> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.usegimbal.app/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.usegimbal.app/transparency/parameter-changes.md).

# How parameters change

The route every Gimbal parameter change takes through the PolicyBoard timelock, what governance can touch, and what it can never reach.

Gimbal's core contracts cannot be upgraded. Governance reaches only the settings in `PolicyBoard`, and every change takes one route: published, delayed, executed, logged. Only the guardian's pause skips it.

## Reach

| Governance can                                           | Governance can never                                         |
| -------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Set tier LTVs, haircuts and exposure caps                | Replace or upgrade core contract code                        |
| Swap oracle adapters, move caps and staleness bounds     | Touch escrowed collateral or lender principal                |
| Tune auction curves and rollover parameters              | Pause repayment, or the return of collateral after repayment |
| Set fee rates                                            | Rewrite the terms of a loan already open                     |
| Add or remove attestation issuers and whitelisted vaults | Mint $GIMBAL, whose supply is fixed                          |
| Halt new originations and liquidations in an emergency   | Act before the timelock delay has run                        |

## Step by step

1. **Write it up.** The proposal states the change and its reasoning, with numbers from backtesting or from the public risk page, Telemetry.
2. **Publish and queue.** The owner multisig calls `schedule(calls, salt, rationale)`, `rationale` being the hash of the published explanation; `OperationScheduled` records the batch, its earliest execution time and that hash. The log shows present value, proposed value and reasoning.
3. **Wait out the delay.** The delay, never under one hour after bootstrap, runs in full so anyone affected can read the change and act. `cancel` withdraws a queued batch.
4. **Execute.** When the delay is over, and within the 14 day grace period that follows it, the multisig calls `execute(calls, salt)`. Each setter emits `ParamChanged(key, subject, value)`: the setting, the tier, token or address it targets, and the ABI-encoded new value.
5. **Keep it on view.** The governance log in the public loan explorer, the Explorer, holds the proposal, its rationale and the execution transaction for good.

A batch that misses the grace period is dead and must be queued again.

## Loans already open

* Origination and rollover fees are charged at the rate in force when they fall due, so a later change never reaches a fee already paid.
* The interest share is read from `PolicyBoard` at payout, so a change applies to payouts after it executes.
* A tier demotion moves the liquidation LTV of existing loans only when a grace period published together with the demotion has run, giving borrowers time to act.
* Oracle adapter changes take effect at once, because they are corrective.

## The pause

`setPaused` is the guardian's only power. It stops new originations and liquidations, emits `EmergencyPause`, and leaves repayment and top-ups untouched. Lifting a pause is the owner's to do. It exists for oracle incidents, vulnerabilities just discovered, and chain-level events; each use gets a logged rationale and an incident note afterwards.

## Bootstrap and keys

`PolicyBoard` starts in bootstrap, where the owner sets parameters directly to wire up a deployment. `finishBootstrap()` ends that for good.

The owner is a timelocked multisig held by the foundation, its signers drawn from the team and from independent parties; ownership moves in two steps, `transferOwnership` then `acceptOwnership`. On the roadmap, a governance module takes parameter control from the multisig, keeping the timelock, the published rationale, the lack of any route to funds and the promise that repayment stays unpausable. See [Foundation and operating company](/compliance/entities.md).


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