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Policy Reference

Equivalent Terms​

No accepted equivalent terms are recorded yet.

Equivalent-term claims should be submitted through the proposal lifecycle and accepted only through a decision record.

Overlapping Terms​

The following terms may overlap with policy reference, but are not treated as identical without review:

  • policy identifier;
  • rule reference;
  • control reference;
  • standard reference;
  • requirement reference;
  • policy-as-code, when used to represent or evaluate policy logic as code or structured policy language. This overlaps with Policy Reference when the policy artifact supplies the rule basis for a transition, but it is not equivalent unless the specific policy artifact and version are cited as the commit-time rule basis.

Adjacent Terms​

The following terms are adjacent because they may describe policy content or evidence without identifying the exact rule basis used at commit time:

  • policy document;
  • compliance framework;
  • control catalog;
  • governance rule;
  • decision table.

Definition​

A policy reference is the specific rule, policy, standard, or governance artifact used to evaluate a proposed transition.

It identifies the rule basis for the decision.

Why The StegVerse Term Is Retained​

The StegVerse term is retained because overlapping terms may identify policy material without requiring a stable commit-time rule basis that can be reconstructed from a receipt or decision record.

Reference Requirements​

A policy reference should be stable enough that a reviewer can determine which policy was applied at commit time.

It may point to:

  • a repository policy file;
  • a governance rule;
  • a versioned standard;
  • a workflow rule;
  • a decision table;
  • a formalism artifact.

Why It Matters​

Without a policy reference, a transition receipt may record that a decision happened without showing the rule basis for that decision.

Admissibility requires more than a result.

It requires the ability to identify the governing basis for that result.

governance:
  proposal_link: "../../static/governance/proposals/proposal.example.006.json"
  decision_link: "../../static/governance/decisions/decision.example.006.json"
  replay_link: "../../static/governance/replay/decision.example.006.txt"
  reconstruction_link: "../../static/governance/evidence/decision.example.006/README.md"