Pipeline Audit Layer: Whole-Chain Integrity Verification for Accountability Pipelines

This paper defines the Pipeline Audit Layer (PAL), a deterministic method for verifying the integrity of multi-stage accountability pipelines. PAL does not re-run any pipeline stage. It inspects the outputs and handoffs between stages to detect gaps, inconsistencies, ignored flags, broken traceability links, and missing attribution records. PAL addresses a specific failure mode: a pipeline in which each individual stage passes its own internal checks while the chain between stages silently degrades. This failure mode produces records that appear complete but cannot be reconstructed from source to final output. The method defines six integrity checks: flag propagation, extraction traceability, substrate completeness, attribution granularity, cross-stage consistency, and temporal integrity. It defines five integrity states: INTACT, DEGRADED, BROKEN, INCOMPLETE, and QUARANTINED. It defines a three-level severity model (critical, major, minor) with deterministic assignment from finding type. PAL is pipeline-agnostic. It can audit any multi-stage system in which structured records pass between stages with declared inputs, outputs, and metadata. This paper provides sufficient operational detail for independent implementation.