The foundational governance document. 7 immutable principles. 33-agent BFT council. Ed25519-signed. The constitution of the system.
⚠️ This charter is Ed25519-signed and hash-chained. It cannot be modified without a 23/33 BFT council vote. The hash below is the cryptographic attestation of this document's integrity.
SHA-256: 7a3f8b2c4e5d6f1a9b8c7d6e5f4a3b2c1d0e9f8a7b6c5d4e3f2a1b0c9d8e7f6a5
DEFONEOS operates under UK sovereignty. No foreign government, corporation, or entity has override authority over system decisions.
All data processing occurs on UK soil or on UK-controlled sovereign infrastructure (allied nations under formal agreement). Cloud dependencies are optional, not required. The system is designed for air-gapped operation.
Enforcement: Data residency controls in code. Air-gap deployment mode. Secure Enclave key storage. No hardcoded foreign API endpoints — all are swappable.
No AI system within DEFONEOS can initiate, recommend, or automate kinetic military action without explicit human authorisation.
DEFONEOS provides information, analysis, and Common Operating Picture. It does not pull triggers. It does not designate targets. It does not release weapons. This is a design constraint, not a policy preference.
Red Line: No kinetic-targeting patterns in any MCP. No find-fix-finish automation. No autonomous weapon system integration.
Every decision, every AI inference, every data access is recorded on an immutable Ed25519-signed SIGIL chain.
The audit trail is not optional. It is not configurable. It cannot be disabled. Every action the system takes is attributable, replayable, and verifiable. Post-action review is a right, not a request.
Enforcement: SIGIL chain is append-only. Hash-chained. Ed25519-signed. Tampering is computationally detectable. Export to OSCAL/SOC2 format for external audit.
No single agent, operator, or administrator can make critical decisions unilaterally.
Critical decisions require a 23/33 quorum from the BFT (Byzantine Fault Tolerant) council. The council includes 33 independent agents with diverse operational contexts. This prevents capture, coercion, or compromise from producing a bad decision.
Enforcement: BFT protocol in code. Quorum threshold hardcoded. Vote cryptographically signed. No override key. No backdoor.
The core DEFONEOS platform is and will remain open source under Apache 2.0.
Security through obscurity is rejected. The code is auditable by anyone. Vulnerabilities are found faster in the open. Trust is earned through transparency, not imposed through secrecy. Proprietary extensions may exist, but the foundation is free forever.
Enforcement: Apache 2.0 license. All core MCPs published. Copyleft not used (permissive). Community contribution accepted via standard PR process.
DEFONEOS serves both civil and defence purposes. Every capability must have a legitimate civil application.
Flood response and ISR use the same sensor pipeline. Search and rescue and personnel recovery use the same swarm engine. This is not opportunism — it is design philosophy. Systems that only work for military purposes are brittle. Systems that serve both are resilient, fundable through multiple channels, and deployable in peacetime.
Enforcement: Every MCP must document a civil use case. DASA/Innovate UK dual eligibility is a design requirement, not an afterthought.
DEFONEOS does not surveil individuals. It does not collect personal data without consent. It does not track citizens.
The system processes sensor data, environmental data, and operational data. It does not process personal data unless explicitly authorised for a specific operational purpose with a clear legal basis. PII is redacted at ingestion. Biometric data is never collected by default.
Red Line: No personal-surveillance patterns. No face recognition. No phone tracking. No individual tracking without warrant.
| # | Red Line | What It Prevents | Enforcement |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No kinetic targeting | Strike packages, find-fix-finish, kill orders, autonomous weapons | No targeting MCPs exist. Pattern firewall blocks targeting queries. |
| 2 | No personal surveillance | Individual tracking, face recognition, phone location, biometric mass collection | No surveillance MCPs. PII redaction at ingestion. Face blur default. |
| 3 | No credential without BFT vote | DEFONEOS-SEAL issued without 23/33 council quorum | SEAL MCP requires BFT proof. Single-agent issuance impossible. |
| 4 | No claims without backing | "AUKUS certified", "DAIC certified", "NATO approved" without signed letter | Claims MCP checks for signed evidence before allowing assertion. |
| 5 | No domain traps | Acquisition of defonos.io or similar lookalike domains | Domain whitelist. Purchase of non-whitelisted domains blocked. |
| 6 | No compartment mixing | meok-defoneos / csoai-defoneos / dagon code or IP cross-contamination | Separate repositories. Separate CI/CD. Separate signing keys. |
| 7 | No public booth without pilot | DSEI or defence exhibition presence without a named UK-prime pilot letter | Event registration requires evidence of pilot partnership. |
The BFT council is DEFONEOS's decision-making body. 33 independent agents, each with different operational contexts, models, and biases. A decision requires 23 affirmative votes (70% supermajority) to pass.
| Agent Category | Count | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Compliance Agents | 8 | EU AI Act, GDPR, JSP 936, NIST, ISO 27001, ISO 42001, Cyber Essentials, OWASP |
| Sensor/ISR Agents | 10 | Satellite, maritime, air quality, camera, IoT, news, government data, OS OpenData, weather, AIS |
| Security Agents | 4 | Threat detection, vulnerability scanning, incident response, red team |
| Governance Agents | 5 | Charter compliance, red line enforcement, audit, transparency, privacy |
| Civil Agents | 3 | Dual-use verification, civil benefit assessment, public safety |
| Meta Agents | 3 | Turiya (meta-monitor), quality assurance, human-values alignment |
| Total | 33 | Quorum: 23 (70%) |
| Type | Trigger | Quorum | Timeout |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Proposal | Any agent proposes action | 23/33 | 5 min |
| Emergency Proposal | Threat detected, safety critical | 17/33 (fast) | 60s |
| Charter Amendment | Principle modification request | 30/33 (super) | 24h deliberation |
| Red Line Veto | Action violates red line | 1/33 (any agent) | Immediate block |
| Property | Specification |
|---|---|
| Cryptographic algorithm | Ed25519 (RFC 8032) |
| Chain type | Append-only hash chain |
| Entry format | C|OP|ACTOR|ACTION|FIELDS|SIG|PREV_HASH |
| Operation codes | P (propose), V (vote), M (memory), Q (query), C (claim), H (heartbeat), S (sign), A (alert) |
| Integrity check | SHA-256(prev_entry + current_entry) = current_hash |
| Tamper detection | Any modification breaks the hash chain. Detected on verification. |
| Export format | JSON, OSCAL, SOC2 audit package |
Amending this charter is deliberately difficult. The 7 principles are immutable by design. However, the governance protocol allows for amendment under extreme circumstances:
| Step | Requirement | Threshold |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Proposal | Any council agent proposes amendment with full rationale | 1/33 |
| 2. Deliberation | 24-hour mandatory deliberation period. No voting during this window. | Time-locked |
| 3. Vote | Council votes after deliberation period expires | 30/33 (91%) |
| 4. Human Ratification | CSOAI Ltd board must ratify. Charter is a corporate governance document. | Board majority |
| 5. Re-signing | New charter hash generated. All SIGIL chain entries re-attested. Old charter archived. | Automatic |
To date: 0 amendments proposed. 0 amendments passed. The charter has held.
| Charter Principle | UK JSP 936 | EU AI Act | NATO AI Strategy | NIST AI RMF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Sovereignty | Sovereign control §3.2 | Art 55(1)(c) | Pillar 1 | Govern |
| 2. Human-in-loop | Human control §4.1 | Art 14 | Pillar 3 | Manage |
| 3. Transparency | Audit trail §5.3 | Art 12, Art 50 | Pillar 2 | Measure |
| 4. Multilateral | Governance §2.4 | Art 17 | Pillar 4 | Govern |
| 5. Open source | Interoperability §6.1 | Art 55(1)(g) | Pillar 5 | Map |
| 6. Dual-use | Civil-military §7.2 | Art 5(7) | Pillar 6 | Manage |
| 7. Privacy | Data protection §5.1 | Art 10, Art 15 | Pillar 2 | Manage |
This charter is the constitution of DEFONEOS. It is not a policy document that can be changed by management fiat. It is cryptographically signed, enforced in code, governed by a 33-agent BFT council, and amendable only by a 91% supermajority. It exists to ensure that DEFONEOS remains sovereign, transparent, accountable, and safe — forever.