OSIO’s architecture distinguishes permission, an attempted action, an external effect, Evidence about what happened and the organisation’s Result. These are related but not interchangeable.
Connection
A connection is a governed relationship between OSIO and an external business system or resource. A connection may make information available or provide a bounded way to request an action. Its existence does not mean that every action is allowed.
External effect
An Attempt is an effort by an executor to perform an action. It establishes only that the action was attempted. Authority may permit an attempt, but it does not prove that an attempt happened or that it succeeded.
An external effect is a real change or action in another system, such as a message being sent. An executor attempting a tool call is not, by itself, proof that the effect occurred.
Evidence
Evidence is information that helps establish what actually happened, and supports only what it can establish. For consequential effects, evidence should where technically possible come from an independent observation of the destination or provider, rather than relying only on the executor’s report. For example, an agent attempting to send an email is not equivalent to a provider recording that the message was sent. A “Sent” record may establish that the provider recorded a sent message; by itself, it does not establish recipient delivery, reading, understanding or the intended business outcome.
If an outcome is uncertain, OSIO’s architecture is intended to preserve that uncertainty instead of treating an attempt as success. The evidence available may be incomplete or may conflict, in which case the work should remain unresolved until there is a responsible basis for a conclusion.
Result
An Outcome is the actual state or consequence of the work; it may differ from what was intended. A Result is the organisation’s recorded, evidence-based conclusion about whether the intended responsibility was achieved, not achieved or remains unresolved. An unresolved Result records uncertainty or remaining work; it is not completion. Responsibility should be marked complete only when the applicable completion criteria are supported by relevant Evidence.
These distinctions describe the intended operating model. They do not imply that OSIO currently connects to every business system or supports every external action.