Action
A bounded operation changed state, access, visibility, interpretation, or obligation.
Account for consequential work
Work Observation
Publish a compact receipt for actions, decisions, refusals, handoffs, repairs, exports, revocations, and no-op choices that materially affect a node or participant.
Boundary
Observation means a published trace—not covert monitoring.
A work observation receipt records a material event after or alongside an implementing system’s own process. It states what node acted, what work occurred, which evidence and constraints applied, what outcome followed, and where review or repair is available.
VNWO does not collect telemetry, monitor workers or private systems, inspect live networks, or verify that a receipt is complete. Implementers remain responsible for lawful data collection, security, retention, and independent review.
Work observation receipt flow
- Request What outcome or change was sought?
- Authority check Which actor, role, consent, and scope permit the work?
- Work or no-op What changed, or why was state preserved?
- Evidence Which sources and constraints support the result?
- Receipt Publish result, reason code, UTC time, version, and source route.
- Review Make correction, appeal, revocation, and exit available.
Read the diagram as text
- Request: What outcome or change was sought?
- Authority check: Which actor, role, consent, and scope permit the work?
- Work or no-op: What changed, or why was state preserved?
- Evidence: Which sources and constraints support the result?
- Receipt: Publish result, reason code, UTC time, version, and source route.
- Review: Make correction, appeal, revocation, and exit available.
Work types
Work includes action and justified restraint.
Decision
A human or automated actor selected an outcome from documented options.
Refusal or no-op
The system declined, deferred, or preserved state because evidence, authority, resources, or review were insufficient.
Handoff
Responsibility, context, evidence, or a memory packet moved between bounded parties.
Repair
An incorrect record, decision, boundary, or public statement was corrected with provenance.
Export or revocation
A participant exported records, withdrew delegation, disabled access, retired memory, or left.
Receipt anatomy
Keep the trace small enough to read and complete enough to challenge.
| Field | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Event and node IDs | Identify the event and bounded participant without implying authentication by VNWO. |
| Work type and authority | State what changed and which delegated or human authority applied. |
| Evidence references | Link to source records, policy versions, reason codes, and uncertainty notes. |
| Constraint and decision | Name the boundary, resource, review, consent, or source-routing constraint that shaped the outcome. |
| Outcome and side effects | Describe the visible result, records touched, and any follow-up obligation. |
| Review, repair, and exit | Provide the route for correction, appeal, revocation, export, or retirement. |
Fictional example
A requested authority expansion becomes a no-op.
An assistant is asked to publish through a newly discovered endpoint. The capability appears in public metadata, but the operator cannot find current authorization or a human reviewer. The work receipt records the request, source metadata, missing authorization, no-op decision, and review trigger. No endpoint call occurs.
The receipt does not prove the endpoint is unsafe. It documents why action was not justified under the available evidence.