Cryptographic Receipts
Signed, verifiable proof tokens produced for every authorization decision. Non-repudiable audit trail that can be verified without trusting the authorization service.
Cryptographic receipts are signed, portable proof tokens produced for every authorization decision. Each receipt contains the decision (allowed/denied), the context (who, what, when, scope), and a cryptographic signature — making the audit trail non-repudiable and independently verifiable.
Why signatures matter
Without cryptographic receipts, the audit trail is a database you trust. With receipts, the audit trail is a set of signed proofs you can verify without trusting the authorization service — even offline. An auditor can validate that a specific decision was made at a specific time without access to the live system.
Design decisions
- Ed25519 signatures: fast, small, modern — sub-millisecond signing time
- Merkle tree chaining: each receipt links to the previous one, preventing insertion/deletion
- Key rotation: signing keys rotate on a schedule; verification keys are published
Related terms
Immutable, chronological record of every authorization decision — who, what, when, scope, resource, action, and outcome. Enables compliance reporting and incident investigation.
Per-organization configurable rate limit that stops runaway AI agents before they flood external APIs. Token bucket implementation — containment, not throttling.
Property of an authorization system where decisions cannot be denied after the fact. Cryptographic receipts provide verifiable proof that a specific decision was made at a specific time.