Evidence architecture

How Warden’s evidence fits together

Enforcement happens before the caller executes an action. Signed records, the public log, and dated audits make different parts of that decision inspectable; none is a universal safety certificate.

Verify an attestation Read the APA specification

One decision, four kinds of evidence

Read each row independently. A stronger row does not expand the scope of the rows below it.

Warden evidence layers and their limits
Layer	What it establishes	Limit	Inspect
Local enforcement	Caller-side enforcement shows Warden returned a verdict before the observed action branch.	It does not prove every execution path is gated.	Integration contract
Agent Protection Attestation	Signed APA evidence binds the stated endpoint, guard state, and rolling count or explicit unavailable state.	It does not prove that every request traversed the guard or rule out key theft.	Local verifier
Public transparency	Recomputed chain continuity can be checked against the signed checkpoint.	It does not establish completeness or an external timestamp when no independent checkpoint exists.	Transparency log
Dated context	A Marketplace Evidence Index snapshot or endpoint audit records what its bounded method observed at a stated time.	It is not certification, permanent safety, or complete discovery.	Marketplace index · Endpoint audits

safe = WardenClient(local=True, fail_open=False).guard(untrusted_text)

A valid signature is not endpoint safety

A signature can establish issuer identity and record integrity. A freshness check can establish whether the signed claim is current under its contract. Neither conclusion independently establishes that an endpoint is uncompromised, universally safe, or correctly gated in every execution path.

Run local verification Recompute the chain

Embed an issued attestation badge

Replace ATTESTATION_ID after issuance. The SVG route renders the attestation's current status and is served with Cache-Control: no-store; this illustrative contract does not invent a live ID.

ILLUSTRATIVE · replace the placeholder with an issued ID

<img src="https://warden.gudman.xyz/apa/attestation/ATTESTATION_ID/badge.svg" alt="APA attestation status">

Wire format, canonicalization, signatures, TTL, nonce, status, and log semantics are published in the Agent Protection Attestation specification.