qodiqa
SpecificationRun a simulation

Standard

Glossary

The technical terms on this site, in plain English. Hover or tap a dotted term anywhere on the site to see its definition.

Terms

Showing all 17 terms.

  • AnchorAudit and evidence

    A signed checkpoint of the audit chain, published outside the gateway so history cannot be quietly rewritten.

    More

    Not the same as a Cryptographic Integrity Anchor in the Terminology document, which is a signature or hash-chain element bound to one record. Here, an anchor is a checkpoint published outside the gateway.

    See alsoWitnessHash chainThe anchors repository

  • Canonical formCryptography

    One agreed way of writing data as text, so the signer and the verifier hash exactly the same bytes.

    See alsoSHA-256Domain tag

  • Consent artifactConsent and policy

    A short-lived document, signed with a key, that says what one request is allowed to do. The gateway checks it before anything runs.

    More

    The specification defines a Consent Artifact as a signed, immutable record of a consent state at a point in time. It names the consenting principal, the scope, the purpose and the validity window, and carries an integrity anchor.

    See alsoRequest bindingEd25519ReceiptHow an artifact works

  • Domain tagCryptography

    A label mixed into every hash so a signature made for one kind of document cannot be reused as another.

    See alsoSHA-256Canonical form

  • Ed25519Cryptography

    A widely used digital signature scheme. A private key signs; anyone with the matching public key can check the signature.

    See alsoConsent artifactReceiptSHA-256Keys and signatures

  • EXECUTE and BLOCKConsent and policy

    The two possible outcomes of a decision. EXECUTE forwards the request to the provider; BLOCK stops it.

    See alsoPolicyINTENTThe request pipeline

  • Execution boundaryConsent and policy

    The point just before a request reaches an AI provider, where consent and policy are checked.

    More

    In the gateway this is the single place every request passes: it decides EXECUTE or BLOCK before any provider is called. The specification calls the closed set of inputs to one decision a Decision Boundary; that is a related but different term.

    See alsoPolicyEXECUTE and BLOCKConsent artifactThe gateway

  • Hash chainAudit and evidence

    A log in which each entry contains the hash of the one before it, so changing history breaks every later link.

    See alsoSHA-256AnchorINTENTEvidence trail

  • INTENTAudit and evidence

    An entry written to the audit chain just before a provider is called. If it is missing, the call should not have happened.

    See alsoHash chainEXECUTE and BLOCKEvidence trail

  • Merkle treeAudit and evidence

    A tree of hashes that lets you prove one entry belongs to a large log without showing the whole log.

    See alsoTransparency logSHA-256Evidence trail

  • PolicyConsent and policy

    The rules the gateway applies to a request, such as requiring consent or limiting how often a caller can ask.

    See alsoEXECUTE and BLOCKExecution boundaryThe gateway

  • ReceiptAudit and evidence

    A small signed document saying the gateway recorded a decision. Anyone with the right public key can verify it offline. It does not say the decision was right.

    See alsoEd25519Transparency logTest vectorChecking offline

  • Request bindingConsent and policy

    Tying an artifact to one exact request, using a hash of its method, path and body. A different request will not match.

    See alsoConsent artifactSHA-256How an artifact works

  • SHA-256Cryptography

    A fingerprint function. The same input always gives the same 64-character result, and changing one byte changes it completely.

    See alsoCanonical formHash chainRequest bindingHow an artifact works

  • Test vectorCryptography

    A published example with known correct results, used to check that an implementation follows the specification.

    See alsoReceiptCanonical formSpecification documents

  • Transparency logAudit and evidence

    A signed, append-only record of decisions. Each entry is a leaf in a Merkle tree whose root is signed.

    See alsoMerkle treeReceiptAnchorEvidence trail

  • WitnessAudit and evidence

    An independent party that co-signs checkpoints with its own key, so the gateway host cannot rewrite history on its own.

    See alsoAnchorTransparency logThe anchors repository

Definitions restate the public protocol documentation in everyday words. The protocol text is authoritative: QODIQA-PROTOCOL.md. For the formal vocabulary of the corpus, see Terminology and Normative Definitions.