◎ OS PUB Apache 2.0 ← All specifications

P144 — AIEP — Sovereign Knowledge Node 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 knowledge node sovereignty and governance systems within distributed computing environments.

[0002] More particularly, the disclosure concerns a sovereign knowledge node protocol for use within an Architected Instruction and Evidence Protocol (AIEP) system, enabling a knowledge node to maintain jurisdictional authority over its evidence corpus, enforce jurisdiction-specific admissibility rules, and participate in federated networks without surrendering local governance control.

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 cross-jurisdiction evidence normalisation mechanisms defined in P17, sovereign knowledge node authorisation mechanisms defined in P263, and inter-sovereign conflict resolution mechanisms defined in P269 while remaining independently implementable as described herein.

Background

[0005] Distributed AI knowledge networks span multiple jurisdictions each with distinct regulatory requirements, data sovereignty obligations, and admissibility standards. Existing federated knowledge systems do not provide a mechanism for nodes to enforce local governance constraints while participating in cross-node evidence exchange.

[0006] There exists a need for a sovereign knowledge node protocol that enforces jurisdiction-specific governance policies on all evidence ingestion and export operations, records sovereignty boundary decisions cryptographically, and participates in federation without delegating local governance authority to the federated network.

Summary of the Disclosure

[0007] A computer-implemented sovereign knowledge node protocol comprises: maintaining a SovereigntyManifest specifying the node’s jurisdiction identifier, applicable governance policies, and evidence boundary rules; on receipt of an evidence artefact from an external source, evaluating the artefact against the SovereigntyManifest admissibility rules before ingestion; computing a SovereigntyDecisionHash as H(artefact_hash || jurisdiction_id || policy_version_id || admission_outcome); appending a SovereigntyDecisionRecord to the local governance log; on receipt of an evidence export request, evaluating the request against the SovereigntyManifest export rules; rejecting export requests that violate sovereignty boundary rules in a fail-closed manner; and generating a SovereigntyExportRecord for each permitted export binding the exported artefact hash, requesting node identifier, and sovereignty decision hash.

[0008] The SovereigntyManifest is versioned and immutable. Policy changes require a new SovereigntyManifest version; prior decisions remain bound to the policy version under which they were made.

[0009] The technical effect is modification of computing system behaviour by enforcing jurisdiction-specific sovereignty governance at evidence ingestion and export boundaries, enabling verifiable local governance participation in federated knowledge networks.

Claims

[0010] A computer-implemented method for sovereign knowledge node governance comprising: maintaining a versioned SovereigntyManifest; evaluating evidence artefacts against local admissibility rules at ingestion; evaluating export requests against local export rules; computing SovereigntyDecisionHashes; appending SovereigntyDecisionRecords; and refusing export requests violating sovereignty boundary rules.

[0011] The method of claim 1 wherein the SovereigntyManifest is immutable; policy changes require a new version with all prior decisions bound to the version under which they were made.

[0012] The method of claim 1 wherein export refusal is fail-closed without heuristic override or escalation delegation.

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