Creative Decision Log (CDL): A minimal format for recording human decisions in AI-assisted music production

A draft specification, self-published and deposited in an open repository, with a DOI, for recording the human decisions taken during AI-assisted music production. It is a minimal, hash-chained log format with a JSON Schema (2020-12), a reference implementation that needs only the Python 3 standard library, and one sealed worked example. It is a draft proposal by one author. It is not a standard and is not endorsed by any standards body. To the author’s knowledge no production software implements it, no court has considered it, and it does not prove authorship. It responds to a gap in the companion study (10.5281/zenodo.23476695), which scored edit and decision logs 1 of 3 on probative strength, robustness and accessibility. The study found no defined way to record why a choice was made, no tool located that produces such a log, and no case law located that treats one as probative. This draft addresses the first of those gaps only. Comment and criticism are invited, particularly on the six open questions in section 11.