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Where agents meet the Security Rule
Section 164.312(a)(1) limits access to the persons or software programs that have been granted it, and a coding agent is a software program. When an agent runs with a developer’s cloud role, it has every right that role has, and the activity records show the role. A reviewer cannot tell which changes to ePHI systems the agent made, or who allowed them.
Security Rule standards mapped to Massdriver controls
Each row names a Security Rule standard or specification, what it requires, what Massdriver does for infrastructure changes that run through it, and the evidence your compliance team can request.
| Standard | What it requires | What Massdriver does | Evidence produced |
|---|---|---|---|
| 164.308(a)(1)(ii)(D) | Regularly review records of information system activity, such as audit logs and access reports. Required. | Every proposal, plan, approval, and deploy is an audit log event with the actor named. Self-hosted, the log stays in your environment and can go to your SIEM. | Audit log export for each review period |
| 164.308(a)(4)(ii)(B), (C) | Policies for granting access, and for establishing, documenting, reviewing, and changing a user’s access. Addressable. | Attribute-based policies grant access by environment, project, and team. SCIM adds and removes people from your identity provider. | Group and policy definitions; SCIM and access events |
| 164.312(a)(1) | Allow access only to persons or software programs that have been granted access rights. | Each agent has its own service account with a scoped token. Cloud credentials stay in Massdriver, so the agent reaches only what its policy allows. | Service accounts, their groups, and their policies |
| 164.312(a)(2)(i) | Assign a unique name or number to identify and track each user. Required. | Every action is attributed to a named person or a named service account, never to a shared cloud role. | The actor field on every audit log entry |
| 164.312(b) | Mechanisms that record and examine activity in systems that contain or use ePHI. Required. | Massdriver records every change it makes to the infrastructure of those systems, with the plan diff and the policy results. | Per-change records; deployment history |
| 164.312(c)(1) | Protect ePHI from improper alteration or destruction. | Policy checks run before every deploy. A person approves destructive changes, and decommission protection guards against an accidental teardown. | Policy results and approvals for each destructive change |
Massdriver records the changes that go through it. Your auditor or assessor decides whether these records meet a control, and changes made outside Massdriver, in a cloud console or with a cloud key, do not appear in them.
What Massdriver does not cover
Massdriver governs changes to infrastructure. Most of the Security Rule applies elsewhere.
- The ePHI itself. Massdriver does not store or process PHI. Access to the data inside your databases and applications, and the logs of that access, stay with those systems.
- Risk analysis and workforce safeguards. Risk analysis, training, sanctions, and contingency planning under 164.308 are your program.
- Physical safeguards and business associate agreements. Facility and device controls under 164.310 and your agreements with business associates are outside the infrastructure path.
- Changes made outside Massdriver. A change made in a cloud console or with a cloud key does not appear in the Massdriver record. Limit those paths with cloud IAM.
HIPAA questions about AI-built infrastructure
Does Massdriver make our infrastructure HIPAA compliant?
No. HIPAA compliance depends on your whole program. Massdriver controls and records changes to the infrastructure that holds ePHI, which supports the access control and audit control standards. Your compliance team and assessor decide how those records fit your program.
Does Massdriver see our ePHI?
Massdriver does not store or process PHI. Self-hosted, its state, deployment history, and audit logs also stay inside your environment.
Can a coding agent change a production database that holds ePHI?
Only if your policies allow it. A common setup lets the agent plan and propose in production, and gives deploy permission only to a group of people who review the plan diff and policy results first.
Other framework mappings
SOC 2
Change management, logical access, and monitoring criteria, mapped to the record each change leaves.
See the mapping →NIST AI RMF
Govern, Map, and Manage subcategories for the coding agents your teams already use.
See the mapping →EU DORA / Digital Operational Resilience Act
ICT change management, access, and asset inventory duties under Regulation (EU) 2022/2554.
See the mapping →One governed path, for agents and every other change.
Give us an hour with your platform and security leads, and within a day you have a governed path running on your own infrastructure, ready to prove for 30 days.