Compliance by Design - An Entrepreneur Keeps His 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 37 articles and 7 parts how an entrepreneur fulfills his compliance obligations in a structured, verifiable and risk-minimizing way from founding through the first payroll to non-profit status - 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 structured not by topics but by life events. Each article is triggered by a concrete trigger in the life of the company:
| Trigger | Parts | Articles |
|---|---|---|
| A - Founding | Part I, Part II, Part III | ED01-ED20 |
| B - The 1st Employee | Part IV | ED21-ED28 |
| C - FZul/BSFZ & Non-Profit Status | Part V | ED29-ED32 |
| D - Harness | Part VI | ED33-ED36 |
| E - Appendix | Part VII | ED37-ED38 |
Risk Leverage: cheap today, audit-proof tomorrow
The core thesis of the series: Git-native diary keeping creates risk leverage. Facts recorded today at minimal cost (a JSON entry with V7GUID + SHA-256 evidence reference) become audit-proof evidence for future audits (GoBD 10 years, AO, SV annual reports, FZul evidence). The entrepreneur "lifts" today into future audit certainty that would be achievable without Git-native record-keeping only with high subsequent effort.
The Diary Is the Work Agenda, Not Leisure Documentation
The entrepreneur diary is kept because it forms the temporal SSoT of actual work. It connects agenda, decisions, performance times, evidence, contracts and approvals and provides different audit and target systems with the same traceable starting point:
| Relationship/Goal | What the Diary Contributes |
|---|---|
| BSFZ/Research Allowance | project reference, performance time, R&D delineation and timely creation of the evidence |
| Tax Office/EStG/EÜR | business causation, private/business sphere and allocation of expenses |
| VAT | performance period, service reference, contract execution and reference to the invoice |
| GoBD/AO | retrograde/progressive chain of posting, evidence, decision, approval and change |
| Risk Management | open questions become visible instead of being reconstructed later from memory |
| Digital Sovereignty | facts remain in versioned, portable Git artifacts; no vendor lock-in |
The diary is thus the agenda according to which work is done. Git-native compliance implements this agenda in the tenant repositories with Ur-Docs, sidecars, GCPN, schemas and Git history. The agent supports capture and linking but replaces neither evidence nor human approval.
About the Series
You can find the complete series with all articles, Mermaid diagrams, JSON examples and source references in the GCBoK's own series section:
To the Article Series - Compliance by Design
Overview of the Parts
| Part | Topic | Trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Part I | Foundations (Motivation, KMU Organizational Model, Diary Format, Transparency Register at Founding) | Founding |
| Part II | Corporate Management: GoBD & Documentation (GoBD Foundations, Evidence, Procedure Documentation, Deadlines, AO, Spheres, VBG, Transparency Register: Document wB Determination) | Business Registration |
| Part III | Authorities & Identifiers (Tax Office, Federal Gazette Account & E-Bilanz, DRV, Transparency Register: Implementation & Ongoing Operation, BA, BZSt, Authority Interfaces) | Authority Visits |
| Part IV | Employees & Payroll (Onboarding, Insurances, Health Insurance, Payroll, Working Time, Minimum Wage, Vacation, Spheres) | 1st Employee |
| Part V | FZul/BSFZ & Non-Profit Status | FZul/Non-Profit Status |
| Part VI | Harness Requirements | Implementation |
| Part VII | Appendix (Sources, Glossary, CDN References) | Reference |
Source Topology and CDN Reference Links
| 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.