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Buyer Checklist

Non‑Normative

This page is non‑normative and is not legal advice. It summarizes key evaluation criteria from the standard for convenience. Always refer to the canonical requirements for definitive conformance language.

If you only ask 10 questions…

These questions map to the core evaluation categories in Section 6.1 and the vendor questions in Appendix G.

# Question Maps to
1 Can you export the as‑sent version of a modern attachment (version ≤ message timestamp)? RG‑Core — point‑in‑time resolution
2 What stable identifiers do you persist (siteId, driveId, itemId, versionId), and how do you canonicalize sharing links? RG‑Core — stable identifiers
3 Do you preserve and export explicit parent↔child relationship mappings for messages and linked content? RG‑Core — relationship integrity
4 What is your exception model — do failures produce reason‑coded records with retry history, or do they silently drop evidence? RG‑Core — deterministic exceptions
5 Are exports reproducible? Same scope → same hashes and manifests? RG‑Core — reproducible exports
6 Can you reconstruct group membership and identity attributes as‑of date X, or do you rely on current directory state? RG‑Plus — identity over time
7 Do you treat audit logs as evidence and correlate observed access to preserved versions — with explicit coverage bounds? RG‑Plus — behavior evidence
8 How do you handle interruption and resumption for long‑running exports? Operational robustness
9 How do you record scope decisions so proportionality arguments are supported by an immutable decision ledger? RG‑Core — scope governance
10 What conformance level (RG‑Core / RG‑Plus / RG‑Max) do you claim, and can you demonstrate it with the standard's test suite? Overall conformance

Red flags 🚩

Watch for these patterns — each indicates a system that may not meet Reconstruction‑Grade criteria:

  • "We export the latest version only." — Fails as‑sent resolution (T‑01).
  • "Links are preserved as URLs." — URL‑only linking breaks when objects move, rename, or permissions change.
  • "Failures are logged internally." — If you can't see structured exception records with reason codes, failures are effectively silent.
  • "We use current directory for identity." — No effective‑dated identity means you cannot answer "who was in that group on that date?"
  • "Audit data is supplementary, not evidence." — If audit logs aren't ingested with provenance, behavior claims are unsubstantiated.
  • "Re‑running an export may produce different results." — Non‑reproducible exports undermine defensibility.

Next steps