Topics · Evidence gap

Transformation Without Trail

Auditors can follow the signed trail across dataset versions and transformations, even after the original MLOps dashboard is gone, disputed, or inaccessible.

Concrete scenario

What this looks like in practice

A hospital research group shares a de-identified cohort. Another team filters rows, joins an external registry, and ships three derivative datasets to separate model vendors. When a regulator asks which version each vendor trained on, the shared drive has folders — but no cryptographically linked trail between manifest, transform, and downstream receipt.

Problem

What breaks today

Data pipelines fork, merge, and get reused across teams. Months later, nobody wants a folder name or slide deck. They need to know which dataset version moved, which transformation changed it, and where the trail stopped.

Mechanism

How ZK-SNAP responds

Each accountable pipeline stage can emit a ZK-SNAP receipt binding dataset manifests, transformation claims, and artifact roots. Evidence Graph indexes those receipt facts for discovery and forensic traversal; it correlates trails without becoming the validity authority.

Verifiable outcome

What a verifier can check

  • Manifest and artifact roots in the claim recompute from disclosed material or committed openings.
  • Each stage receipt verifies independently; missing stages are visible gaps, not silent merges.
  • Evidence Graph correlation resolves related receipts and anchors without overriding signature checks.
  • Profiles declare whether a receipt is dataset-audit, training-run, or evaluation scoped.

Related profiles and labels

Dataset trailTransformation trailFindable later

Scope boundary

What a receipt does not replace

Receipts document what was signed at each stage; they do not automatically prove regulatory compliance, data quality, or that every intermediate copy was receipt-backed unless operators adopt that profile end-to-end.

Go deeper

Try the workflow, then read the spec.

Use Cases tells the story with cards. Proof Lab runs create and verify locally. Protocol holds the normative reference.