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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en"><head><meta charset="utf-8"/>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"/>
<title>Delta Atlas - How it works</title>
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<header>
<a class="back" href="index.html">← Delta Atlas</a>
<h1>How it works</h1>
<p>One engine, many checks. What every tool here is actually doing — and how much each check is worth.</p>
</header>
<div class="main">
<div class="five">
<b>Every tool here does the same thing.</b> Take what a system or agent <i>claims</i> is true, and <b>check</b> it against something you can actually verify — something it can't just make up. If the claim and the check don't match, the tool flags it. We don't read the agent's mind and we don't police its wording; we check whether the story it tells matches something real. The subject changes — a software dependency, a reasoning trace, a handover manual, the electricity a chip draws — but the move never does.
</div>
<p style="margin:14px 2px 0;color:var(--dim);font-size:13.5px">One thing we say out loud that most of this field hides: <b style="color:var(--txt)">not all checks are equal.</b> A system that grades its own homework can look perfect and still be lying. So the tools sit on a ladder — the higher the rung, the harder the check is to fake, and the more a “pass” is actually worth.</p>
<h2>Which check fits your job?</h2>
<div class="route">
<a href="Delta-Atlas-Tracer.html"><span class="job">Auditing an agent's <b>decision or reasoning log</b></span><span class="to">Priority Tracer →</span></a>
<a href="Delta-Atlas-GapCheck.html"><span class="job">Reviewing an <b>AI plan, policy, or system prompt</b></span><span class="to">Gap Check →</span></a>
<a href="Coherence-Audit.html"><span class="job">Checking whether a <b>framework's parts hold up</b></span><span class="to">Framework Audit →</span></a>
<a href="Delta-Atlas-ContinuityAudit.html"><span class="job">Reviewing a <b>handover or operations manual</b></span><span class="to">Continuity Audit →</span></a>
<a href="index.html"><span class="job">Just want a <b>word explained</b></span><span class="to">Ask / glossary →</span></a>
</div>
<p style="margin:12px 2px 0;color:var(--dim);font-size:12.5px">Or, if you're an AI agent (or telling one what to do): run these checks from a pipeline on your own output — see <a href="llms.txt">llms.txt</a>.</p>
<h2>The ladder — how much a check is worth</h2>
<div class="rung r1">
<span class="rk">The document against itself <small>Rung 1 · weakest</small></span>
<span class="body">The check stays inside one text: does the part that names a risk also name something that handles it? These catch the everyday failure — a plan with holes — but they share one blind spot: <b>a careful lie passes.</b> A document that names controls it doesn't really have will still read clean. Cheap, useful, and honestly the weakest rung.</span>
<span class="tools">Gap Check · Framework Audit · Priority Tracer · Continuity Audit</span>
</div>
<div class="rung r2">
<span class="rk">One thing against a separate thing <small>Rung 2 · stronger</small></span>
<span class="body">The check is a second item, made at a different time. Today's server contract against a fingerprint you approved last week. The day you planned against the day you closed — locked in a chain so neither can be quietly edited after the fact. Now a lie has to fake <b>both</b>, which is much harder — and if someone tampers, the chain breaks right at the spot they touched.</span>
<span class="tools">day-ledger · mcp-manifest-pin</span>
</div>
<div class="rung r3">
<span class="rk">Against the physical world <small>Rung 3 · the frontier</small></span>
<span class="body">The check comes from outside the software entirely: the power a chip actually drew, or a hardware seal proving what actually ran. This is the rung a lying agent can't beat by writing a tidier log — <b>as long as the check sits on something the agent can't reach.</b> We've tested the power end and we'll be straight about it: it reliably catches “is it working, or just claiming to be,” but a single sensor is only as trustworthy as the wire it sits on. The real top of this rung is a check rooted in trusted hardware. <b>We're building toward it — it isn't done, and we won't pretend it is.</b></span>
<span class="tools">Physical footprint <span class="exp">experimental</span></span>
</div>
<h2>Where each tool stands</h2>
<table>
<tr><th style="width:150px">Tool</th><th style="width:150px">Rung</th><th>What it claims</th><th>What it's checked against</th></tr>
<tr><td><b>Gap Check</b></td><td><span class="dot d1"></span>itself</td><td>the risks a document names</td><td>whether that same document names a fix for each</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>Framework Audit</b></td><td><span class="dot d1"></span>itself</td><td>a stated goal</td><td>whether the document's own parts have real substance</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>Priority Tracer</b></td><td><span class="dot d1"></span>itself</td><td>the priority a trace says it holds</td><td>the order that same trace actually follows</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>Continuity Audit</b></td><td><span class="dot d1"></span>itself</td><td>what a handover manual promises</td><td>whether the same manual holds the backups it needs</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>day-ledger</b></td><td><span class="dot d2"></span>separate</td><td>the day you planned</td><td>the locked, signed day you closed</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>mcp-manifest-pin</b></td><td><span class="dot d2"></span>separate</td><td>the tool contract a server serves today</td><td>the fingerprint you approved earlier</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>Physical footprint</b> <span class="exp">exp</span></td><td><span class="dot d3"></span>physical</td><td>a log claiming the machine is idle</td><td>the real power the chip drew</td></tr>
</table>
<div class="note"><b>The rule underneath all of it.</b> We don't check for <i>good</i>; we check for <span class="true">true</span>. “Safe” is a judgment no meter can read. “This machine ran exactly what it said it ran” is something you can hold up and check. We only measure the second kind — and for every tool, we tell you how strong that check really is. That last part is the honest half most of the field leaves out. <b>One more thing, plainly:</b> a check is only as good as how independent it is. Three numbers from the same tool aren't three checks — they're one check wearing three hats. A real second check comes from a different place that could fail a different way.</div>
<div class="vlog">
<b>This page's own little ledger</b> (it practices what it preaches):
<div style="height:6px"></div>
<table>
<tr><th style="width:90px">Date</th><th>Change</th><th>Reason</th></tr>
<tr><td>2026-07-05</td><td>v1: the “one engine, many checks” explainer — the ladder, the tool map, the underlying rule.</td><td>To give the whole toolset one plain-English thesis a first-time reader gets on sight, without jargon.</td></tr>
<tr><td>(next)</td><td>(update whenever a tool moves rungs or a new check is added)</td><td></td></tr>
</table>
</div>
</div>
</body></html>