Evidence Chain
Plan → Confirm → Trace: The governance triad that transforms agent actions into auditable, accountable records.
Definition
What is the Evidence Chain?
The Evidence Chain is MPLP's answer to the fundamental governance question: How do we demonstrate what an agent intended, what was authorized, and what actually happened?
In traditional software, audit trails are often implemented as an afterthought. In agent systems, they must be structural. The Evidence Chain supports that every agent action is preceded by explicit intent (Plan), authorized by governance boundaries (Confirm), and recorded with schema-defined semantics (Trace).
Governance Triad
Plan · Confirm · Trace
Each pillar serves a distinct governance function. Together, they form a continuous chain of evidence.
Plan
Intent Declaration
- →Declares what the agent intends to do
- →Specifies why (intent rationale)
- →Defines scope and constraints
Governance Role
Pre-execution intent capture
Confirm
Authorization Gate
- →Validates against governance policies
- →Checks permission boundaries
- →Records authorization decision
Governance Role
Execution authorization
Trace
Structured Record
- →Records what happened (actions, decisions)
- →Captures state transitions
- →Supports review and reconstruction
Governance Role
Post-execution evidence
Audit Readiness
Why Evidence Chains Matter
In regulated environments, the ability to demonstrate intent, authorization, and execution is often required.
Regulatory Assurance
Auditors often require evidence that agent actions were authorized and within policy boundaries. The Evidence Chain provides structured evidence to support verification.
Incident Investigation
When something goes wrong, the Evidence Chain enables precise reconstruction of the decision path that led to the outcome.
Accountability
Each link in the chain is attributed: who (or what) made the decision, under what authority, and with what constraints.
Trust Foundation
Organizations can deploy agent systems with confidence, knowing that governance is operationalized through explicit lifecycle gates and records.
External Resources
Evidence-based verdict viewing and export. Coverage reflects evidence maturity — not endorsement, ranking, or certification.
Live counts and verdict details are shown in the Lab.