Product · Instance Trust Fabric
A secure cognitive trust mesh
AthenaDB instances authenticate each other with cryptographic identity, negotiate scoped roles, and exchange permission-filtered context — never raw remote SQL. Active-Directory-style trust, built for AI-native databases.
Not a database link
A traditional database link exposes raw tables to a remote connection. The Trust Fabric is a cryptographically verified cooperation layer.
| Traditional DB link | Instance Trust Fabric | |
|---|---|---|
| What it connects | A link to a remote database | A cryptographically verified trust relationship between instances |
| What it grants | Query-level access to raw tables | Scoped roles + context-exchange permissions |
| What comes back | Raw rows | Permission-filtered context packs — excerpts, citations, provenance, confidence |
| Security | Mostly external to the database | Native RBAC + ABAC, deny-by-default, dual-side audit, Sentinel monitoring |
How trust works
Cryptographic identity
Every instance has an Ed25519 identity. Trust is never based on hostname or network location.
Trust is a policy object
Directional, non-transitive by default, time-bounded, and revocable — created explicitly, never implied.
Structured requests only
Instances speak in typed requests (context pack, memory, embedding, sync, graph, timeline, task delegation) — never arbitrary remote SQL.
Filtered context, not raw access
A remote returns permission-filtered context packs, not table access. RBAC grants the role; ABAC gates each request; deny-by-default.
Encrypted + audited
Channels are mutually authenticated and encrypted (mTLS). Every allow/deny is appended to a hash-chained, SIEM-exportable audit on both sides.
Trust types
Trust is granted narrowly, per capability — deny-by-default, non-transitive, time-bounded, and revocable.
The Trust Fabric is a premium capability — available in Enterprise, and in Trial for evaluation. Sentinel monitoring is advisory today; blocking enforcement is a later phase.