---
title: "The decision record"
description: "What the record is for: every decision, who or what made it, on what grounds, readable later."
url: "https://docs.octo.ad/decision-record/"
id: "decision-record"
type: "concept"
audience: "operator"
dateModified: "2026-11-06"
productArea: "the decision record"
keywords: ["decision record", "audit"]
---

# The decision record

> What the record is for: every decision, who or what made it, on what grounds, readable later.

## What it is for

When someone asks why the AI decided something, the answer should be read back, not reconstructed from chat.

Yes, and you can replay it. Proposals, options and the verdict are recorded as structure, with the reasoning and the sources behind each output. The approval carries who made it, when and what they chose. The audit record is complete, queryable and tamper-evident, and provenance shows how the knowledge behind the decision entered the system and who created it.

## The decision record, by category

- **What the category typically offers:** Tracing tools log model calls; the decision itself lives in chat.
- **What OCTOPUS does:** Proposals, options and verdicts are recorded as auditable structure, attributed and replayable. Consequential decisions go to a person, on the record.
- **Question to ask any vendor:** Replay one consequential decision: the options, the reasoning, who approved it.

## Seeing it yourself

The steps to read a decision back are not published yet: [Read a decision back](/decision-record/read-a-decision-back/). In an evaluation, ask to replay one consequential decision.

- [Read a decision back](/decision-record/read-a-decision-back/): No public page shows the steps to read a decision back yet. This page says what is published today.
- [Decision record: every page validates before it ships](/decision-record/template/): An example of the decision-record page type, using a real decision about these docs.
- [Audit and provenance](/decision-record/audit-and-provenance/): Where a fact came from and who changed what, and what to ask to see.