---
title: "Audit and provenance"
description: "Where a fact came from and who changed what, and what to ask to see."
url: "https://docs.octo.ad/decision-record/audit-and-provenance/"
id: "decision-record/audit-and-provenance"
type: "concept"
audience: "admin"
dateModified: "2026-11-06"
productArea: "the decision record"
keywords: ["audit", "provenance"]
---

# Audit and provenance

> Where a fact came from and who changed what, and what to ask to see.

## Three records

Three records have to exist. The decision itself, as structure: proposals, options, the verdict and the reasoning. The approval: who made it, when and what they chose. The trail: a complete, queryable, tamper-evident record of what happened and why, plus the provenance of the knowledge the decision drew on. OCTOPUS keeps all of them, and decisions are replayable rather than reconstructed from chat.

## Audit and provenance, by category

- **What the category typically offers:** Call logs with retention; provenance per document at best.
- **What OCTOPUS does:** A complete, queryable, tamper-evident record of what happened, when, by whom and why, with provenance for how each piece of knowledge entered and what it supports.
- **Question to ask any vendor:** Trace one answer back to its sources and to who created them.

## What to ask to see

- **Fully audited.** A complete, queryable, tamper-evident record of what happened, when, by whom and why.
- **Ask to see:** One decision read back from the audit record: who, when, what and why.
- **Provenance throughout.** The platform knows how knowledge entered, who created it and what it supports.
- **Ask to see:** The provenance of one fact.