manifest agrees with its stream: the level it declares, and the record kinds it claims to emit.

Does not measure

  • It cannot tell whether a belief was correct or an authorization wise. A stream does not contain that, and scoring it would make this the nominal safeguard it exists to catch.
  • It reads what the records say about each other, not what the system did. A conforming log can describe a badly run institution.
  • A dangling reference is usually a partial export, not a defect.

Assumptions

  • The stream is the emitter's own output, exported whole rather than filtered.
  • Clocks are judged against the export time, not against when the page is opened.
  • The declared level is what the emitter publishes in its own manifest, read from the manifest itself when one is supplied.

Instrument prompts

  • Does every record validate against the schema the standard publishes?
  • Do the hashes recompute, and does each record chain to the one before it?
  • Does every belief, authorization and action say what would end it?
  • Was every discrepancy answered by a revision or an objection, inside the clock the record declared?
  • Does every record say who has standing to object, and has an objection ever actually been accepted?
  • Is the level the emitter declares the level this stream supports?

Rubric

  • Level 0: every record validates, with as_of kept apart from recorded_at.
  • Level 1: Level 0, and nothing edited — every record hashed, and chained through prior_hash.
  • Level 2: Level 1, and beliefs, authorizations and actions carry invalidated_by, with every discrepancy answered inside its clock.
  • Level 3: Level 2, and standing declared on every record, with at least one objection accepted and answered.

Scoring logic

  • Blocking: an invalid record, a hash that does not recompute, a broken chain, a discrepancy never answered, or a declared level above the earned one.
  • Finding: an ungrounded grant, an answer that arrived after the clock, or records hashed but not chained.
  • Note: a reference resolving outside the stream, a root record resting on nothing, or a condition with no clock to be judged against.
  • The earned level is the highest whose requirements carry no blocking finding.

Validation notes

Built against the two systems that emit the shape today, using the exported output of one of them as the worked example rather than a fixture written to pass.

Deterministic. The same stream and the same as-of time give the same readout, because every check is mechanical and none of them asks for a judgement.

  • Auditing a filtered export and reading the resulting chain break as tampering.
  • Judging clocks against now rather than the export time, which fails a record for the reviewer's lateness.
  • Reading a clean readout as evidence the institution is well run. It is evidence the log is well formed.
  • Treating a note as a defect. Most notes are properties of the export, not of the system.

Replicability

  • Export the stream from the emitting system, whole rather than filtered.
  • Load it here and set the level that system declares.
  • Set the as-of time to the export time if any clock is close.
  • Copy the readout and file it beside the emitter's own conformance claim.

Example outputs

  • Level 2 earned, Level 2 declared, and no blocking findings.
  • Level 3 blocked because no objection appears in the stream, so acceptance from outside cannot be observed.
  • A contradiction naming the earned level when the declaration is higher.

Sample output

Preview the conformance readout.

The earned level, what holds it below the next one, and findings graded blocking, finding, or note with the clause each comes from.

Read STD-07

Run the tool

Audit a record stream.

Paste or load a stream, set the level its emitter declares, and read what it actually earns. Nothing is uploaded.

Set the level by hand only when the system publishes no manifest. A declaration read from the artifact the emitter actually serves is the one worth contradicting. Leave the time blank to use now. Set it to when the stream was exported so a clock is judged against the emitter's lateness rather than the reviewer's.

Paste a stream and run the audit. It checks what the records say about each other: whether the hashes hold, whether references resolve, whether anything says what would change its mind, and whether a discrepancy was ever answered. It does not judge whether a belief was correct or an authorization wise, because a stream cannot show that.