The evidence package

What RestorSignal documents beyond a simple PASS/FAIL.

A RestorSignal verification is never reduced to a bare PASS/FAIL flag shown without context.

RestorSignal distinguishes two layers, deliberately kept separate:

• a run is the immutable, unitary technical observation resulting from one execution of a RestorSignal control — every run is recorded individually and never discarded;
• an Evidence is the consolidated, sealed proof dossier RestorSignal produces from the runs belonging to one context over one calendar day — at most one per context per day (RS-RVP-04).

Runs can be numerous within a single day. Evidence never is: RestorSignal never seals more than one Evidence dossier for the same context and the same calendar day, and a day with no run produces no Evidence at all.

What the dossier documents

An Evidence dossier identifies at minimum:

• the context and the calendar day it covers (period_start/period_end);
• every run that contributed to it, individually referenced;
• the consolidated result for the period, computed deterministically — never simply "the last run's result" (see Result statuses);
• the controls executed across those runs, which passed, which failed;
• any technical errors encountered;
• the level (L1 through L5) demonstrated over the period;
• the known limitations of what was actually verified;
• integrity elements (the dossier's fingerprint, its seal);
• the timestamp of sealing, and the retention period that follows it.

This dossier is not a simple summary: it is designed to stay traceable and auditable, even long after the period it covers — see Reference framework principles.

Evidence is sealed once, after the period closes

Runs are recorded as they arrive. The Evidence dossier for their period is assembled and sealed only once that period has closed — never on every run, and never before the day is over. A run that arrives after its period was already sealed is still recorded, but cannot retroactively change a sealed dossier; it is flagged and kept for the next applicable period.

The dossier's status is distinct from its consolidated result

The Evidence dossier itself carries a status, VALID or INVALID, distinct from the consolidated result of the period and from the level demonstrated.

A dossier whose period had a FAIL, or an inconclusive control, remains a perfectly valid, sealable proof: it shows the tests genuinely ran and documents exactly what was and wasn't established. Not knowing is itself documented, never erased.

The dossier only becomes INVALID when the integrity of the proof chain itself can no longer be established — for example if a file's fingerprint no longer matches the one recorded at sealing. In that case, and only in that case, no positive level may be presented as assertable by RestorSignal for that period.

A historical observation is not a claim about today

An Evidence dossier proves what was observed during the period it covers. It never asserts that a backup is restorable today — only that it was, according to the controls run, during that specific period. See Timestamping for how sealing time itself is established.

Related pages

The technical mechanisms that guarantee integrity (fingerprinting, sealing) are detailed in Integrity. The dossier's physical structure — directories, files, lifecycle — is defined in Evidence dossier format.