The Agent Staircase stacks proofs, and each layer exists to notice a different kind of tampering. Pick a tamper and watch which bricks turn red, which only warn and which cannot tell at all. Rows marked computed here run the real check in your browser, on real evidence from the public repository. The other rows state what the SPEC says that layer does. Drag the wall to look around.
Goal of this animation
Show which proof layer catches which kind of tampering, and which layers are not built to notice it, so a reader knows what each layer is worth on its own.
🔒 No personal dataThe evidence is the synthetic Work Mandate and fixture runs from the public repository. Every computed check runs in this page. Apart from loading its fonts and its own files, the page makes no network requests.
☁ Our server is Cloudflare“AINumbers server” means Cloudflare today: the site's files are delivered through Cloudflare's network. This page never asks it anything. The verifiers and the evidence load with the page.
What the red and amber results mean
● green · the layer verifies● amber · advisory, or only if that evidence is present● red · the tamper was caught
✗ CAUGHTThe layer detects the tamper. Its brick turns red and shakes, and the result line says why.
! PASSES BUT ADVISORYThe check does not fail, but on its own it can be fooled. Treat it as a reason to look closer rather than proof of anything.
? ONLY IF PRESENTThe layer catches this only when its evidence exists, such as a signature or an anchor. Many artifacts carry neither.
✓ VERIFIESThe layer checks out. During a tamper, a green brick means that layer is not built to notice this kind of change.
Choose a tamper
✗caught!passes but advisory?only if present✓verifies✎where it was tampered
drag to rotate · faded bricks are not involved
Nothing is broken yet
A guided tour starts automatically and runs through seven tampers. Pick one yourself at any time to stop the tour.
Try it yourself
These inputs feed a small sample kernel. The hash below is real SHA-256, computed in your browser over the RFC 8785 canonical JSON of the inputs and the output, the rule every execution hash uses. Change any character and watch the hash react.
Hash stored in the artifact
Recomputed from these inputs
Illustrative kernel and inputs. The rule is the real one.
From the Agent Staircase explainer: changing the last character of the signature value in art-591 moved the hash from 888dd6a8…5859 to 35e66b8f…ffcb, and the match flipped to false.
Check a whole bundle
This page shows one tamper at a time. The auditor's walk checks the same evidence layer by layer the way a regulator would, says what each pass teaches and what it cannot, and writes a verification memo.
The evidence: the Agent Staircase session of 26 September 2026 (ten hashes, their root and three timestamp tokens), the signed Work Mandate that is leaf 4 of that session, and node art-07 with its Groth16 receipt and kernel source. Steps link to the Agent Staircase explainer.
Outcomes follow Steps 4 to 14 of the Agent Staircase explainer and the SPEC · evidence and verifier code from github.com/PostOakLabs/ainumbers · Zero PII · CC BY 4.0 · Post Oak Labs