Compliance by Design - An Entrepreneur Keeps a Diary in Git

An illustrative thread through the GCBoK

The GCBoK defines terms, concepts and architectural principles for Git-native Compliance. This article series implements these principles in a continuous narrative thread - using the example of a fictional organization KMU (placeholder ORG-1) and its entrepreneur (placeholder E1).

The series shows in 32 articles and 7 parts how an entrepreneur, from founding through the first payroll to non-profit status, fulfills his compliance obligations in a structured, verifiable and risk-minimizing way - with Git as audit ledger, V7GUID as unique identifier, OSCAL as machine-readable compliance statement and OPA/Rego as Policy-as-Code.

Trigger Model

The series is not organized by topics, but by life events. Each article is triggered by a concrete event in the life of the company:

Trigger Parts Articles
A - Founding Part I, Part II, Part III ED01-ED14
B - The 1st Employee Part IV ED15-ED22
C - FZul/BSFZ Part V ED23-ED26
D - Non-profit Status Part V ED23-ED26
E - Harness Part VI ED27-ED30
F - Appendix Part VII ED31-ED32

Risk Leverage: cheap today, audit-safe tomorrow

The core thesis of the series: Git-native diary keeping generates Risk Leverage. Facts recorded today at minimal cost (a JSON entry with V7GUID + SHA-256 evidence reference) become audit-safe evidence for future audits (GoBD 10 years, AO, SV annual reports, FZul records). The entrepreneur "lifts" today into a future audit security that would only be achievable with high retrospective effort without Git-native keeping.

About the Series

The complete series with all articles, Mermaid diagrams, JSON examples and source references can be found in the dedicated series section of the GCBoK:

To the article series - Compliance by Design

Overview of the Parts

Part Topic Trigger
Part I Fundamentals (Motivation, SME Organizational Model, Diary Format) Founding
Part II GoBD and Retention (GoBD Fundamentals, Evidence, Procedure Documentation, Retention Periods, AO, Spheres, VBG) GoBD
Part III Authorities and Identifiers (Tax Office, DRV, BA, BZSt, Authority Interfaces) Business Registration
Part IV Employees and Payroll (Onboarding, Insurances, Health Insurance, Payroll, Working Time, Minimum Wage, Vacation, Spheres) 1st Employee
Part V FZul/BSFZ and Non-profit Status FZul/Non-profit
Part VI Harness Requirements Implementation
Part VII Appendix (Sources, Glossary, CDN References) Reference
Role Location Purpose
Primary / SSoT git.gitcover.org/GCC Canonical storage (GPG-signed, versioned)
Public OSS Mirror / CDN codeberg.org/gitcover-commons Read-only mirror; FLOSS discovery
Community Hub github.com/gitcover-commons Issues & Discussions; source code reference on Codeberg

Note: This assignment of sources, mirror and community hub reflects the current state and may change. Please check the respective canonical source on gitcover.org for the current state.