FROM EVIDENCE TO READINESS
DACS turns a stated use into a testable, recorded readiness decision.
DACS evaluates whether the evidence supporting one stated decision scope satisfies the controls that apply to that use.
It does not certify an enterprise, platform, vendor, model, or repository. It creates a scope-bound basis for deciding what may proceed, what remains constrained, what must stop, and what requires remediation.
THE CONTROL BOUNDARY
One stated decision scope.
Use
What decision, recommendation, action, or analytical outcome is being supported?
Identity and grain
What exactly is being evaluated?
Boundaries
Where may the evidence be relied upon, and where may it not?
Authority
Who owns, approves, and remains accountable for the use?
The same evidence can be ready for one use and not ready for another.
THE OPERATING LOOP
Six stages connect declared use to evidence, evaluation, disposition, and reassessment.
The implementation can be manual, procedural, automated, system-enforced, or hybrid. The obligation is stable: make the scope explicit, test what applies, record what the evidence proved, decide what may happen next, and preserve enough of the basis to reconstruct and reassess the decision.
01
Declare scope
Define the use, grain, owners, boundaries, authority, and exclusions.
02
Bind the basis
Resolve the governing meaning, identity, relationships, context, authority, and evidence references.
03
Set applicable controls
Apply Core controls and add only the profiles material to the decision path.
04
Evaluate controls
Record Pass, Fail, or Not Applicable with the evidence supporting each result.
05
Apply the Gate
Use the control evidence to determine what may happen next and under what conditions.
06
Record and reassess
Preserve disposition, constraints, remediation, retest evidence, and review conditions.
A failed requirement does not disappear at the Gate. It remains visible until it is remediated, accepted within an authorized constraint, or the affected use remains restricted.
TWO ANSWERS – TWO PURPOSES
A control result is not a readiness decision.
DACS keeps these questions separate so constrained use cannot be mistaken for a passed control and unresolved failures remain visible.
CONTROL RESULT
Did this requirement pass?
A control records what the evidence proved against one applicable requirement for the stated scope.
Pass
Fail
Not Applicable
GATE READINESS
What may happen next?
The Gate uses the applicable control evidence to record the allowed readiness state for the decision path.
Proceed
Caution
Stop
Quarantined
An approved exception may support Caution. It does not turn Fail into Pass.
APPLY ONLY WHAT IS MATERIAL
Profiles keep the evaluation proportionate to the decision path.
Every evaluation uses the Core Decision-Scope Controls. Additional profiles apply only when their subject matter is material to the stated use.
Taxonomy concerns add requirements around governed meaning and classification. Ontology concerns add requirements around relationship meaning and permitted paths. When AI is material, additional obligations can cover AI inputs, outputs, inferred context, drift, execution traces, and agentic authority.
The goal is not to run every control. It is to run every control that matters to the declared scope.
CONTROL COVERAGE
Core Decision-Scope
Always applies.
Extended Taxonomy
When governed meaning, classification, or semantic grain is material.
Extended Ontology
When relationship meaning, paths, or constraints are material.
AI Context Contract
When AI-generated or AI-mediated context materially affects the decision path.
THE OUTPUT
Not a badge. A reconstructable record.
The record may live in a governance platform, repository, workflow, database, or controlled spreadsheet. DACS does not prescribe one storage technology.
What matters is that an authorized reviewer can inspect the basis for the allowed or restricted use.
PRESERVE THE BASIS FOR USE
The record preserves both the decision and what remains unresolved.
A scope-bound Conformance Record preserves the declared use, applicable controls, evidence references, control results, Gate readiness state, exceptions, constraints, and review conditions needed to understand why the evidence was allowed or restricted. Linked records preserve remediation and retest history.
When AI or automation is material, the supporting execution trace can also preserve the request, actor or agent, governed context, tools or APIs, model or process version, material concepts or relationships traversed, output, action, and applicable readiness evidence.
DACS conformance is evidence-backed and applies to a stated decision scope. A permitted readiness state does not automatically establish full conformance. Neither result constitutes certification of a person, vendor, product, platform, model, or enterprise.
START BOUNDED
One material decision path is enough to expose whether the control loop works.
A bounded first use can reveal what evidence already exists, what is missing, which controls fail, who owns remediation, and whether the Gate can make a recorded readiness decision without requiring an enterprise rollout.
Start with the decision that matters. Expand only after the evidence and control loop can support it.
GO DEEPER
See the normative controls
The DACS Specification defines the control requirements, applicability, evidence obligations, and conformance boundary.
See how existing controls contribute
Governance, lineage, observability, semantic layers, data quality, and AI guardrails can contribute evidence without becoming the DACS readiness decision themselves.