OSI Assurance Architecture

Status: Working Architecture
Version: 0.1

Purpose

The assurance architecture defines how reusable OSI components demonstrate trustworthiness. It connects foundational principles to executable checks while allowing each component to implement domain-specific validation.

Foundational OSI Principles
            |
            v
    Epistemic Integrity
            |
            v
       Logic Chains
            |
            v
 OSIComponent Assurance
            |
            v
 Concrete OSI Component

Architectural invariant

Epistemic Integrity is an architectural invariant. An OSI component is not assured unless it can demonstrate that the knowledge state passing through it remains honest, traceable, and appropriately uncertain.

Logic Chain

A Logic Chain is the complete, inspectable sequence connecting evidence to observations, interpretations, inferences, conclusions, and recommendations.

Evidence
   |
Observation
   |
Interpretation
   |
Inference
   |
Conclusion
   |
Recommendation

A valid Logic Chain preserves:

  • provenance;
  • evidence/interpretation separation;
  • confidence;
  • uncertainty;
  • semantic congruence;
  • traceability;
  • and the absence of silent transformation.

Assurance dimensions

Every assured component reports:

  1. Contract
  2. Validation
  3. Congruence
  4. Regression
  5. Performance
  6. Ethics
  7. Epistemic Integrity
  8. Audit

The framework defines the lifecycle and reporting vocabulary. Each concrete component defines what these obligations mean in its own domain.

Provenance and Epistemic Integrity

Provenance asks:

Where did this assertion come from?

Epistemic Integrity asks:

Did the complete knowledge state remain honest throughout the process?

Provenance is therefore a separate validation check and one constituent of the broader Epistemic Integrity obligation.

Reference implementation

CSVPackageValidator is the first assured concrete component. It demonstrates the pattern by checking the CSV contract, validating values and relationships, preserving row-level traceability, refusing silent repair, exposing uncertainty, and emitting the standard assurance report.

Rule for future components

Every significant analytical output must be capable of answering:

  1. What evidence supports it?
  2. What observations were made?
  3. What interpretations were introduced?
  4. What inferences were generated?
  5. What confidence accompanies each step?
  6. What uncertainty remains?
  7. Can the reasoning be reproduced?

If any required answer is unavailable, the Logic Chain is incomplete.