The Governance State described in the preceding section is dynamic and changes in response to changes in Evaluation, Policy, Authority, Process, Context, and other relevant elements. It is therefore important to preserve the Governance State that existed at the moment a particular Decision was formed.

This is the role of Decision-State Evidence (DSE).

DSE captures the state associated with a Decision at the point in time t₀ when that Decision was made and preserves it as a structured Evidence Record.

For example, in DSE-002, the Content used as Input to the Decision, the Fact and Evaluation available at that time, the applicable Policy, the Actor’s Authority, the Process performed, the Model used, and the relevant Context are preserved together within a single Record. The Record also captures that an ALLOW Decision was formed based on that state.

Importantly, DSE is not merely a Decision Log. Recording only the Decision outcome does not make it possible to reconstruct why that Decision was formed. Policy, Evaluation, Authority, Context, and other elements may change over time, meaning that the current Governance State may no longer represent the conditions under which the original Decision was made.

DSE therefore preserves not only the Decision itself, but also the Governance State associated with that Decision at t₀.

One Decision = One DSE.

Each new Decision generates a new DSE based on the state that exists at that point in time. Previous DSEs are not overwritten by the current Governance State. This makes it possible to trace, for each Decision, what was known at that time and under which Evaluation, Policy, Authority, Process, Model, and Context the Decision was formed, even as the Governance State subsequently changes.

DSE is therefore a unit of Evidence that captures and preserves the state associated with a Decision at t₀ from an otherwise continuously changing Governance State.

Governance State represents “what the current state is,” whereas DSE preserves “what the state was when that Decision was made.”

This distinction enables Governance not only to manage the current state, but also to verify and reconstruct past Decisions based on the state that existed at the time.