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Execution Receipts

Execution receipts are compact, reviewable summaries of what a run did and how it ended.

Purpose

Receipts answer:

  • which run was this
  • which harness executed it
  • which spec, milestone, or goal it followed
  • what actions were taken
  • which artifacts were touched
  • what verification ran
  • what result status was reached
  • which risks remain
  • which approvals were used
  • whether the run was controller-directed or directly executed

What A Receipt Is Not

A receipt is not a full trace dump. Use traces for step-by-step reconstruction. Use receipts for fast inspection, comparison, handoff, and debugging.

Good Receipt Shape

A good receipt is:

  • short enough to review quickly
  • linked to deeper artifacts
  • specific about status and risk
  • explicit about approvals and verification
  • stable enough to compare across runs

Relationship To Other Artifacts

  • trace records what happened in detail
  • receipt summarizes the outcome
  • lineage links the receipt to upstream and downstream artifacts
  • replay uses receipts to compare old and new runs
  • restore uses receipts to identify known-good recovery points
  • controller workflows use receipts to decide whether delegated work can be ingested, reviewed, or sent to QA
  • background workflows use receipts to explain unattended progress, blocked permissions, and loop-guard exits