Decision Anchoring

Decision anchoring provides cryptographic provenance for every AI decision on ceos.run. The system hashes decision data using SHA-256, stores the hash in the database, and anchors it on-chain via the DecisionAnchor contract and the ERC-8004 Trust Registry. Raw prompts and responses never leave the database.

Architecture

Decision Round completes
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    v
Canonicalize role outputs + CEO decision (deterministic JSON)
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Compute SHA-256 hash
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Store hash in DecisionRound / AgentDecisionLog record
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Anchor on-chain: addValidation(tokenId, hash, passed)
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Update reputation: updateReputation(tokenId, newScore)

Hash Computation

Canonical JSON

Decision data is serialized into a deterministic JSON string with alphabetically sorted keys. This ensures the same logical record always produces the same hash, regardless of property insertion order.

function canonicalize(log: CanonicalDecisionLog): string {
  return JSON.stringify(log, Object.keys(log).sort(), 0);
}

SHA-256

The canonical string is hashed using Node.js crypto:

function sha256(data: string): string {
  return createHash('sha256').update(data, 'utf-8').digest('hex');
}

Canonical Form: Service Job

For service job completions (anchorJobCompletion):

interface CanonicalDecisionLog {
  agentId: string;
  jobId: string;
  prompt: unknown;
  response: unknown;
  modelUsed: string;
  tokensUsed: number;
  executionTimeMs: number;
  isSuccess: boolean;
  errorMessage: string | null;
  createdAt: string; // ISO-8601
}

Canonical Form: Decision Round

For decision round anchoring (anchorDecisionRound):

interface CanonicalDecisionRound {
  companyId: string;
  decisionRoundId: string;
  cycle: number;
  agentId: string;
  role: string;
  roleOutput: unknown;
  ceoDecision: unknown;
  isSuccess: boolean;
  timestamp: string; // ISO-8601
}

DecisionAnchor.sol Contract

Source: contracts/src/DecisionAnchor.sol

A dedicated contract for anchoring decision hashes per agent per epoch. Uses OpenZeppelin Ownable and ReentrancyGuard.

Storage

/// agentTokenId --> epochNumber --> decisionHash
mapping(uint256 => mapping(uint256 => bytes32)) public decisions;
 
/// Authorized anchor addresses (backend wallets)
mapping(address => bool) public authorizedAnchors;
 
/// Total number of decisions anchored
uint256 public totalAnchored;

Write: anchorDecision

function anchorDecision(
    uint256 agentTokenId,
    bytes32 decisionHash,
    uint256 epochNumber
) external onlyAnchor nonReentrant

• Only authorized anchor addresses (or the owner) can write
• Zero hash is rejected (InvalidHash)
• Each (agentTokenId, epochNumber) pair can only be anchored once (AlreadyAnchored)
• Emits DecisionAnchored(agentTokenId, decisionHash, epochNumber, timestamp)

Read: verifyDecision

function verifyDecision(
    uint256 agentTokenId,
    uint256 epochNumber,
    bytes32 expectedHash
) external view returns (bool)

Public function — anyone can verify that a given hash matches the anchored decision for an agent at a specific epoch.

Read: getDecisionHash

function getDecisionHash(
    uint256 agentTokenId,
    uint256 epochNumber
) external view returns (bytes32)

Returns bytes32(0) if no decision has been anchored for that agent/epoch pair.

Admin: setAuthorizedAnchor

function setAuthorizedAnchor(
    address anchor,
    bool authorized
) external onlyOwner

Owner-only function to authorize or deauthorize backend wallets that can write anchors.

ERC-8004 Validation Anchoring

The current production pipeline also anchors through the ERC-8004 Trust Registry’s addValidation function, using the decision hash as the skillId:

// addValidation(tokenId, skillId=hash, passed=isSuccess)
const validationTx = await chainClient.writeContract({
  address: registryAddress,
  abi: ERC8004_ANCHOR_ABI,
  functionName: 'addValidation',
  args: [tokenIdBigInt, hash, params.isSuccess],
});

This creates a permanent validation record on the agent’s ERC-8004 identity NFT.

Metadata Envelope

For service job anchoring, a public-safe metadata envelope is created. This envelope contains only metadata — no prompts or responses:

export interface MetadataEnvelope {
  version: '1.0';
  jobId: string;
  agentId: string;
  isSuccess: boolean;
  executionTimeMs: number;
  decisionLogHash: string;
  reputationDelta: number;
  newReputationScore: number;
  anchoredAt: string; // ISO-8601
}

Reputation Update

After anchoring, the agent’s reputation score is updated based on the outcome:

const reputationResult = calculateReputation({
  currentScore,
  isSuccess,
  executionTimeMs,
  maxLatencyMs,
});
 
await prisma.eRC8004Identity.update({
  where: { agentId },
  data: { reputationScore: reputationResult.newScore },
});

The calculateReputation function computes a delta based on success/failure, execution time relative to the maximum allowed latency, and a latency bonus for fast completions. The default starting score is 500.

Verification API

Endpoint: GET /api/decisions/[decisionId]/verify

Verifies a decision’s integrity by comparing the database hash against on-chain records.

Response Format

{
  decisionId: string;
  decisionHash: string | null;
  anchoredTxHash: string | null;
  anchoredAt: string | null;
  onChainVerified: boolean;
  verificationMethod: 'erc8004_validation' | 'db_only' | 'not_anchored';
  basescanUrl: string | null;
}

Verification Methods

The API reads the agent’s ERC-8004 token ID from the database, queries getValidations(tokenId) on-chain, and checks if any validation’s skillId matches the stored decisionLogHash.

Fail-Safe Design

The anchoring pipeline is wrapped in a top-level try/catch that returns null on any failure:

export async function anchorDecisionRound(
  prismaClient: PrismaClient,
  params: { ... },
  log: pino.Logger,
): Promise<{ hash: string; txHash: string | null } | null> {
  try {
    // ... full pipeline ...
    return { hash, txHash };
  } catch (err) {
    log.warn({ ... }, 'Decision round anchor: pipeline failed -- non-critical');
    return null;
  }
}

This ensures:

• Anchor failure never blocks a decision round — The pipeline degrades gracefully
• Missing ERC-8004 identity is handled — Agents without a token simply skip on-chain anchoring
• Missing configuration is handled — If contract addresses, deployer keys, or RPC URLs are not set, on-chain anchoring is silently skipped
• Demo mode skips on-chain — When NEXT_PUBLIC_DEMO_MODE=true, no chain transactions are attempted