Verifiable Autonomy in Practice: Root-Hash Registration, External Verification with Self-Declared Authority Limits, and the Disclosure Boundary

This working paper provides a plain-language technical explanation of three verification questions arising from the published Human-Machine Authority Architecture: what registering a cryptographic root hash entails in practice; how external verification can operate over self-declared authority limits; and what is disclosed when structural governance properties are made transparent while classified operational parameters remain protected.

The note explains the Secure Audit Log Module, chained audit records, periodic root-hash registration, externally verifiable compliance proofs, and the distinction between structural disclosure and operational disclosure. It uses an analogy to established verification practice and includes a concise formal treatment of the prover and verifier roles, the Setup-Prove-Verify protocol, and a worked authority-cap compliance predicate.

This document is a plain-language digest of material already published in the works listed in its references. It introduces no new technical material, numerical parameters, or design details beyond the published record. The Human-Machine Authority Architecture remains a research framework with simulation-backed reference implementations; no fielded or certified deployment is claimed.