Artefact

Compute Accountability Record

In development

A CAR is the unit of exchange between technical measurement and institutional governance: one structured object carrying subject, measurement, context, attribution method and governance status — each value tagged with where it came from.

Anatomy

What a record carries

record / schema: Identity, generation time and the schema the record was written against, including whether that schema is authoritative.
subject: What is being accounted for: the workload, its compute class, its accelerator class and the responsible party label.
measurement: The quantified activity and the derived energy figure, each with its unit and provenance.
context: Location and the emissions-factor scenario applied, so the conversion from energy to emissions is never implicit.
attribution: The attributed result, the method that produced it, that method's build state, and the full step-by-step calculation trace.
governance: Verification status and signature. Both are inert in the prototype: no verification process and no attestation mechanism exist yet.

Example

Inspect a record

A fixed illustrative record. Switch between the human-readable and JSON views, copy or download the JSON, and read the structural validation output.

Compute Accountability Record

Record ID: CAR-DEMO-B62799F0
Generated: 1 January 2026, 00:00:00 UTC; 2026-01-01T00:00:00.000Z
Status: Non-authoritative demonstration record
Verification: Unverified demonstration
Schema: csn.car · csn.car.demonstration-0 · authoritative: false

Energy

17.28 kWh

Simulated

Attributed emissions

6.912 kgCO2e

Simulated

Governance and evidence limits

Timestamped does not mean independently attested

This prototype records when the accountability artefact was generated. It does not currently provide cryptographic attestation that the underlying workload occurred, that measurements came from trusted instrumentation, or that the record has been independently verified. Machine-readable status: DEMONSTRATION_RECORD_NON_AUTHORITATIVE.

Record details and provenance

01Subject

workload_nameExample fine-tuning runDeclared input

compute_typetrainingDeclared input

accelerator_typegpuDeclared input

operator_labelIllustrative operatorDeclared input

02Measurement

compute_hours12 hDeclared input

device_count4 deviceDeclared input

average_power_draw_w300 WDeclared input

facility_overhead1.2 dimensionlessDeclared input

energy_kwh17.28 kWhSimulated

03Context

location_labelIllustrative locationDeclared input

scenario_labelScenario B — mid-intensity gridScenario value

grid_intensity_kg_per_kwh0.4 kgCO2e/kWhScenario value

04Attribution

emissions_kg_co2e6.912 kgCO2eSimulated

methodcsn-demonstration-engine-v0Prototype — functional

Methodology and assumptions

This prototype executes a transparent demonstration calculation chain, not the authoritative production CSN calculation specification. Hours are shared elapsed duration per device, not aggregated device-hours; average power is applied equally to every device. Device-hours = hours × device count; device energy = device-hours × watts ÷ 1000; facility energy = device energy × overhead; emissions = facility energy × illustrative scenario intensity. Blank power and overhead assume 300 W and 1.2. Workload name, compute type, accelerator type, operator label and location label do not affect these calculations; no hardware or location factor is inferred. Intermediate arithmetic is unrounded; trace operands are displayed with the same rounding as outputs; displayed outputs and final results are rounded to four decimal places without fixed trailing zeros, with four significant digits for nonzero values below 0.0001. Recomputable arithmetic does not verify the workload or inputs.

05Calculation trace

Calculation trace — input / unit / calculation / output

Arithmetic uses unrounded intermediate values. Displayed trace values and final results are rounded to four decimal places without fixed trailing zeros; values below 0.0001 use four significant digits. Recompute from the original declared inputs, defaults and scenario factor, not rounded intermediate displays. Inspecting arithmetic does not verify the workload or inputs.

Step 1Simulated
Device-hours
Input
compute_hours (12) × device_count (4)
Unit
h × device
Calculation
device_hours = compute_hours × device_count
Output
48 device-hours
Step 2Simulated
Device energy
Input
device_hours (48) × average_power_draw_w (300)
Unit
device-hours × W
Calculation
device_energy_kwh = (device_hours × average_power_draw_w) ÷ 1000
Output
14.4 kWh
Step 3Simulated
Facility energy
Input
device_energy_kwh (14.4) × facility_overhead (1.2)
Unit
kWh × dimensionless
Calculation
energy_kwh = device_energy_kwh × facility_overhead
Output
17.28 kWh
Step 4Simulated
Attributed emissions
Input
energy_kwh (17.28) × grid_intensity_kg_per_kwh (0.4)
Unit
kWh × kgCO2e/kWh
Calculation
emissions_kg_co2e = energy_kwh × grid_intensity_kg_per_kwh
Output
6.912 kgCO2e
Controlled demonstration figure. Not a measured or published factor.

Step	Input	Unit	Calculation	Output	Provenance
Device-hours	compute_hours (12) × device_count (4)	h × device	device_hours = compute_hours × device_count	48 device-hours	Simulated
Device energy	device_hours (48) × average_power_draw_w (300)	device-hours × W	device_energy_kwh = (device_hours × average_power_draw_w) ÷ 1000	14.4 kWh	Simulated
Facility energy	device_energy_kwh (14.4) × facility_overhead (1.2)	kWh × dimensionless	energy_kwh = device_energy_kwh × facility_overhead	17.28 kWh	Simulated
Attributed emissions	energy_kwh (17.28) × grid_intensity_kg_per_kwh (0.4)	kWh × kgCO2e/kWh	emissions_kg_co2e = energy_kwh × grid_intensity_kg_per_kwh Controlled demonstration figure. Not a measured or published factor.	6.912 kgCO2e	Simulated

06Governance

verification_statusUNVERIFIED_DEMONSTRATIONSimulated

signaturenullSimulated

No verification, attestation or signature process is implemented. This record is a structural demonstration artefact only.

Provenance legend

Measurednot produced by this prototype: Data obtained from actual instrumentation or trusted telemetry. The prototype never produces this state.
Declared input: Value supplied by the person using the demonstrator. It does not establish measurement or workload occurrence and is not independently verified.
Assumed: Value supplied by the demonstrator because a declared or measured value was not provided.
Scenario value: Controlled demonstration value used for the selected scenario. Not live grid data.
Simulated: Calculated inside the browser demonstration rather than measured from live infrastructure.

The current prototype operates on declared and assumed inputs plus controlled scenario values, and produces simulated outputs. It does not measure physical infrastructure.

Structural validation

warningschema.authoritativeRecord was generated against a structural placeholder schema. Protocol conformance cannot be asserted.
infogovernance.verification_statusRecord is unverified. Verification is not implemented.

These are limited demonstration checks, not comprehensive schema validation, arithmetic verification, conformance testing or independent verification. They do not verify the workload, inputs or claims.

Want to produce your own? Open the demonstrator.