Universal Governance Record Schema

Overview

The OMEGA Universal Governance Record Schema defines the minimum information structure required for a governed decision record. It is the canonical format for all OMEGA governance records — human decisions, institutional decisions, AI agent decisions, and autonomous system decisions.

The schema has two layers. The universal core is identical in every domain. Domain extensions add domain-specific fields on top without replacing the core. Every record in every domain must contain the full core layer. Removal of any field in the core makes the record incomplete and unsuitable for audit, insurance, or regulatory purposes.

Core Schema

Every governed decision record must contain these fields. The primitive_coverage field in metadata is true only when all five primitives are fully populated. A record with primitive_coverage: false cannot be used for audit, insurance, or regulatory purposes.

{
  "schema_version": "omega/v1.0",
  "session_id": "OMG-[hex8]",
  "record_id": "REC-[hex8]",
  "timestamp": "ISO 8601 UTC — at Confirmation gate",
  "domain": "human-readable domain name",
  "domain_pack": "omega.trading/v1 | omega.space/v1 | omega.energy/v1 | ...",
  "decision": "the decision considered, in plain language",

  "primitive_governance": {
    "authorising_entity": "who or what authorised this decision",
    "authorisation_scope": "what this agent is authorised to decide",
    "authorisation_constraints": "conditions under which authorisation applies",
    "within_scope": true | false,
    "governance_owner": "accountable authority"
  },

  "primitive_expectation": {
    "prior_state": "what was expected before this decision",
    "actual_state": "what was actually observed",
    "surprise_delta": "low | medium | high",
    "surprise_score": 0.0 to 1.0,
    "baseline_recorded_at": "ISO 8601 — when expectation was set"
  },

  "primitive_reasoning": {
    "chain": [
      { "step": 1, "type": "FACT | INFERENCE | ASSUMPTION | UNKNOWN",
        "content": "reasoning step content" }
    ],
    "conclusion": "what the reasoning determined",
    "assumptions": [
      { "id": 1, "assumption": "explicit assumption",
        "invalidated": true | false }
    ]
  },

  "primitive_confirmation": {
    "gate_type": "human | autonomous | semi-autonomous",
    "gate_presented_to": "who or what evaluated the gate",
    "threshold_applied": "decision threshold or criteria",
    "result": "COMMITTED | HELD",
    "result_reason": "precise reason for gate result",
    "safer_alternative": "string | null"
  },

  "primitive_traceability": {
    "acted": true | false,
    "acted_reason": "full reason for action or non-action",
    "record_hash": "SHA-256 of record excluding this field",
    "previous_record_hash": "string | null — preceding record in chain",
    "chain_integrity": true | false,
    "governance_version": "omega/v1.0"
  },

  "domain_extensions": { },

  "metadata": {
    "created_at": "ISO 8601",
    "created_by": "system or agent that created this record",
    "api_version": "OMEGA API version",
    "environment": "production | paper | test",
    "primitive_coverage": true | false
  }
}

Record Types

Type	acted	confirmation.result	Description
Action	true	COMMITTED	System acted. Full governed record.
Non-action	false	HELD	System held. Governed record of what was considered and not done.
Failed gate	false	HELD	Confirmation gate explicitly declined. Safer alternative recorded.
Incomplete	—	—	Missing primitive coverage. Flagged. Cannot be used for audit.

The non-action record is the most important type. It answers the question "why didn't the system act here?" without inference. For the first time, governed restraint is as auditable as governed action.

Domain Packs

Each domain pack registers a unique identifier and defines the schema for the domain_extensions field. The core record is identical across all domain packs.

Domain Pack	Identifier	Description
Financial Trading	omega.trading/v1	Signal evaluation, position decisions, non-action records
Space Systems	omega.space/v1	Autonomous space system decisions, manoeuvre governance
Energy Infrastructure	omega.energy/v1	Grid, heat networks, capital commitment decisions
Social Care	omega.care/v1	Case decisions, supervision records, court bundles
Software Architecture	omega.build/v1	Deployment, migration, architectural decisions
Property	omega.property/v1	Purchase analysis, capital commitment
Neurodivergence	omega.decode/v1	Situation analysis, hidden rule identification
Defence	omega.defence/v1	Rules of engagement, autonomous system decisions
Generic	omega.generic/v1	Any domain not covered by a specific pack

Domain Extension Examples

omega.trading/v1

"domain_extensions": {
  "signal_text": "the news or price signal that triggered evaluation",
  "signal_source": "source identifier",
  "source_tier": 1 | 2 | 3,
  "causal_mechanism": "identified causal path",
  "edge_quality": 0.0 to 1.0,
  "asset": "BTCUSDT",
  "side": "BUY | SELL | null if held",
  "size_usdt": 75.00,
  "entry_price": 69417.20,
  "confidence": 0.80,
  "novelty": 0.60,
  "chase_risk": 0.30,
  "regime": "EVENT_DRIVEN"
}

omega.space/v1

"domain_extensions": {
  "vehicle_id": "KESTREL-002",
  "mission_phase": "Re-entry",
  "decision_type": "reentry | collision | tasking | servicing | compression | manufacturing",
  "ground_contact_latency_ms": 600,
  "point_of_no_return": "T-00:02:00 — at this point abort is no longer possible",
  "certification_standard": "ESA ECSS",
  "irreversibility_note": "retrograde burn cannot be reversed once initiated",
  "regulatory_note": "this record satisfies flight certification audit requirements"
}

omega.energy/v1

"domain_extensions": {
  "asset_id": "BCL-HEAT-NETWORK-PHASE2",
  "asset_value_gbp": 180000000,
  "decision_stage": "feasibility | planning | commitment | operation",
  "primary_objective": "decarbonisation | resilience | cost | capacity",
  "primary_constraint": "budget | regulatory | technical | demand",
  "commitment_horizon": "25 years",
  "reversibility": "irreversible",
  "regulatory_framework": "UK Clean Power 2030"
}

Hashing Specification

The record_hash field is computed as SHA-256 of the canonical JSON of the record excluding the record_hash field itself. Canonical JSON means keys sorted alphabetically at every level, no whitespace, UTF-8 encoding.

Chain integrity is verified by recomputing the hash of each record and confirming it matches the previous_record_hash field of the following record. Modify any record in the chain and every downstream hash breaks. The chain is tamper-evident by design.

API Endpoint

POST /v1/govern

Universal endpoint. Domain pack specified in request body. Returns a complete Universal Governance Record.

// Request
{
  "domain_pack": "omega.trading/v1",
  "decision": "Should we execute a SELL on BTCUSDT based on extreme fear signal?",
  "context": {
    "signal_text": "Extreme Fear hits crypto markets",
    "asset": "BTCUSDT",
    "current_price": 69417.20
  },
  "expectation": {
    "prior_state": "Expected moderate fear, already_priced: 0.10",
    "surprise_score": 0.75
  },
  "governance": {
    "authorising_entity": "OMEGA Trading System v1",
    "authorisation_scope": "Autonomous paper trading within defined parameters"
  }
}

// Response
{
  "record": { /* full Universal Governance Record */ },
  "result": "COMMITTED | HELD",
  "primitive_coverage": true,
  "record_hash": "sha256:...",
  "chain_position": 47
}

Minimum Viable Record

A record has primitive_coverage: true only when all six conditions are met:

• primitive_governance.within_scope is populated (boolean)
• primitive_expectation.surprise_score is populated (number)
• primitive_reasoning.chain has at least one entry
• primitive_confirmation.result is COMMITTED or HELD
• primitive_traceability.acted is populated (boolean)
• primitive_traceability.record_hash is populated (string)

A record missing any of these is incomplete and flagged. It cannot be used for audit, insurance, or regulatory purposes.

Versioning

Schema versions follow semantic versioning: omega/vMAJOR.MINOR. Breaking changes increment MAJOR. Additive changes increment MINOR. Domain pack versions are independent of core schema versions. All records are permanently associated with the schema version under which they were created. Backward compatibility is guaranteed within a MAJOR version.