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P141 — AIEP — Meta-Governance Reasoning Protocol

Publication Date: 2026-04-12 Status: Open Source Prior Art Disclosure Licence: Apache License 2.0 Author/Organisation: Phatfella Ltd Schema: AIEP_OS_SPEC_TEMPLATE v1.0.1 — https://aiep.dev/schemas/aiep-os-spec-template/v1.0.1

Field of the Invention

[0001] The disclosure relates to governance layer reasoning systems within computing environments.

[0002] More particularly, the disclosure concerns a meta-governance reasoning protocol for use within an Architected Instruction and Evidence Protocol (AIEP) system, enabling an AI system to reason about its own governance constraints, evaluate whether a proposed action is within its governance boundary, and produce a governance decision record without modifying the governance policy itself.

Framework Context

[0003] This invention operates within an Architected Instruction and Evidence Protocol (AIEP) environment as defined in United Kingdom patent application number GB2519711.2, filed 20 November 2025, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

[0004] The present invention extends open protocol governance boundary enforcement mechanisms defined in P82, governance policy language mechanisms defined in P228, and governance policy execution compiler mechanisms defined in P248 while remaining independently implementable as described herein.

Background

[0005] AI systems operating under governance constraints must evaluate proposed actions against those constraints before execution. Without a governed meta-reasoning capability, systems may execute actions that implicitly violate governance boundaries, cite governance compliance without cryptographic evidence, or modify governance policies during execution.

[0006] There exists a need for a deterministic meta-governance reasoning mechanism that retrieves the governing policy version, evaluates a proposed action against that policy, produces a governance decision record with cryptographic commitment, and blocks execution without a compliant governance decision record.

Summary of the Disclosure

[0007] A computer-implemented meta-governance reasoning protocol comprises: on receipt of a proposed ActionRecord, retrieving the current GovernancePolicyVersion from the governance registry; evaluating the ActionRecord against the GovernancePolicyVersion using explicit rule evaluation without semantic inference; computing a GovernanceDecisionHash as H(action_record_hash || policy_version_id || evaluation_outcome || constraint_list); generating a GovernanceDecisionRecord binding action record hash, policy version, evaluation outcome, applicable constraint identifiers, and GovernanceDecisionHash; blocking execution of the ActionRecord unless the GovernanceDecisionRecord contains a compliant outcome; and appending the GovernanceDecisionRecord to the governance audit log.

[0008] The GovernancePolicyVersion is retrieved as a read-only artefact. Meta-governance reasoning does not modify the governing policy.

[0009] The technical effect is modification of computing system behaviour by enforcing evidence-bound governance constraint evaluation before action execution, enabling auditable governance compliance records at the point of each governed action.

Claims

[0010] A computer-implemented method for meta-governance reasoning comprising: retrieving the current GovernancePolicyVersion; evaluating a proposed ActionRecord against the policy; computing a GovernanceDecisionHash; generating a GovernanceDecisionRecord; blocking execution without a compliant decision record; and appending the record to the governance audit log.

[0011] The method of claim 1 wherein governance policy evaluation is performed without semantic inference or heuristic constraint relaxation.

[0012] The method of claim 1 wherein the GovernancePolicyVersion is retrieved as a read-only artefact and is not modified during meta-governance reasoning.

[0013] A system for meta-governance reasoning comprising one or more processors and a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions to execute the method of any preceding claim.