Field Guide · Glossary
The consequence architecture.
Keep the proposed action, policy result, permission, execution, observed change, and evidence distinct.
- Consequence
- The proposed business action being governed.
- Issue the refund or deploy the release. It is the action under review, not the policy result.
- Decision
- The policy result for a proposed Consequence.
- Aarmos returns allow, deny, step_up, or defer. The Decision is distinct from the Authority behind the request and from what execution later attempts or effects.
- Authority
- The bounded permission under which an actor may act.
- Authority has an accountable source, scope, and validity window. Holding Authority does not predetermine the Decision for a particular Consequence.
- Attempt
- The execution that was tried after a Decision.
- An allowed Decision may lead to an Attempt. A denied or deferred Decision does not imply that execution occurred.
- Effect
- What the observed system reports changed after an Attempt.
- An Attempt does not prove an Effect. Effect evidence is limited to what the governed boundary can observe.
- Evidence
- The signed record of what was known and observed.
- Receipts preserve the Consequence, Decision, applicable Authority, Attempt, and available Effect observations within the declared evidence boundary.
Supporting terms
These terms support the architecture without replacing its canonical distinctions.
- Policy
- The versioned rules evaluated against a proposed Consequence and its facts. Policy returns the Decision; it does not establish that an Attempt or Effect occurred.
- Participant
- An external system or authoritative evaluator that contributes a fact or evaluation about a proposed Consequence. Participants are declared, never inferred; Aarmos policy returns the Decision.
- Receipt
- The signed evidence envelope for a governed boundary. It keeps these records distinct so a reviewer does not confuse permission, policy result, execution, and observed effect.