Accountable Record¶

Accountable Record (AR) is a language-neutral, data-first contract for information systems whose records must remain inspectable, contestable, auditable, correctable, and reusable under persistent disagreement.

AR specifies exported bundles, profiles, reports, conformance semantics, subject mappings, traits, claims, transformations, failure modes, and package contracts.

Start here¶

Scope - what AR covers and where its boundary is
When to Use AR - fit signals, readiness questions, and incremental adoption
Non-Goals - what AR intentionally does not decide or provide
Vocabulary - how AR terms are defined and governed

Core model¶

Subjects - record subjects, subject kinds, and subject structure
Subject Mappings - mapping external or domain vocabularies into AR subject structure
Component Groups - organization of related verifiable element types
Verifiable Elements - independently checkable AR building blocks
Traits - structural commitments made by record types and profiles
Claims - checkable requirements used by verifiers

Conformance and verification¶

Conformance - outcomes, claim selection, achieved levels, and report semantics
Verification - verifier contracts, evidence semantics, aggregation, and identity
Exports - bundle, profile, report, schema, extension, and operation boundaries
Transformations - declared changes and their effect on subject identity
Failure Modes - structural collapses AR is designed to detect and resist

Contracts and packages¶

Contracts - identity, package, and change contracts
Identity Contract - authority-based, version-free identifier rules
Package Contract - package composition, resolution, locks, and digests
Change Contract - additive, breaking, deprecated, superseded, and withdrawn changes
Packages - reusable element packages and package views

Implementation and operations¶

Commands- CLI commands for checking, exporting, rendering, and scaffolding
Configuration - project and tool configuration
Examples - example bundles, profiles, reports, and fixtures