Foundations
Governance Layer
Governance interprets observed facts under explicit rule systems (EU AI Act, ISO, internal policies). Governance is allowed to be normative — but it must remain versioned, contestable, and non-destructive.
What governance answers
“Given these observed facts, what obligations or controls apply under a specific framework — and what changed since last time?”
Compliance & legal
Turn facts into defensible interpretations using a stated framework version.
Scenario: the same system is “high-risk” under one context and “limited risk” under another — governance makes the assumptions explicit.
Executives & boards
Understand exposure and readiness without turning the index into a PR story.
Scenario: a board asks for “what changed since last quarter” and gets a delta-based TrustCycle summary.
Non-negotiable boundary
Governance must never rewrite observed history. If an interpretation changes, the governance record changes — not the facts.
Next step
After governance produces artifacts, verification proves integrity and publication state — without claiming “goodness”.