# DIP Architecture
The Decision Integrity Protocol (DIP) provides a deterministic pipeline
for producing verifiable decision artifacts.
The architecture separates decision execution, artifact production,
ledger recording, and verification so that decision evidence can be
validated independently.
## Core Components
Decision Producer
A system that executes a decision and produces decision data.
Artifact Construction
The decision data is structured into a DIP artifact containing
decision metadata and payload.
Canonicalization
The artifact is serialized using deterministic JSON rules to ensure
identical byte representation across implementations.
Signature
The canonical artifact is signed using Ed25519.
Decision Ledger
Artifacts or artifact hashes may be recorded in an append-only ledger
to provide durable decision evidence.
Verification
Independent verifiers reconstruct the canonical artifact and verify
its signature and ledger proof.
## Protocol Flow
Execution → Artifact → Canonicalization → Signature → Ledger → Verification