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Multi-Organization Execution ​

In practice, different government organizations handle different parts of the law chain. The Tax Authority determines your income. The Allowances Service determines your healthcare allowance. A municipality determines your social assistance.

When the engine follows a cross-law reference, it crosses organizational boundaries. The question becomes: should it compute the value itself, or accept another organization's authoritative determination?

Dutch administrative law distinguishes between two kinds of outputs:

  • A beschikking (formal decision) is a legally binding act that only the competent authority can issue. The Tax Authority's income determination is a beschikking.
  • A berekening (calculation) is a computation that anyone can perform. Multiplying two publicly known numbers does not require authority.

This distinction determines the execution boundary. A calculation can be run by anyone. A beschikking requires the right organization.

How the engine decides ​

Each article that produces a formal decision declares competent_authority:

yaml
execution:
  produces:
    legal_character: BESCHIKKING
    decision_type: TOEKENNING
    competent_authority: belastingdienst_toeslagen

When the engine hits a cross-law reference and needs to resolve it, the decision tree is:

  1. Does the target article produce a BESCHIKKING? If no: execute locally (it is just a calculation)
  2. Is competent_authority declared? If no: execute locally with a warning
  3. Is the competent authority the same organization running this engine? If yes: execute locally
  4. Otherwise: accept the other organization's determination

Execution modes ​

The engine supports four modes, based on two independent choices:

SimulationAuthoritative
Solo (local only)Execute everything locally. No identity, unsigned outputs. Good for exploring the full chain.Execute with identity. Sign outputs. No cross-org calls.
Federated (cross-org)Identity + real calls to other engines. Unsigned outputs. For testing inter-org flows.Identity + real calls + signed outputs. Production mode.

Solo simulation is the default. Anyone can explore the full calculation chain for any law without needing credentials or organizational identity. This is what runs in the browser editor.

Federated authoritative is production mode. Each engine identifies as a specific organization, calls other organizations' engines through FSC (Federated Service Connectivity), and signs its outputs cryptographically.

What the trace shows ​

In multi-org mode, the execution trace marks organizational boundaries. Each value shows whether it was:

  • Computed locally (the running engine executed the logic)
  • Accepted from another authority (the value came from an external engine, with a signature)

A citizen requesting their trace can see: "your income was determined by the Tax Authority (accepted, signed), your healthcare allowance was calculated by the Allowances Service (computed locally)."

Further reading ​