Definition
Plain language
A running record of what happened, kept so someone can check later — but only if someone actually reads it.
As stated in the literature
An append-only record of system events and agent actions retained for after-the-fact review; distinct from an active monitoring channel, since nothing acts on entries in real time.
Also called: audit logs
Why it matters: An audit log lets you reconstruct what went wrong after the fact, but it stops nothing while it is happening, so treating one as a safety measure gives a false sense of protection.
For example, a system might faithfully record that an agent rewrote a configuration file at 3am, but nobody notices until weeks later when someone finally opens the file.
Heard on the show
“There's no per-user access control, no review of writes, no audit log of who added which node.”Episode 039 — When Smarter Agents Get Fooled by Three Extra Nodes in a Database