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Five streams lead into a glowing AI cube from data, models, people, tools, and processes. A magnifying glass below enlarges the braided threads and dotted lines trace them back to their sources.
Reviewed visual · version 2

RS Glossary

Capability Provenance

Capability provenance is the record of where an AI system's abilities came from — the models, data, human input, tools and processes that materially shaped what it can do.

Review state
Reviewed in POC
Freshness
Current
Version
3
  • Capability Provenance

Remember it this wayWhat made this system able to do that?

In plain language

Capability provenance explains where a system's abilities came from. It connects behavior to material contributors such as training, fine-tuning, retrieval, tools, human feedback, integration, and operational practice.

Why it matters

Teams cannot evaluate control, ownership, risk, or reproducibility if they cannot trace the important contributors to capability.

Example

A coding assistant's performance record identifies its base model, fine-tuning data, retrieval index, execution tools, reviewer feedback, and deployment configuration.

Common misconception

Capability provenance is not a claim that every output can be traced to one training example. It records material contributors to capability at an appropriate level.

Related terms

Sources

No sources recorded yet.

Learn more

  • Use with [[verification|Verification]] and [[evidence-selection|Evidence Selection]].

Public history

26 recorded events · 26 public summaries

  1. A potential shared concept was discussed and selected for initial glossary drafting.

  2. The captured candidate received a complete initial draft and entered section-level human review.

  3. Radar reviewed the initial definition draft for human consideration.

  4. Radar reviewed the initial plain-language-explanation draft for human consideration.

  5. Radar reviewed the initial why-it-matters draft for human consideration.

  6. Radar reviewed the initial example draft for human consideration.

  7. Radar reviewed the initial common-misconception draft for human consideration.

  8. Radar reviewed the initial remember-it-this-way draft for human consideration.

  9. Radar reviewed the initial related-terms draft for human consideration.

  10. Radar reviewed the initial sources draft for human consideration.

  11. Radar reviewed the initial learn-more draft for human consideration.

  12. A proposal was opened for section-level human review while preserving the current version.

  13. A human reviewer opened a proposed revision while preserving the current approved or captured version.

  14. definition approved by a human reviewer.

  15. plain-language-explanation approved by a human reviewer.

  16. why-it-matters approved by a human reviewer.

  17. example approved by a human reviewer.

  18. common-misconception approved by a human reviewer.

  19. remember-it-this-way approved by a human reviewer.

  20. related-terms approved by a human reviewer.

  21. sources approved by a human reviewer.

  22. learn-more approved by a human reviewer.

  23. All section gates are approved; content version 1 is now a fully approved term.

  24. Definition review recorded as replace.

  25. A personal-origin intake credit was removed from the Sources field; the field remains open for human review.

  26. Sources review recorded as approve.

Source: vault/Glossary/terms/capability-provenance/term.md · sha256:b457d4d3cf34c7ad6635b16b923a6a64764ea7f2c021a228078ff628308ed534 · Release: rs-glossary-glossary-team-poc-0.5.5-2026-09-02