IOA Bronze Badge

Shadow Observation Mode

Available

Overview

The Bronze Badge represents the entry-level assurance posture in the IOA ecosystem. It means the organization's workloads are running under IOA's Shadow Observation Mode, where all governance mechanisms are active in observe-only state.

In this mode, the system records evidence of AI operations, decisions, and policy checks, but does not enforce or block actions. This allows teams to benchmark how their existing systems would behave under IOA governance without operational disruption.

Who Uses It

Startups, R&D labs, academic groups, and design partners beginning their compliance journey
Regulators and auditors observing early-stage pilots in non-production environments
Internal innovation teams testing governance controls before enforcement

What It Provides

Full Telemetry

Complete event capture via IOA Memory Fabric

Signed Evidence

Cryptographically signed bundles proving decision lineage

Policy Evaluation

Runtime policy checks in shadow mode (no enforcement)

Transparency Scoring

Dashboard with 0.0–1.0 composite transparency score

Audit Trail

Real-time recording of model invocations and outcomes

Compliance Cartridges

Entry-level compliance verification for GDPR, HIPAA, NIST frameworks

What It's Not

It is not a compliance certification or guarantee
It does not block violations—it only reports them
It cannot be used for regulated workloads containing PHI/PII or customer data

How to Qualify

Deploy IOA Core

Configure PolicyEngine with shadow=true setting

Connect LLM Providers

Connect one or more LLM providers via IOA SDK (BYOL keys)

Generate Evidence

Produce at least one signed evidence bundle verified by AuditChain

Maintain Uptime

Maintain uptime > 90% and zero broken link reports over one CI cycle

When all these conditions are met, IOA automatically issues the Bronze Badge via the runtime ledger.

Value

The Bronze Badge signals that an organization is observing its AI systems through IOA, producing verifiable audit evidence, and preparing for higher governance maturity.