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Compliance — does it respect the user?
Brief 128

Audit-Trail Audit

Whether the system keeps a trustworthy record of who did what — the audit trail that compliance, incident response, and forensics all depend on.

AUDITLOG.md4 phases7 lenses~2.7k chars

Free & open · no signup · read-only — it ends by asking · nothing leaves your machine

What it does

You are working inside this repo. Mission: judge whether the system records the sensitive things people do to it, in a way you could actually trust and use — because when there's an incident or an audit, "who changed this, and when" needs a real answer.

Read-only pass. Read the logging of sensitive actions, its storage, and access to it; change nothing but the report file.

What it looks for

7 lenses it looks through

Phase 2 sweeps the codebase through every one of these, citing file and line for each finding.

1

Coverage

are the sensitive actions logged: auth, permission changes, data access, admin, deletion, money

2

Content

does each entry capture who, what, when, from where, and the before and after

3

Tamper resistance

can the logs be altered or deleted by the people they record; append-only, off-box

4

Access & privacy

who can read the audit log, and does it over-collect sensitive data

5

Retention

kept long enough for compliance and investigations, and no longer than allowed

6

Usability

can you actually answer "who changed this and when" quickly from the trail

7

Distinct from debug logs

a real audit trail, not application logs pressed into service

The deliverable

What lands in your repo

One structured report at the repo root — or in reports/, if you keep one — the same shape every time, ready for a teammate — or the optional Studio — to act on.

AUDITLOG.md
1
Coverage matrix
sensitive action × logged? · with what content?
2
Findings
each: gap · action · what is missing · the fix
3
Trust & retention
the tamper-resistance and retention changes needed
4
Priority
the events and protections to add first
One file. Evidence-backed. It ends by asking before touching anything.
How it works

What it makes the agent do

Every Goal Prompt follows the same four steps, so results are consistent and repeatable — no matter which one you run.

1
Phase 1

Find what is recorded

Identify the sensitive actions.

2
Phase 2

Audit through 7 lenses

Coverage — are the sensitive actions logged.

3
Phase 3

Curate

Rank by what a missing record would cost in an incident or audit.

4
Phase 4

Report

Create AUDITLOG.md at repo root.

Get started

Three ways to run this Goal Prompt

01 · COPY

Paste it in

Copy it and paste it into your agent inside the repo you want checked.

02 · INSTALL

As a slash command

Install the goal plugin once — two commands — then just type /goal:audit-trail.

1/plugin marketplace add GhostlyGawd/goal-prompts
2/plugin install goal@goal-prompts

Or install only this Goal Prompt as /goal-audit-trail:

curl -fsSL https://goal-prompts.vercel.app/install | BRIEF=128 sh
03 · AGENT

From an agent (MCP)

Let an agent fetch it mid-conversation, or pull the raw Goal Prompt by URL.

https://goal-prompts.vercel.app/raw/128.md
Transparency

The exact prompt

Nothing hidden — this is the whole Goal Prompt, verbatim. Read it in a minute, edit it, or copy it as-is.

Read the full brief (2,721 characters)
# Goal: Audit-Trail Audit

You are working inside this repo. Mission: judge whether the system records the sensitive things people do to it, in a way you could actually trust and use — because when there's an incident or an audit, "who changed this, and when" needs a real answer.

Read-only pass. Read the logging of sensitive actions, its storage, and access to it; change nothing but the report file.

## Phase 1 — Find what is recorded
- Identify the sensitive actions: authentication, permission changes, data access, admin actions, deletion, money movement.
- For each, find whether it is logged, and what the log entry captures.
- Note where audit records are stored and who can read or alter them.

## Phase 2 — Audit through 7 lenses
1. **Coverage** — are the sensitive actions logged: auth, permission changes, data access, admin, deletion, money
2. **Content** — does each entry capture who, what, when, from where, and the before and after
3. **Tamper resistance** — can the logs be altered or deleted by the people they record; append-only, off-box
4. **Access & privacy** — who can read the audit log, and does it over-collect sensitive data
5. **Retention** — kept long enough for compliance and investigations, and no longer than allowed
6. **Usability** — can you actually answer "who changed this and when" quickly from the trail
7. **Distinct from debug logs** — a real audit trail, not application logs pressed into service

## Phase 3 — Curate
- Rank by what a missing record would cost in an incident or audit: unlogged permission changes top the list.
- For each gap, name the event to log and the field to capture.
- Separate "not logged" from "logged but untrustworthy"; a tamperable trail is not evidence.

## Phase 4 — Report
Create `AUDITLOG.md` at repo root:
1. **Coverage matrix** — sensitive action × logged? · with what content?
2. **Findings** — each: gap · action · what is missing · the fix
3. **Trust & retention** — the tamper-resistance and retention changes needed
4. **Priority** — the events and protections to add first

Start the report with today's date. If `AUDITLOG.md` already exists from a previous run, read it first and lead with what changed since.

## Rules
- A log the actor can edit is a story, not an audit trail
- Capture who, what, when, and the before/after, or it will not answer the question
- No actions worth an audit trail in this repo? Say so in a one-paragraph null report and stop — a null result is a valid finding.
- If a `reports/` directory exists at the repo root, write the report there instead of the root.
- Before asking, present the top findings as a ranked list in plain words
- Report only — end by asking which audit-trail gaps to close first

House rules for this Goal Prompt

  • A log the actor can edit is a story, not an audit trail
  • Capture who, what, when, and the before/after, or it will not answer the question
  • No actions worth an audit trail in this repo? Say so in a one-paragraph null report and stop — a null result is a valid finding.
  • If a reports/ directory exists at the repo root, write the report there instead of the root.
  • Before asking, present the top findings as a ranked list in plain words
  • Report only — end by asking which audit-trail gaps to close first
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