The decision is the unit of accountability.
An answer, recommendation or workflow status is not a complete operating record. A consequential decision also depends on what was known, which policy applied, who held authority, what action followed and what happened next.
DTF retains those elements as one inspectable record. The record can be verified and replayed without asking the original model, agent or operator to recreate the past.
Evidence
The source identity and decision-time evidence are retained.
Policy
The applicable policy version is pinned to the record.
Authority
Recommendation, approval and override remain distinct.
Action
The authorised action and alternatives are recorded.
Outcome
The later result is linked without inventing causality.
DTF complements the systems already in place.
Warehouses retain data. Governance systems retain policy. Workflow tools retain status. Execution systems retain actions. Operational platforms retain outcomes. Each can be correct about its own fragment while no system owns the complete decision.
DTF does not replace the model, policy owner or accountable human. It creates the common evidence layer across them.
Trust also depends on refusal.
A record is not trustworthy because a system says it is. DTF refuses verification when required evidence, policy provenance, authority, tenant identity or integrity proof is missing or inconsistent.