Audit Trail

Purpose

The audit trail answers:

Why was this work started?
Which issue/spec/mission authorized it?
Which runtime performed it?
What context and skills were used?
What changed?
Which checks ran?
Who approved promotion?

Event format draft

{"schema_version":"uh.audit-event.v0","event_id":"audit-001","timestamp":"2026-05-13T00:00:00Z","mission_id":"mission-2026-05-13-docs-spine","type":"mission.created","actor":"human","summary":"Created docs spine mission"}
{"schema_version":"uh.audit-event.v0","event_id":"audit-002","timestamp":"2026-05-13T00:01:00Z","mission_id":"mission-2026-05-13-docs-spine","type":"runtime.launched","actor":"adapter:hermes","summary":"Launched Hermes runtime session"}
{"schema_version":"uh.audit-event.v0","event_id":"audit-003","timestamp":"2026-05-13T00:10:00Z","mission_id":"mission-2026-05-13-docs-spine","type":"verification.completed","actor":"qa-agent","summary":"Documentation checks passed"}

Storage

Project-level events belong in .harness/audit/events.ndjson. Mission-specific events may also be copied to .harness/missions/<id>/events.ndjson for local inspection.

Rules

Audit records should be append-only.
Do not store secrets.
Link to artifacts by path or hash.
Record waivers explicitly.
Promotion requires an audit event.