Proof, Not Promises

The transparency and verification standard behind NIKI.

“Proof, Not Promises” Audit Standard

In the AI coding ecosystem, benchmark numbers are often exaggerated, cherry-picked, or run on contrived toy tasks.

NIKI operates under a strict principle: Proof, Not Promises.

The Audit Trail

A normally completed task leaves an inspectable record under .niki/tasks/<id>/; it is not a cryptographic attestation:

1. report.md: Human-readable decisions, topology, scores, revisions, cost estimates, and diff.
2. changes.patch: Exact unified diff produced for publication.
3. artifacts/*.json: Per-stage artifacts, including repeated attempts such as coder-2.json.
4. safety_proof.json: Git-only evidence that the expected branch was added, existing branches and parentage were preserved, and no rebase or force-push signal appeared. It is not a sandbox proof and is skipped when there is no eligible non-empty branch.
5. artifacts/test_execution.json: Real command, exit code, stdout, and stderr when a test command resolves. If none resolves, test_execution is None. A resolved failing test or mutation gate blocks the branch unless --force records it as unverified.
6. manifest.json: Repository/config/toolchain provenance when snapshots are enabled.

These task artifacts are excluded from the published diff. Default snapshot retention is 14 days, after which old task directories are pruned.

niki audit may emit a partial bundle. Its complete flag means only that a task record, report.md, and safety_proof.json are present; it does not require test execution, a trace, or a patch.