Every other Hive primitive signs a receipt after the model runs. Imprimatur signs a clearance before it runs — and the engine refuses any inference that cannot present a valid, unexpired clearance. The control, not the record.
Each pre-condition is a named, signed leaf. The four are folded into a single Merkle commitment — the precond_root — using the same construction as Hive's batch receipts. Two calls with an identical satisfied set share a root and laterate off one clearance.
This is the line that keeps the primitive defensible. The enterprise defines the policy. Hive enforces it and signs that the enforcement ran and passed. Hive is not a truth oracle for legality.
The enforcement door. Present the clearance and the call about to run; the engine returns ALLOW only if the clearance verifies and binds the call. Otherwise REFUSE — which is how an uncleared inference is prevented from executing. With executed_model, the same door runs the closed-loop ran_as_cleared check.
# present a clearance + the call about to run { "clearance": { ... }, "sig_b64u": "…", "call": { "model": "…" } } # -> { "decision": "ALLOW" } or { "decision": "REFUSE", "reason": … }
A portable verifiable credential that travels with the call across systems and vendors. Anyone holding the public key can verify the clearance offline — the signature, the precond_root re-derivation, the assertion discipline, and the expiry — with no call back to Hive.
# fetch + passport-verify a clearance # -> { "verification": { "valid": true, "sig_ok": true, "root_ok": true } }
Every other primitive on the Stack is sold to the platform serving inference. Imprimatur is sold to the regulated enterprise that consumes inference and has to prove control before the model fires — in regimes where an after-the-fact log is not enough.
Issuing a clearance runs four pre-condition checks and signs a control — categorically more than emitting a receipt, and priced accordingly: roughly 7× a SiGR signature. Verifying a clearance is free for anyone, offline, with no secret. Reuse via precond_root is free — an identical satisfied set laterates off the existing clearance. The meter is the wedge; for a regulated buyer the annual license is the close.
| Tier | Monthly clearances issued | Per clearance |
|---|---|---|
| Pilot | first 100k | Free |
| Scale | 100k – 10M | $0.0015 |
| Platform | 10M – 250M | $0.0011 |
| Sovereign | 250M+ | $0.0008 floor |
Graduated by band, like cloud egress. Reuse via precond_root never bills twice. Hardened add-ons — PQ clearance signatures and ledger anchoring of the clearance log — carry the same volume discount on a higher base. Sovereign floor negotiable.
A regulated enterprise running agents at scale issues a clearance on every gated call. At control prices, the rail compounds fast — and once one regulated buyer requires it in an RFP, the requirement propagates to its peers within a cycle.
Two paths, one rail. Run a scoped pilot against your own policy, or book a license when the gate becomes the control your auditors and customers depend on.
Bring one regime and your approved-model list. We stand up the gate against your policy, issue clearances on your traffic, and show the closed-loop ran_as_cleared check end to end. First 100k clearances free.
Start a pilotVerification is free, forever — anyone, offline, no secret. Re-derive the precond_root, check the assertion discipline, verify the Ed25519 signature against the published key.
Open the verifierGate license, enterprise control plane, or sovereign on-prem. Tell us your regimes and volume and we will scope the deal — metered usage credits against it.
Connect with usThe forensic receipt tells you what went wrong. The clearance makes sure it can't. For regulated AI, that is the difference between an audit finding and an audit pass.