4. Terms and Definitions

4.1 DACS. Defensible Analytics Control Specification. A vendor-neutral, implementation-neutral control specification for determining whether decision evidence is ready for stated use within a stated decision scope.

4.2 Defensible Analytics. The outcome in which a material analytics, AI-assisted, automated, or executive decision path can be reconstructed and tested to show which meaning, identity, classification, relationships, context, authority, control results, Gate Records and readiness states, and evidence supported the stated use at the time. DACS does not guarantee that every result is correct, lawful, optimal, or risk-free.

4.3 SIM. System of Information Management. The enterprise system that governs information as a business asset by managing meaning, identity, classification, relationships, context, continuity, readiness, controls, delivery, and accountability.

4.4 SIM-ZONE. A defined state or area of information readiness within SIM. Each SIM-ZONE has entry criteria, exit criteria, permitted uses, and Gate controls.

4.5 Gate. An enforceable control point that applies approved DACS control criteria or Gate logic to evidence and records a readiness state before information moves forward or is used for a stated decision scope. A Gate may be manual, procedural, automated, system-enforced, or hybrid. A Gate does not create its own authority; it operates under the responsible authority or approved rule.

4.6 Discovery. The identification of candidate identity, classification, relationship, pattern, signal, risk, output, or decision evidence. Discovery may create useful candidate evidence, but it does not by itself establish readiness for stated use.

4.7 DACS Conformance. The state in which a defined decision scope meets all applicable mandatory requirements of this specification. Every applicable mandatory control must Pass. Controls that do not apply must be recorded as Not Applicable with reason.

4.8 Semantic Contract. The governed agreement that defines how an enterprise interprets business concepts, identifies instances of those concepts, classifies them, relates them, constrains their use, preserves their context, and tests their readiness for decision use.

4.9 Extended Taxonomy. A DACS Extended Taxonomy defines governed classification and physical semantic anchoring. It extends controlled business language into the physical data estate by binding approved concepts to source systems, physical attributes, business identifiers, semantic grain, ownership, provenance, and resolution rules that represent those concepts in real systems.

4.10 Extended Ontology. A DACS Extended Ontology defines governed relationship meaning and physical relationship anchoring. It extends ontology into the physical data estate by connecting approved relationship types, source systems, business identifiers, physical joins, relationship attributes, semantic grain, provenance, constraints, evidence, and permitted relationship paths.

4.11 Business Identity. A durable identity rule, stable business identifier, or approved resolution method used to distinguish a specific business instance across systems and time at a declared semantic grain.

4.12 Semantic Grain. The business level at which a concept, identity, classification, relationship, or count is unique, meaningful, and comparable for the stated decision scope.

4.13 Physical Attribution. Source-level evidence identifying where a value, code, event, record, document, assertion, relationship, or identifier came from. It may include source system, source domain, object, table, field, file, event, message, API, code set, reference package, stewardship record, or equivalent source reference.

4.14 Relationship Assertion. A declared, inferred, discovered, imported, or derived claim that two or more governed concepts or instances are related in a specific way for a stated decision scope.

4.15 Relationship Vector. A recorded evaluation of a material relationship containing Strength, Confidence, and Orientation for a stated decision scope.

4.16 Strength. The practical force or influence of a relationship for a stated decision scope, measured or assessed against defined criteria.

4.17 Confidence. The evidence quality, support, repeatability, recency, and reliability behind a relationship for a stated decision scope, measured or assessed against defined criteria.

4.18 Orientation. The directional nature of a relationship, such as authority, sequence, dependency, ownership, lineage, hierarchy, flow, support, inclusion, identification, reconciliation, constraint, or causality when causality has been separately established.

4.19 Binding AI Context Contract. The governed context contract used to test AI behavior for a stated decision scope. It combines Extended Taxonomy, Extended Ontology, Business Identity, preserved context, relationship vectors, permitted paths, prohibited paths, governance constraints, Gate criteria, drift rules, and evidence requirements.

4.20 Context Enforcement Point. A system, service, workflow, Gate, API layer, orchestration layer, semantic layer, governance process, or equivalent mechanism that applies DACS context rules before information, context, relationships, tools, actions, or AI outputs are used for a stated decision scope.

4.21 Decision Path. The recorded chain of identity, classification, relationships, context, Gate Records and readiness states, evidence, and output used to produce a material analytic, recommendation, action, or decision.

4.22 Decision Execution Trace. A structured evidence record of the request, actor or agent, inputs, and context. It also captures tools or APIs where applicable, model or process version where applicable, governed concepts used, and relationships traversed. It preserves Gate Records and resulting readiness states, output, action, and applicable conformance, constraint, or exception state.

4.23 Conformance Record. The specific structured DACS record that preserves the decision scope, applicable Profiles and controls, control results, and evidence references. It also preserves Gate Records and resulting readiness states, responsible authority or rule references, and Materiality Rule, Applicability Rule, and Equivalence Rule references where used. The record includes timing, readiness validity, constraints or exceptions, and review conditions.

4.24 Certification. A formal status or credential issued or recognized by DataVaultAlliance under an official certification program. Certification is distinct from DACS control conformance and Gate readiness for a decision scope.

4.25 Gate Record. The structured DACS record created at a Gate. It identifies the decision scope, evaluated control IDs, control results, evidence references, responsible authority or approved automated rule, and timestamp or effective period. It also identifies the resulting Gate readiness state, applicable constraints or exception references, readiness validity condition, and review condition.

4.26 Materiality Rule. A recorded decision-scope rule that defines observable criteria or thresholds for materiality. These determine which concepts, identities, evidence items, relationships, changes, AI inputs, outputs, recommendations, or actions are material to the stated use. If no applicable Materiality Rule can resolve a required materiality condition, that condition is unresolved and the affected control fails.

4.27 Applicability Rule. A recorded rule that determines whether a profile, control, evidence element, or conditional requirement applies to the stated decision scope. The rule shall reference observable scope facts or conditions. Unresolved applicability is not Not Applicable.

4.28 Approved or Authorized. Backed by a recorded accountable authority reference or pre-authorized rule reference that is valid for the stated decision scope and effective period. Approval or authorization shall not be inferred from availability, prior use, technical access, or assessor judgment.

4.29 Equivalent or Compatible. An alternative evidence item, control mechanism, representation, or semantic condition qualifies as equivalent or compatible only under a recorded Equivalence Rule. That rule must define the comparison criteria. The evidence must satisfy those criteria for the stated decision scope.

4.30 Readiness Validity Condition. The recorded expiration timestamp, effective-period end, or event-triggered reassessment rule that determines whether a Proceed or Caution Gate readiness state remains valid for new material reliance.

4.31 Relationship Candidate Record. A structured record for a discovered, inferred, imported, generated, or derived relationship candidate. It preserves a stable relationship-candidate identifier, source and provenance, discovery or inference method, decision scope, current readiness state, and the Extended Ontology review reference when ontology review is required.

4.32 Ambiguous Condition. A condition is ambiguous under DACS only when both of the following are true. First, two or more in-scope records, rules, meanings, identity rules, relationship rules, authority references, or values produce different applicable interpretations or results. Second, no recorded precedence, resolution, or Multi-Value Rule determines how to govern those differences for the stated decision scope. Multiple simultaneously valid values are not ambiguous when an applicable Multi-Value Rule explicitly permits them.

4.33 Multi-Value Rule. A recorded decision-scope rule that explicitly permits more than one simultaneously valid value, identity attribute, classification, relationship, or context assertion. It defines the allowed cardinality, semantic grain, grouping or partitioning rule, authority, permitted use, and any required precedence or reconciliation behavior. Without such a rule, conflicting in-scope values remain an Ambiguous Condition.

4.34 Buffered Gate Capture. A complete pre-action capture of the Gate determination and Section 9.1 payload used when a high-frequency path permits bounded delayed durable persistence. It records a stable Gate identifier, capture time, trace link, evaluated results, required follow-up evaluations, and maximum persistence interval. Authorization occurs before action. Completion checks occur when persistence finishes or its deadline expires.

4.35 Circular Reliance. Direct or indirect reliance in which a control result, rule, authority reference, Gate Record, Conformance Record, or evidence item depends on itself to be valid. This also includes reliance on a downstream artifact that needs the same unresolved prerequisite to be valid. Circular Reliance is not valid evidence under DACS. It causes the affected control to Fail unless independent authoritative evidence breaks the dependency cycle.

4.36 Bootstrap Scope Record. An initial worksheet or record used to collect the decision or use, boundaries, grain, owner, identifier, and version required by CORE-001, followed by the rule references needed for CORE-002. When complete, it supplies scope evidence for assessment. It does not itself grant Pass, a Gate readiness state, conformance, or permission for material reliance.

4.37 Boundary Evidence Anchor. A governed surrogate physical-attribution record used when direct inspection of an external, legacy, proprietary, or third-party source is legitimately unavailable. It identifies the exact external evidence consumed, its interface or contract and version, payload/event/message/document identity, and time or effective period. It also records a fingerprint where possible, supporting attestation where available, the inaccessible boundary, and decision-scope mapping. Attestation alone is not sufficient.

4.38 Causal Ordering Rule. A recorded rule for reconstructing event order in distributed or asynchronous paths using authoritative time sources, declared clock uncertainty, correlation identifiers, sequence numbers, logical clocks, or equivalent causal evidence. DACS does not impose a universal millisecond tolerance.

4.39 Human Decision Record. A governed record for a material human step. It preserves the actor or role, authority, material inputs and evidence relied upon, and applicable rule or criterion. It also preserves the decision or action, timestamp or effective period, material exception or override, and relevant Gate reference.

4.40 Cached Gate Policy State. A precomputed, versioned Gate-policy state produced by a prior full evaluation. It is bound to a decision scope, permitted action class, authority, policy/control versions, constraints, expiration, and invalidation triggers. Runtime use requires synchronous verification that the requested action remains within those bounds.

4.41 Integrity Evidence. Evidence that a material record has not been altered or substituted without detection, such as a cryptographic hash or signature, immutable audit log, WORM storage, ledger evidence, or an equivalent implementation-neutral mechanism.

4.42 Lawful Reconstruction Anchor. The strongest evidence reference legally permitted to remain after required minimization or deletion. It preserves evidence identity, provenance, version or effective period, integrity reference where permitted, and deletion authority and time. It also preserves the metadata needed to establish what evidence existed and why it is no longer retained.

4.43 Reconstructability and Reproducibility. Reconstructability means preserved evidence can establish the material basis, context, authority, control state, and outcome of a historical decision. Reproducibility means the original execution can be rerun under materially equivalent conditions. An unavailable historical proprietary AI model may prevent reproducibility. Reconstruction may still be possible when evidence captured at the time of execution is complete. A newer model is not a reproduction of the historical model.

4.44 Agentic Action. An automated operation that changes or commits state outside the isolated reasoning workspace, or releases or publishes a material recommendation, instruction, message, approval, decision, or output for downstream reliance. Internal reasoning steps that neither change external state nor expose material output for downstream reliance are not Agentic Actions.

4.45 Material Use. A use that meets the criteria established by the applicable Materiality Rule for the stated decision scope. Material use is a use whose outcome, reliance, recommendation, or action is significant enough to require DACS control evaluation. DACS does not impose a universal materiality threshold; the governing Materiality Rule must define it for the scope.

4.46 Gate Readiness Disposition. The readiness state recorded by the applicable Accountability Gate for a stated decision scope and point in time after evaluating the applicable control results, evidence, authority, exceptions, and validity conditions. The permitted states are Proceed, Caution, Stop, or Quarantined. A Gate Readiness Disposition does not change an underlying control result.