---
title: "The mechanism: how the record gets written"
description: "The software behind the register: collectors, policy gates, an append-only SHA3-256 chain and an export surface, all inside your tenant."
url: https://policycortex.com/platform
sealed: 2026-09-02
amended: 2026-09-02
register: platform
records: 6
digest: sha3:36276f8499332ad9a9e3536ec02a8abfc45db2b7592863e409878cc750a22bc1
---

# How the record gets written.

Register / Mechanism

PolicyCortex is software that runs inside your tenant. Collectors read your cloud control planes and write hashed state records. Policy gates rule on every change the software makes, and on every autonomous action, before it runs. An append-only SHA3-256 chain keeps the records. An export surface projects them into OSCAL 1.1.2, SSP, SAR, POA&M and eMASS XML.

[Request verification](https://policycortex.com/contact) · [Read the architecture](https://policycortex.com/architecture)

![The PolicyCortex evidence package export: assessor-ready ZIP with complete evidence inventory, validation results, POA&M items, SSP, SAR, OSCAL and eMASS formats, and AES-256 protection](https://policycortex.com/images/pcx-evidence-package-export-1600.webp)

Exhibit M-1 · the package the export surface produces: inventory, validations, POA&M, SSP, SAR. One ZIP, hash chained, AES-256 protected. Illustrative demo data; the interface is real.

## Five components, one chain.

Five components, all inside your tenant, around one chain. Where each one runs and what it cannot reach is stated as network facts in the architecture; this record states what each one does.

- **collectors**: Read your cloud control planes with read scope: Azure, AWS, and GCP, including GovCloud and GCC High. Write one state record per resource per capture, with the raw provider response stored as the proof.
- **policy.engine**: Evaluates every gate locally against the evidence store and the recorded resource state. A gate that needs the internet to say no is not a gate.
- **evidence.store**: Append-only JSONL. SHA3-256 content hashes, hash chained per stream, seven-year retention, regenerable as of any historical timestamp. There is no update or delete verb.
- **decision.layer**: Proposes a captureState and restoreState pair and publishes a confidence figure. Cannot execute directly: execution requires 3/3 gates plus the trust mode you set.
- **export.surface**: Reads the store to generate attestation artifacts: OSCAL 1.1.2 native, with SSP, POA&M, and SAR produced from one implementation record. Has no write path to the store.

See also

- [Where each component runs](https://policycortex.com/architecture#boundaries)
- [The chain, and what a break looks like](https://policycortex.com/architecture#chain)

## What the mechanism produces.

The mechanism exists to produce three records. Each one is a page on this site with the field names, a verification run, and a stated limit.

### Proof of state

PROOF 01 / STATE

What a cloud environment was, captured from the provider APIs, content hashed, chained to the record before it, regenerable to any date inside retention.

[Read the record](https://policycortex.com/proof/state)

### Proof of change

PROOF 02 / CHANGE

Who or what altered the environment, under what authority, with before and after state hashes and a rollback identifier, on a chain that cannot be edited without detection.

[Read the record](https://policycortex.com/proof/change)

### Proof of agency

PROOF 03 / AGENCY

What a machine was permitted to do before it acted, what it actually did, and what would have stopped it one notch different.

[Read the record](https://policycortex.com/proof/agency)

## How a change is allowed to happen.

Every change the software makes, and every autonomous action, runs inside the same wrapper. The action is never the first thing that happens and never the last, and each stage writes its own record to the chain.

- **00 DETECT**: The condition is observed and recorded before anything is proposed. An unobserved scope is a declared gap, not a silence.
- **01 PRE-CHECK**: Blast radius bounded against the autonomy envelope. Target state pinned by hash. Policy gates evaluated: 3/3 required, or the action stops here and the stop is recorded.
- **02 DECISION**: The reasoning layer proposes a captureState and restoreState pair and publishes its confidence. It cannot execute. In GATED mode, this is where the human signs.
- **03 EXECUTE**: The action runs inside the envelope it passed at pre-check, within the change window, under the cost ceiling.
- **04 VERIFY**: The state delta is hashed and compared to what was proposed. A mismatch triggers automatic rollback, and the mismatch is recorded either way.
- **05 ROLLBACK ID**: The record closes with an identifier that reverses this exact action through a single API call.

The trust mode on the envelope decides who signs. SHADOW watches and executes nothing. GATED, the default, puts a named human on every action. AUTONOMOUS exists only for narrow, well-tested action classes, and still runs every gate on every act. The envelope's cost ceiling has its own page.

See also

- [The autonomy envelope](https://policycortex.com/architecture#envelope)
- [Proof of agency](https://policycortex.com/proof/agency)
- [The engine and the cage](https://policycortex.com/ai)
- [The cost ceiling](https://policycortex.com/platform/finops)

## How the record becomes a package.

The documents assessors ask for are projections of the record, not parallel artifacts maintained by hand. SSP, SAR, and POA&M generate from one implementation record; the package exports as OSCAL 1.1.2, with eMASS XML and evidence indexes from the same source. Monitoring against NIST 800-53, NIST 800-171, and CIS benchmarks is written as evidence on the same chain.

- **ato.packaging**: [ATO packaging](https://policycortex.com/platform/ato-authorization): SSP, SAR, POA&M, OSCAL 1.1.2 and eMASS XML from one implementation record, regenerable as of any timestamp.
- **monitoring**: [Compliance monitoring](https://policycortex.com/platform/governance-compliance): NIST 800-53, NIST 800-171 and CMMC Level 2, CIS benchmarks: every observation hashed, timestamped, chained, retained seven years.
- **federal**: [The federal record](https://policycortex.com/federal): The same record in the shape a program office expects: ATO, FedRAMP 20x, 800-53, 800-171, CMMC Level 2.

## How you check it.

Run it against your own environment. Read only. Fourteen days. A read-only connection is enough to produce your first state records and your first declared gaps, inside your tenant, against your resources. Then recompute the chain: it returns INTACT, or the first sequence number where integrity fails, with no PolicyCortex account or API in the loop.

[Request verification](https://policycortex.com/contact) · [How verification works](https://policycortex.com/architecture#verify)

## What it does not do.

**Stated limit.** PolicyCortex observes the clouds you connect: Azure, AWS, and GCP, including GovCloud and GCC High. What is not connected is not observed, and the record says so. It is software plus an optional fixed-scope engagement, not an assessor: it produces the evidence and the artifacts an assessment consumes and does not sign the assessment. The delivery team uses the same software; there is no internal edition.

See also

- [The optional delivery engagement](https://policycortex.com/engagement)
- [The license](https://policycortex.com/pricing)

Watch the record get written in your own tenant. [Request verification](https://policycortex.com/contact)

## Register colophon

| Seq | Label | SHA3-256 | Prev |
|---|---|---|---|
| REC 0000 | COMPONENTS | 3324e49c278a | 076b67657b91 |
| REC 0001 | WHAT IT PRODUCES | 56ce07e8b4c8 | 3324e49c278a |
| REC 0002 | THE GATES | e141f24ac91f | 56ce07e8b4c8 |
| REC 0003 | PROJECTIONS | 24f5d92f1ade | e141f24ac91f |
| REC 0004 | VERIFY | 5aa66e8dc1ff | 24f5d92f1ade |
| REC 0005 | STATED LIMIT | 36276f849933 | 5aa66e8dc1ff |

Head sha3:36276f8499332ad9a9e3536ec02a8abfc45db2b7592863e409878cc750a22bc1. Each digest is SHA3-256 over the previous digest, the register key, the record label, and the record copy; a second party can recompute it from this document.