ABOUT
The Seven Layers is a governance architecture for lawful Digital Public Infrastructure, Digital Identity, digital wallets, trusted public services and public-sector interoperability.
It is not the OSI networking model. It is a legal and institutional framework for keeping Digital Public Functions legally valid, attributable, reviewable and contestable as Digital Public Services scale on Digital Public Infrastructure.
The model exists to prevent governance drift, where delivery artefacts, workflow defaults, procurement packages, vendor controls or interface choices begin to substitute for lawful authority, institutional mandate and authorised procedure. When that happens, evidence quality weakens, public reliance becomes difficult to attribute, and procedural remedy becomes discretionary, delayed or vendor-dependent.
The Seven Layers in one page
The model organises the conditions that must remain operable for public legal effect to be attributable, verifiable and reviewable. It makes explicit the accountability chain from lawful authority through institutional mandate, canonical records, service execution, public interface, oversight and remedy, and funding sustainability.
The purpose is practical. A digital public system should be inspection-ready at first reliance and capable of being re-tested at material change. Legal authority, canonical records, service logic, evidence pathways, correction propagation and remedy must remain visible enough for institutions to govern, implementers to execute and oversight bodies to inspect.
Why it exists?
Many Digital Public Infrastructure programmes fail through governance drift rather than lack of technology. A platform may be technically functional, a wallet may scan, a data exchange may operate and a service portal may scale, while the underlying public function becomes difficult to authorise, attribute, correct or contest.
The Seven Layers keeps lawful authority, institutional mandate, authorised procedure, canonical records, evidence, public interface and oversight and remedy operable as reliance expands. It helps public institutions distinguish infrastructure from public function, software from legal effect, technical interoperability from lawful interoperability, and delivery convenience from accountable public authority.
Author and practice
Ott Sarv is the author of The Seven Layers governance architecture for Digital Public Infrastructure. He works as a legal and technical architect for end-to-end delivery, advising governments and delivery partners on systems that must remain lawful, attributable, auditable and correctable under dispute.
The work spans lawful authority and institutional mandate, canonical records, authorised procedure, execution environments, trusted digital services, digital wallet governance, controlled disclosure, service logic, evidence pathways, and oversight and remedy. Code is not delivered. The output is operable legal architecture and technical architecture that implementation teams can execute and oversight bodies can inspect.
Working together
Work typically begins with a short diagnosis of the current legal architecture and technical architecture against the conditions required for lawful reliance, contestability and operational continuity.
The engagement then defines sequencing gates and operability tests so authorised procedure, canonical records, evidence pathways, correction propagation and procedural remedy are inspection-ready before reliance expands further. Where confidentiality constraints apply, deliverables are structured to preserve them while still producing usable artefacts for institutions, implementers and oversight bodies.
Typical outputs?
Typical outputs include legal inventory and competence mapping, mandate instruments with enforceable scope limits and change control, and accountability chains that link lawful authority to binding acts.
Evidence pathways and evidence bundles are specified so independent reconstruction is possible, including evidentiary duties, retention expectations, correlation requirements and audit access conditions.
Governance specifications are produced for data exchange, controlled disclosure, consent operability, digital wallet reliance, attestation lifecycle controls, service execution, decision logic governance, correction propagation, suspension and reversal. The objective is to make lawful interoperability operational rather than aspirational.
