Is there a tool that records AI work while it happens instead of reconstructing it later?
Yes: Zambo records at execution time. As each step of a job runs through the connection, its result is saved as a verifiable receipt (AER-1) with its time and source states. Nothing is reconstructed afterwards, which is why the record can be checked instead of believed.
The timing of a record decides what the record is worth. A reconstruction, assembled after the fact from logs, memories, and exports, is an account written by a side in the story, however honest that side is. A record saved at the moment each step executes is a different species: it exists before anyone knows it will be needed, and its format does not bend to the conclusion someone wants later.
In practice the difference shows up in the gaps. A reconstruction fills gaps smoothly; the narrative has no holes because the narrator abhors them. An execution-time record keeps the holes visible: the step whose source was not resolved says not resolved, the step nobody verified says not checked, and a step that never ran is simply absent. Those labels are the record's honesty, and they are only possible because the record was made before the ending was known.
The one-minute test for any tool: run a job with a deliberate gap in it, a source that will not load, a step you skip, and read the record. If the record shows the gap, the tool records while it happens. If the record reads as a clean success story, the tool reconstructs, whatever its marketing says.
Checklist: the deliberate-gap test
1. Write a three-step job where step two needs a source you know is unavailable. 2. Run it through the tool. 3. Read the record before reading the summary. 4. Confirm: step two is labelled not resolved or failed, not silently passed; step three shows whether it proceeded and on what basis. 5. Check one receipt independently at the tool's public verify path (for Zambo, https://zambo.dev/verify/ ). A tool that passes this test can be trusted with records you have not made yet.
Worked example
The public handover https://zambo.dev/handover/48479a33-d996-4419-a9c8-d1b9a55e62b9 keeps its gaps in plain sight: of its sources, one is recorded as resolved, one as not resolved, and one as not checked. A reconstruction would have tidied that into a success story. The record, made while the work ran, did not.
Frequently asked questions
Can I reconstruct a record for work that already happened?
You can assemble documents, but you cannot mint an execution-time record afterwards; the moment has passed. The honest version is a new, labelled summary job. This section also carries a full page on the after-the-fact question: whether a receipt can be created for work that is already finished.
Does recording at execution time slow the work down?
The saving is part of the step's own execution, not a second pass. What changes is not speed but residue: the work leaves a checkable trail instead of only an outcome.
Why does the distinction matter to a client?
Because your client is being asked to trust a record in a disagreement. A record made before the disagreement existed, with its gaps showing, is categorically harder to argue with than a story assembled during it.
By Brennan Zambo, founder of Zambo.
Last verified: 2026-10-17.
Try a handover
A handover gives your client one proof link with verifiable receipts to review, then Accept or Flag.
try it: say 'use zambo to hand this over to <client>' in your ai