THE GITHTML FIELD GUIDE
Trace data flow through a technical review document
To review a data flow, follow one representative item through its full lifecycle. Identify where it enters, how it changes, where it is stored, who can access it, and how it is removed. Keep the flow tied to evidence and distinguish application behavior from assumptions about external services or deployment settings.
Choose an item with a clear lifecycle
An illustrative export request is a better starting point than all customer data. Define the fields relevant to the review and omit unnecessary personal information. Identify the request origin and the first trusted boundary. OWASP's threat-modeling guidance provides background for examining assets and boundaries, while the actual flow needs source, schema, or configuration evidence. Name the reviewed revision and environment. If the document shows a desired future flow, label it proposed rather than letting a reader assume it describes today's deployed behavior.
Inspect transformations and copies
At each handoff, ask what data moves, whether its meaning changes, and whether an additional copy is retained. An illustrative worker might transform a request into a generated artifact, while logs store only an identifier. Verify those statements; do not assume logs exclude payloads because the architecture diagram does. Record validation, authorization, and deletion responsibilities separately. A component that stores data is not necessarily the component that decides its retention policy. Trace failure paths too, because rejected or partially processed items may have different cleanup behavior.
- Entry: identify the source, format, and initial trust assumptions.
- Transformation: explain the fields produced, omitted, or derived.
- Lifecycle: identify storage, access, retention authority, and removal evidence.
Make gaps explicit for the next reviewer
Create a short list of unknowns such as an uninspected logging sink or an external retention policy. Ask the owner for the exact evidence required, rather than requesting a generic security sign-off. Distinguish absence from not reviewed in the final conclusion. In a mobile HTML packet, use a numbered journey with one handoff per section, accompanied by a diagram only when it materially clarifies the path. Keep core lifecycle details in text so the review remains possible without remote images or an interactive renderer.
Sources and further reading
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