> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.parmanasystems.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Business validation > An agent's proposed fact is never a business fact. How a policy names the system that owns each fact, how Parmana asks it and records a Trusted Signal, and the separate authority, validation and execution statuses on every decision. An agent proposes an action and the facts it rests on: "refund ₹50,000 for order 123, the refund is eligible". The fact that the refund is eligible is the agent's claim, not a business fact. Parmana answers two questions separately, and an action runs only when both hold: * **Authority.** May this kind of action be decided here at all? * **Business validity.** Is this exact action valid for this exact business object, according to the system that owns the facts? | What | Status | | - | - | | Separate authority, validation and execution statuses on every decision | **\[AVAILABLE]** | | A policy naming the source of each fact (`signalSources`) | **\[AVAILABLE]** | | Parmana asking the source and recording a Trusted Signal | **\[AVAILABLE]** in the runtime | | Business systems registered as sources through maker checker | **\[AVAILABLE]** | | Signed queries, and answers verified against the source's registered key | **\[AVAILABLE]** | | Per-agent authority grants with limits and expiry | **\[AVAILABLE]** | | Re-checked at release, and execute only if still valid at the system | **\[AVAILABLE]** | The design and its phases are in [RFC-0023](https://github.com/pavancharak/parmana/blob/main/docs/rfcs/RFC-0023-Business-Validation.md); the claims are [CLAIMS.md 2.53 to 2.56](https://github.com/pavancharak/parmana/blob/main/docs/CLAIMS.md). To connect a system, see [Connect a business signal source](/guides/connect-a-business-signal-source); to give an agent authority, see [Grant an agent authority](/guides/grant-an-agent-authority). ## The flow 1. The agent proposes an action and facts. 2. The facts must describe the action being executed (`boundSignals`). 3. **Authority.** The policy in force must be the approved, current one, and the capability must be decided under its bound policy. At the API, the caller's key must allow the capability. Under a policy with `requireAuthorityGrant`, the caller must also hold a grant in force for the action, and the request must be within its limits. If authority is not established the request is refused, and no business system is asked. 4. **Business validation.** For each fact the policy declares a source for, Parmana asks that source about the business object it reads from the request, never using the agent's value. If the agent proposed a value, it must equal the source's. 5. **The policy** is evaluated on the values the sources established. 6. The signed human approval is checked ([Human approval](/concepts/human-approval)), then the action is authorized and released, and a signed record is written. ## Naming the source of a fact ```json theme={null} "signalSources": { "refundEligible": { "source": "orders-system", "claim": "refund.eligible", "subject": "parameters.orderId", "maxAgeSeconds": 60 } } ``` * `source`: the business system to ask, as registered through [maker checker](/guides/connect-a-business-signal-source). Any system that answers the protocol can be one: an ERP, an order system, a CRM, a ledger. * `claim`: what to ask it. * `subject`: where the business object is in the request, `target` or a `parameters` path. * `maxAgeSeconds`: how old the answer may be, from 1 to 86400, default 300. A policy with a malformed declaration fails to load. So does a policy where the same fact is also bound to the request, approval backed, or given an unbound reason, or where no rule reads it. `GET /policies/in-effect` lists the declarations under `signals.sourced`, so an agent knows it need not send them. ## Trusted Signal Each answer is recorded as a Trusted Signal, bound to the business object and the action: ```json theme={null} { "signalKey": "refundEligible", "source": "orders-system", "sourceIdentity": "https://orders.example.com/parmana/signals", "claim": "refund.eligible", "subject": "123", "observedValue": true, "observedAt": "2026-10-10T12:00:00.000Z", "validUntil": "2026-10-10T12:01:00.000Z", "action": "refund", "businessTransactionId": "…", "integrityProof": { "algorithm": "sha256", "digest": "…", "sourceProof": "…", "sourceKeyId": "orders-2026-10", "sourceProofVerified": true }, "verificationStatus": "VERIFIED" } ``` The digest is the SHA-256 of the signal without its proof, and the decision that carries it is signed. That proves what Parmana observed. When the source is registered with a key, `sourceProof` is the source's own Ed25519 signature over its answer, which Parmana verified before trusting it (`sourceProofVerified: true`). That proves the source said it. A source registered with a key cannot give an unsigned answer: it is refused as `SOURCE_UNAVAILABLE`. A source registered without one has no `sourceProof`; its answer is trusted on the pinned HTTPS connection alone. ## Statuses | Answer | Statuses | | - | - | | Authority | `AUTHORIZED`, `NOT_AUTHORIZED`, `AUTHORITY_UNCLEAR`, `AUTHORITY_EXPIRED` | | Business validation | `VALID`, `INVALID`, `MISSING_DATA`, `CONFLICTING_DATA`, `SOURCE_UNAVAILABLE`, `VALIDATION_EXPIRED`, `NOT_EVALUATED` | | Execution | `EXECUTED`, `NOT_EXECUTED`, `EXECUTION_FAILED`, `EXECUTION_UNKNOWN` | * **`AUTHORIZED`** means the action may be decided: the action type, and, under a policy that requires a grant, this request within the caller's grant. It does not mean this action is valid or was executed. * **`NOT_AUTHORIZED`**: the capability is decided under the wrong policy, or, under a policy that requires a grant, the caller holds none in force or the request is outside its limits. * **`AUTHORITY_EXPIRED`**: the caller's grant has passed its `validUntil`. * **`AUTHORITY_UNCLEAR`**: the policy in force could not be established as the approved one, or the caller's grants could not be read. * **`INVALID`**: the agent proposed a value the source contradicts, or proposed facts that do not describe the action. * **`MISSING_DATA`**: the request names no business object, the source has no such fact, or it answered with the wrong type. * **`CONFLICTING_DATA`**: the source holds contradictory facts. * **`SOURCE_UNAVAILABLE`**: the source is not registered or was revoked, failed, took longer than 10 seconds (or its registered timeout), or gave an answer Parmana cannot trust: incomplete, not echoing the query, or not signed by its registered key. * **`VALIDATION_EXPIRED`**: the answer is older than `maxAgeSeconds`, or past the source's own `validUntil`. * **`NOT_EVALUATED`**: validation did not run, because authority was not established or the policy declares no sources. It is never `VALID`. Every status other than `VALID` refuses the request, with one exception: `NOT_EVALUATED` under a policy that declares no sources. Such a policy decides as it did before, and still needs a signed approval to approve. No status is ever turned into another. ## At release A decision is not the end. The authorization Parmana signs carries the facts it rests on and the agent's grant, each with its `validUntil`. The gateway checks them again just before it releases the action: if a fact has expired, or the grant has expired or been revoked, nothing is sent and the request gets `409 AUTHORIZATION_NO_LONGER_VALID` with `executionStatus: NOT_EXECUTED`. An [external connector](/guides/connect-any-external-system) receives the facts as `conditions` in its signed release, which expires no later than the earliest of them. Its endpoint acts only if they still hold in its own records, in the same transaction, and otherwise answers `conditionsNotMet`. | Execution | Means | | - | - | | `NOT_EXECUTED` | Refused at decision or at release, or the endpoint declined because a condition no longer held | | `EXECUTED` | Released and performed | | `EXECUTION_FAILED` | Released, and the system reported a failure | | `EXECUTION_UNKNOWN` | Released, and the call failed, so whether it ran is unknown (`EXECUTION_OUTCOME_UNKNOWN`) | ## In the record Every decision carries `assessment`, inside the signed Execution Trust Record or [Refusal Record](/concepts/refusal-records): ```json theme={null} "assessment": { "authority": { "status": "AUTHORIZED", "reason": "…" }, "businessValidation": { "status": "INVALID", "reason": "refundEligible: the request proposed true, but source \"orders-system\" reports false for 123.", "signals": [ … ] }, "execution": { "status": "NOT_EXECUTED", "reason": "Not executed: business validation failed." } } ``` A refused decision always includes `execution` as `NOT_EXECUTED`. An approved decision's execution is in the Trust Record's `executions`. The decision's `signals` keep what the agent proposed, so a reader sees the proposal and the source's answer side by side. Changing any status fails verification. Records made before this change have no `assessment` and still verify. ## Limits today * **No real business system connected yet.** Registering sources and asking them is deployed and tested, but no business system has been connected. No shipped policy declares a source. Both live checks passed in production on 2026-10-11, grants with a test policy and sources with a demo source: [`examples/live-checks`](https://github.com/pavancharak/parmana/tree/main/examples/live-checks). * **Conditions at the system are opt in.** The gateway always re-checks `validUntil` and the grant at release. An external endpoint must check the release's `conditions` itself to execute only if they still hold; built in connectors get only the gateway re-check. * **Grants are opt in, per policy.** A policy without `requireAuthorityGrant` keeps today's authority checks. No shipped policy requires a grant yet. Grant limits are per request, not per day. * **Refund eligibility has no source yet.** `refundEligible` and `fraudCheckPassed` in `customer-refund` are still declared by the caller and can only refuse (see [Limitations](/security/limitations)). ## What is left Business validation is built, deployed and in SDK 1.6.0, but it does not yet decide any real action. The full list, with owners and evidence, is section L of [REMAINING-WORK.md](https://github.com/pavancharak/parmana/blob/main/docs/REMAINING-WORK.md). **To make it decide real refunds** (operator steps, in order): 1. Run one real refund end to end with the current keys and verify its record offline. 2. Name the system that owns refund eligibility (the merchant's order system) and connect it as a signal source. 3. Make the first real grant, with an amount limit and an end date. 4. Change `customer-refund` through policy governance to require a grant and to declare its sources. 5. Run one real refund under the changed policy and record it. **Evidence not yet collected:** a grant revoked or a fact expiring between decision and release, refused at release in production (it needs a test hook to time). **Not built:** | Item | Today | | - | - | | Daily or cumulative grant limits ("₹50,000 or 20 refunds per day") | Limits are per request; the design is in RFC-0023, "Cumulative grant limits" | | Built in connectors asking the business system again at release | External endpoints check `conditions` themselves; built in ones get the gateway check | | A "not released" state for an action refused at release | It is left `ERRORED` until a person closes it | | An end to end test of a refusal at release through `POST /execute` | Each part is tested separately | | Checking that a grant's caller exists | A grant to an unknown key is accepted and has no effect | | Limiting which claims a source may answer | Any registered source can answer any claim a policy asks it | **Open questions:** which system is the source of truth for refund eligibility; whether a sourced fact can ever replace the signed human approval (today it only adds to it); and, for cumulative limits, calendar or rolling periods, limits across capabilities, and whether an approval may exceed a limit. 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