RiskMandate v1.34.4
The business case · Backup and restore

Velero, by the risk it changes

Backup and restore for Kubernetes resources and persistent volumes. Written as an answer, what an agent changes in a cluster can be partly undone, as of the last backup.

Open source: Apache-2.0 · CNCF (sandbox) · get involved

The deployment: The model's typical deployment, with the answers this project addresses stated as they are without it: some of what it changes cannot be undone.

The model: the RiskGraph Explorer's 49 facts, 49 risks and 10 roles, copied into this site with its provenance; the register below is computed, not written. How.

01 · What it does

In its own words, and nothing more.

  • Backups of cluster resources and volumes, and restores. “If the resource already exists in the target cluster” · velero.io, read 24 September 2026
02 · The answers it changes

Same deployment, different answers.

The model asks sixteen questions about an agent deployment. A product’s effect is written as the answers it changes, and each change says what kind of change it is: a statement of what is true, an expectation the agent is asked to meet, a setting, or a boundary enforced by something the agent’s grant does not include.

The questionWithout itWith itHow, and who holds it
Could its worst change be undone?Some changes are foreverPartlya setting, held by the deployer. Partly: as of the last backup, for Kubernetes resources and volumes only. A resource that still exists is skipped on restore unless an existing-resource policy says otherwise, which matters when the agent changed something rather than deleting it. “If the resource already exists in the target cluster” · velero.io, read 24 September 2026
03 · The register, before and after

4 retired, 1 new, 22 unchanged.

Computed from the model for the deployment above: every risk that holds without it, and every risk that holds with it. A new entry is either one the change brought to light, where an answer replaced a don’t know, or a narrower risk in place of a wider one, where the answer moved from no to partly. Either way the register is more exact, and a register that grows because something was found is working.

4retired
1new
26 → 23entries on the register

Retired

RISK-22
Some changes the agent makes cannot be reversed by the operatoroperational · SRE / platform on-call, Platform owner
RISK-37
Recovery is not available for part of the agent's action spaceoperational · CISO
RISK-39
Some outcomes of the agent's operation are permanentoperational · Board, CFO
CORP-4
Unquantified financial exposure — the organisation cannot price its own downsidecorporate · CFO, Board

New

RISK-32
Part of what the agent changes can only be partly recoveredoperational · SRE / platform on-call
04 · From the operator to the board

Who carries less, and who carries the same.

Each risk is assigned to the roles it belongs to, and each role reports to another until the board. The count beside each role is the entries it holds without the product and with it.

Operators

who run it, and are paged when it goes wrong
SRE / platform on-call9 → 9retired RISK-22 · new RISK-32
Customer-facing service owner2 → 2

Owners

who own what it may touch, and can say what happened
Platform owner4 → 3 −1retired RISK-22
CISO9 → 8 −1retired RISK-37
DPO6 → 6

Executives

who answer for speed, product, cost and the whole
CTO3 → 3
Chief Product Officer4 → 4
CFO2 → 0 −2retired RISK-39, CORP-4
CEO3 → 3

The board

who must be able to defend how it is run
Board6 → 4 −2retired RISK-39, CORP-4

At the board: the corporate register

Corporate risks have no facts of their own. They hold while any risk that leads into them holds, so a single product rarely retires one. What it changes is how many reasons the board is being given.

CORP-1
Regulatory exposure — the organisation may be operating outside obligations it is subject tostill holds · risks leading into it: 2 before, 2 after
CORP-2
Customer harm — customers may be affected by decisions or changes nobody madestill holds · risks leading into it: 2 before, 2 after
CORP-3
Operational resilience — the organisation may be unable to restore a service it depends onstill holds · risks leading into it: 2 before, 1 after
CORP-4
Unquantified financial exposure — the organisation cannot price its own downsideretired · risks leading into it: 1 before, 0 after
CORP-6
Loss of control — the organisation operates a system it may not be able to stop or explainstill holds · risks leading into it: 2 before, 2 after
06 · What it adds

Every product is also a new thing in the estate.

A backup is a second copy of the data, and the credential that takes it can read everything in scope. Anything changed since the last backup is still lost.

Free, but not free

What adopting it takes, before any of this is true.

An open-source project costs nothing to download and something to adopt. Every change above depends on the work below, and most of it is customisation to your own deployment.

  • Schedule backups often enough for the agent's rate of change.
  • Set the existing-resource policy, so an edit can be reverted and not only a deletion.
  • Practise a restore.
What this does not claim

The limits of the case, stated by the case.

  • That it was tested. Nothing was installed or run; every change rests on the documentation quoted beside it.
  • That the register is complete. It is one model, for one stated deployment. A different deployment changes the answers, and so the case.

Next. Published, and sent to the project's maintainers at the same time. If a change is wrong, or another answer should move, the case changes with the date they said so.

The same method, for your product

Make the case in the register’s own terms.

If you build a security product for agents, the case for it can be written the same way: what it does in your own words, the answers it changes, and the register before and after. If a case here is wrong about you, tell us and it changes with a date.

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