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what is provena fr?

rajfirke/provena — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

2PythonAudience · developerComplexity · 3/5LicenseSetup · easy

tl;dr

A Python library that logs where an AI agent's context came from, detects tampering, and can block stale or unverified data before it reaches the model.

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mindmap
  root((Provena))
    What it does
      Logs context sources
      Detects tampering
      Checks freshness
    Tech stack
      Python library
      SQLite or PostgreSQL
      SHA-256 hash chain
    Use cases
      Audit AI agent context
      Enforce governance policies
      Track multi-agent handoffs
    Audience
      AI agent developers
      Compliance teams

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what do people make with this?

VIBE 1

Add a tamper-evident audit trail to an AI agent's retriever, tool calls, and memory in a few lines of code.

VIBE 2

Block or warn on context that is missing source information or has gone stale before it reaches the LLM.

VIBE 3

Track handoffs and audit multiple agents together in a multi-agent system.

VIBE 4

Generate compliance reports to help meet EU AI Act requirements for AI context governance.

what's the stack?

PythonSQLitePostgreSQLSHA-256OpenTelemetryMCP

how it stacks up fr

rajfirke/provena0-bingwu-0/live-interpreter010zx00x1/faresnipe
Stars222
LanguagePythonPythonPython
Setup difficultyeasymoderateeasy
Complexity3/52/52/5
Audiencedevelopergeneralgeneral

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

how do i run it?

Difficulty · easy time til it works · 5min

Core install has zero dependencies, PostgreSQL, MCP, or PDF report features need optional extras installed separately.

Apache 2.0 license, you can use, modify, and distribute this freely, including commercially, as long as you keep attribution and license notices.

in plain english

Provena is a Python library that keeps track of where an AI agent's information came from, and whether it can be trusted. When an AI agent pulls in data from several different sources, such as a search tool, a database, or another agent, it becomes hard to answer basic questions afterward: which source provided which piece of information, was any of it changed after the fact, and was it still up to date when it was used. Provena answers those questions by wrapping the functions that produce that context and logging every call. Each logged entry gets a cryptographic hash and is chained to the ones before it, so if anyone tries to tamper with the log afterward, the chain breaks and the tampering becomes detectable. Provena can also check whether context carries proper source information and flag it as missing or incomplete, and it can check whether the context is still fresh or has gone stale based on timestamps. On top of just observing, it can enforce rules: it can block, warn about, or simply log context that fails these checks before that context reaches the AI model. The core library has no dependencies beyond Python itself and adds very little processing overhead. Optional add-ons bring in a command-line tool, PostgreSQL storage, a server for the Model Context Protocol, PDF compliance reports, and ready-made connectors for popular agent frameworks such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, AutoGen, the OpenAI Agents SDK, and Google's ADK. It can also track handoffs between multiple agents and summarize gaps across all of them, such as missing source information or broken audit chains. This is aimed at developers building AI agent systems, especially ones subject to compliance requirements like the EU AI Act, who need to prove what information their agents used and that it was not altered. It installs with a single pip command and is released under the Apache 2.0 license.

prompts (copy fr)

prompt 1
Show me how to add Provena's ContextTrail to my existing LangChain retriever.
prompt 2
Explain the difference between provenance validation and freshness checking in Provena.
prompt 3
Walk me through setting up policy enforcement to block stale context in Provena.
prompt 4
How do I verify that my Provena audit trail hasn't been tampered with using the CLI?
prompt 5
Help me set up multi-agent handoff tracking with Provena's TrailAggregator.

Frequently asked questions

what is provena fr?

A Python library that logs where an AI agent's context came from, detects tampering, and can block stale or unverified data before it reaches the model.

What language is provena written in?

Mainly Python. The stack also includes Python, SQLite, PostgreSQL.

What license does provena use?

Apache 2.0 license, you can use, modify, and distribute this freely, including commercially, as long as you keep attribution and license notices.

How hard is provena to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is provena for?

Mainly developer.

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