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

Every time NIKI runs, it produces a cryptographic and auditable record in .niki/:

1. report.md: Human-readable executive summary of the decisions, scores, and revisions.
2. changes.patch: Exact unified diff applied to the working tree.
3. safety_proof.json: Manifest certifying post-run git invariants — the new branch was added, existing branches/history are preserved, and no rebase or force-push occurred. It does not certify sandbox flags or spend caps (those are enforced at runtime and reported in report.md). Skipped on empty diffs (no branch, nothing to prove).
4. test_execution.json: In-container execution transcripts containing real exit codes and test runner outputs. Written only when a test command resolves; advisory evidence for the Reviewer verdict, not a hard gate (see docs/benchmarks.md).

A task’s audit trail is complete when report.md and changes.patch exist; safety_proof.json and test_execution.json are written whenever their preconditions hold (non-empty diff, resolvable test command).