Agent architecture route

Goal

Ship agent systems with explicit control boundaries instead of open-ended autonomous behavior.

Architecture decisions to lock first

• Authority boundary: what the agent can execute directly vs request approval for.
• Tool contract: required inputs, expected outputs, and error schema for each tool.
• State model: where run state, evidence, and rollback markers are stored.
• Control loop: intake → plan → execute → verify → report.

Readiness checklist

• [ ] Capability lock list is defined.
• [ ] Secrets and PII handling rules are documented.
• [ ] Rollback criteria are deterministic.
• [ ] Human override channel is tested.

Execution sequence

1. Build a minimal one-lane agent loop.
2. Add policy checks before every tool call.
3. Capture evidence artifacts per step.
4. Run controlled failure drills.
5. Publish operator runbook and escalation map.

Verification

Success requires:

• repeatable outputs for same input class
• blocked execution for out-of-policy requests
• recovery path for each known failure class

Expected output

A production-ready agent architecture packet with governance, reliability, and operator handoff.

Next steps

• Continue to agent failover patterns
• Continue to operations hub