AXIS Documentation / Testing & Adoption / FAQ

FAQ

Common questions

Short answers to the questions that come up most often. For details, follow the links.

Basics

What is AXIS?: A deterministic PostgreSQL write-path control layer: it classifies SQL, evaluates versioned policy, enforces ALLOW / BLOCK / REQUIRE_APPROVAL, and records durable, hash-linked evidence.
Is AXIS production-ready?: No. It reached v0.6 Pilot Readiness — controlled demos, local review and non-production pilot. It is not compliance-certified enterprise software.
Does AXIS use AI to decide?: No. Decisions come from a deterministic policy engine. "AXIS does not guess with AI."
Which port does AXIS listen on?: HTTP API on 6543 (LISTEN_ADDR); the lab wire listener uses 6544 and is disabled by default. PostgreSQL is 5432; the Control Plane is 3000.

Does AXIS protect all database traffic?: Only traffic that passes through AXIS. Direct database access with valid credentials bypasses AXIS and must be closed by deployment.
Are reads protected too?: Reads default to ALLOW and, in the pilot integration, safe reads go directly to PostgreSQL. The read/write split is intentional; reads are not the protected surface.
What happens to dangerous writes?: They are blocked (403) or require approval (202) before any execution. Evidence is recorded either way.
Can operators bypass AXIS silently?: No. emergency_bypass is explicit, configured and logged with a reason code — "AXIS does not support silent emergency bypass."

Does approving a request execute it?: No. Approval is consent; the client must retry the request with the approval_id before AXIS evaluates and executes.
Can an approval be used twice?: Resolution is immutable and each retry is a separate audited event; expired or rejected approvals never execute.
How long is an approval valid?: Default TTL 300 seconds (AXIS_APPROVAL_DEFAULT_TTL_SECONDS); expired approvals return approval_expired (410).

Which drivers are verified?: psycopg3, asyncpg, Prisma and pgJDBC single-statement through AXIS — 37 tests each (2026-07-05). Batch (JDBC) and COPY are fail-closed.
Can I point psql at AXIS?: In the lab, the pgwire listener intercepts Simple Query; it is experimental, disabled by default, and not for production. Extended Query is planned.
Does SQLAlchemy work with AXIS?: AxisRoutingSession is a v1 routing adapter for the HTTP path; it is not a universal ORM solution.
What happens to prepared statements?: HTTP path: AXIS-side session store with fail-closed EXECUTE. Wire path: Extended Query planned; prepared statements fail closed today.

How is audit tamper detected?: Every event carries event_hash and previous_hash; corruption or tampering breaks the chain and is surfaced by /evidence/verify.
Is the audit trail an external ledger?: No. The WAL + hash chain is a local integrity guarantee; external ledger anchoring is planned.
What is an Evidence Bundle?: A range export (bundle_type: axis.evidence_bundle.v1) with first/last hashes and optional Ed25519 signing, for out-of-band verification.
Can I delete the JSONL audit file?: Yes — it is a human-readable projection; the WAL is canonical. Verification is unaffected.

What happens if the audit WAL cannot be written?: Protected writes do not execute (audit_wal_failure); evidence comes first.
Can I auto-retry a timed-out request?: No. After execution_state: unknown the write may have applied; verify first, then re-submit explicitly.
How do I update policy safely?: Validate → diff → dry-run → create candidate → activate with expected_hash; rollback is available against archived versions.
Why is operator_auth_enabled: false?: AXIS_OPERATOR_TOKEN is unset. Set a real token; an unset token keeps local dev unblocked but must never ship.

What is next after v0.6?: The hardening path continues (v0.7+): JWT context shipped in v0.9; planned items include mTLS completion, Extended Query, RBAC/SSO, KMS and external ledger anchoring. See the Changelog.
Can AXIS protect an existing application without changes?: Only where traffic can be routed through AXIS. The HTTP path requires integration (or the SQLAlchemy adapter); the wire path is not production-ready.