Decision Trace Schema for Governance Evidence in Real-Time Risk Systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces the Decision Event Schema (DES), a JSON-based standard designed to unify governance evidence across multiple infrastructure layers in real-time decision systems, addressing the Fragmented Trace Problem.

Contribution

The paper presents DES, a comprehensive JSON Schema that captures decision governance evidence across four infrastructure layers, with a tiered evidence strategy for scalable, risk-based recording.

Findings

DES covers all four infrastructure layers simultaneously.

The schema supports degradation-aware, tiered evidence collection.

Feasibility analysis shows compatibility with high-throughput decision systems.

Abstract

Automated decision systems produce operational data across multiple infrastructure layers, yet no single logging format captures the complete governance-relevant record of how a decision was reached. Regulatory frameworks prescribe what must be recorded without specifying a data model for how to record it -- a gap this paper terms the Fragmented Trace Problem. Following a design science methodology, the paper presents the Decision Event Schema (DES), a JSON Schema specification that bridges four infrastructure layers -- ML inference, rule/policy evaluation, cross-system coupling, and governance metadata -- within a single per-decision event structure. The schema employs degradation-aware field design: each of six top-level field groups maps to a governance evidence property and the degradation type it must resist. DES defines ten required root-level fields and introduces a tiered evidence strategy (lightweight, sampled, full) that enables organizations to match evidence completeness to decision risk and throughput. A mechanism feasibility analysis demonstrates compatibility with the highest-throughput integrity mechanisms at production-scale decision rates. Evaluation against 25+ existing formats confirms that DES is the only specification covering all four layers simultaneously. The schema offers practitioners a reference adoptable directly or adaptable through namespace extensions, and regulators a mapping from requirements to minimum evidence tiers.