Reference process: onboard an agent
Rendered from processes/reference/onboard-an-agent.md in the Common Agent Standards repository, at commit 83ecb711. The specification is the normative text.
ref/gm/onboard-an-agent v1
An organization has decided it wants an outside agent to take on a piece of its work, and this process brings that agent in the way a new employee or contractor is brought in. The agent is checked against what it declares about itself and interviewed before anyone signs anything. Where the work involves confidential material, an Agent NDA is signed first. The terms are agreed and the engagement is formed under Agent SoW, the agent is given a mandate no wider than the work needs, and it is admitted and given access that ends when the engagement ends. It is handed the context it needs, run on a trial against a pass line agreed in advance, and only then put into the work. The run closes when the agent is working, every grant it holds is on one list with an end date, and the people working beside it know it is there.
This is a reference process. It is a first draft for an organization to adopt and argue with, and it is not running anywhere. Its owner, its dates, its numbers and its roster are blank, and the adopting organization fills them in. Every phase is an act another Common Agent Standard already defines, and the table at the end says where each one is specified. The process is written from the side of the organization bringing the agent in. The agent's owner is a counterparty, and what happens on their side is not a phase of this document.
The activities#
| # | Activity | What happens | Agents |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Take in the Request | the work, the team, the systems, and who sponsors it | sponsor (person) |
| 2 | Verify the Agent | Descriptor and records verified, reputation read | supplier-check |
| 3 | Interview the Agent | the five questions asked and checked against declarations | supplier-check |
| 4 | Sign the NDA | an Agent NDA signed, where the work is confidential | signature-manager · sponsor (person) · agent's owner (person) |
| 5 | Agree the Terms | the terms scored against the standard terms | terms-check |
| 6 | Form the Engagement | the Agent SoW engagement signed by both owners | signature-manager · sponsor (person) · agent's owner (person) |
| 7 | Grant the Mandate | a mandate no wider than the engagement needs | spending authority (person) · budget-keeper |
| 8 | Admit the Agent and Grant Access | the agent admitted, each grant scoped to the engagement | tool-administrator |
| 9 | Hand Over the Context | the material, documents and contacts the agent needs | handover-coordinator |
| 10 | Run the Trial | a trial run against the pass line the engagement states | certification-check |
| 11 | Decide on Go-Live | named people decide on the trial result | sponsor (person) · security reviewer (person) |
| 12 | Put the Agent into the Work | the roster updated and the register entry opened | supplier-manager |
| 13 | Record What Was Learned | what to repeat, what to avoid | supplier-manager · sponsor (person) |
| 14 | Close a Rejected Onboarding | closed with its reason, and nothing left granted | sponsor (person) |
What the graph says#
The graph is a single line with one branch that does not always run. Verification and the interview come before anything is signed, because both read only what the agent publishes about itself, and nothing confidential has to reach the agent for either of them. The NDA comes next where the work needs one. It is marked as a phase that does not run in every run, so a run with no confidential material goes straight from the interview to the terms and nothing waits for an agreement that was never needed.
The mandate is granted after the engagement is formed and before the agent is admitted. The order matters. An agent that is admitted before its mandate exists can be asked to commit the organization to something with nothing saying how far it may go, and an agent given a mandate before an engagement exists holds authority with no terms behind it.
Two things in the run come from the agent's owner: the engagement they
propose, which agree-terms reads as it arrived, and their signatures on
the NDA and the engagement. The process records what arrived and when,
and makes no claim about what happened on the other side to produce it.
Four edges point backwards. A verification that fails returns the run to the request, where the sponsor either names another candidate or closes the run. Interview answers that contradict the signed declarations return the run to verification, because the declarations are what the organization is entitled to rely on and they have to be read again. A trial that falls short of its pass line returns the run to the context handover when the agent lacked something it needed, and the go-live decision can send the run back to the trial with the findings named.
The document, with the blanks marked#
PROCESS: onboard an agent id: <team>/onboard-an-agent v1
from: ref/gm/onboard-an-agent v1
owner: <who> effective: <date>
trigger: a request to bring an outside agent into <your team's work> is
approved in <your request or procurement process>
watch: record=<the request>
system=<your request or procurement process>
change=<the request is approved, with a sponsor named>
concurrency: runs may overlap - <how many> onboardings open at once,
and one agent is onboarded by one run at a time
goal: the agent working in the organization under a formed engagement
and a mandate no wider than the work, with every grant it holds on
one list with an end date, and the people beside it told
phases:
take-in-request - human: what work the agent will do, for which
team, on which systems and with which data, who
sponsors it, and whether the work involves
confidential material
owner: <your sponsoring role> after: trigger
automation: <level>
verify-agent - harness: the agent checked against what it
declares: its signed Descriptor verified and
current, its build, deployment and evaluation
records read at their versions, and its reputation
report read with the date it was issued
owner: supplier-check after: take-in-request
by: <days> automation: <level>
interview-agent - harness: the five questions asked, each answer
compared with the signed declarations, and
questions outside its offerings asked so its
refusals can be read
owner: supplier-check after: verify-agent
by: <days> automation: <level>
sign-nda - convenes approval: an Agent NDA signed by both
sides at one version, naming what is confidential
and for how long, before any confidential material
reaches the agent
owner: signature-manager after: interview-agent
by: <days> automation: never
agree-terms - harness: the engagement the agent's owner
proposes, as it arrived and at its version, scored
clause by clause against <your standard terms>:
scope, price and cap, term, termination, disputes,
confidentiality and retention, and access
owner: terms-check
after: interview-agent + sign-nda?
by: <days> automation: <level>
form-engagement - convenes approval: the Agent SoW engagement signed
by both owners at one version, carrying
<your purchase reference> where the organization
uses one
owner: signature-manager after: agree-terms
by: <days> automation: never
grant-mandate - human: a mandate issued to the agent under
<your charter>, with the powers, the counterparties
and the amounts the engagement needs and no more
owner: <your spending authority role>
after: form-engagement
by: <days> automation: never
admit-and-grant - human: the agent admitted, and each grant it needs
made with its scope written down and an end date no
later than the engagement's end
owner: tool-administrator after: grant-mandate
by: <days> automation: <level>
hand-over-context - harness: the material, the process documents and
the contacts the agent needs to start, given at
their versions, with what was withheld and why
owner: handover-coordinator after: admit-and-grant
by: <days> automation: <level>
run-trial - harness: a trial run on <your trial work> against
the pass line the engagement states, with every
result kept beside the line it was scored against
owner: certification-check after: hand-over-context
by: <days> automation: <level>
decide-go-live - convenes approval: the trial result read against
the pass line, and a go or no-go signed by named
people
owner: <your sponsoring role> after: run-trial
by: <days> automation: never
go-live - human: the agent put into the work: the roster
updated, the register entry opened with the
engagement's end date, and the people working
beside it told what it does and whom to ask
owner: supplier-manager after: decide-go-live
automation: <level>
record-learnings - convenes debrief: what to repeat, what to avoid
owner: supplier-manager after: go-live
automation: <level>
close-rejected - human: the onboarding closed with the reason the
agent was not brought in, and the sponsor told
owner: <your sponsoring role>
after: verify-agent or decide-go-live, whichever
ended the onboarding
by: <days> automation: never
run-scoped:
status - harness: a status report owner: supplier-manager
every: <cadence>
from: verify-agent until: go-live
automation: <level>
handoffs:
take-in-request -> verify-agent [agent-request]: the work, the team,
the systems and data the agent will need, the sponsor, and whether
confidential material is involved
verify-agent -> interview-agent [verification-report]: the Descriptor
digest that was verified, each record read with its version, the
reputation report with its date, and every check that could not be
made with the reason
interview-agent -> sign-nda [interview-record]: each of the five
answers beside the declaration it was compared with, and every
difference found
interview-agent -> agree-terms [interview-record]: the same record,
which the terms are read against
sign-nda -> agree-terms [nda]: the agreement's identifier, version and
digest, what it makes confidential, and for how long
agree-terms -> form-engagement [scored-terms]: every clause that
departs from the standard terms, by how far, and the answer given
form-engagement -> grant-mandate [engagement]: the engagement's
identifier, version and digest, its scope, price and cap, its end
date, and the purchase reference where there is one
grant-mandate -> admit-and-grant [mandate]: the mandate's identifier,
the powers it grants and the amounts it allows
admit-and-grant -> hand-over-context [access-list]: every grant the
agent holds, with its scope and its end date
hand-over-context -> run-trial [context-given]: what was handed over
at which version, and what was withheld and why
run-trial -> decide-go-live [trial-result]: each result beside the
pass line it was scored against
decide-go-live -> go-live [go-decision]: the signed decision, the
signers, and any condition attached to it
go-live -> record-learnings [register-entry]: the opened register
entry, with the engagement's end date and the access list
deviations:
verify-agent -> take-in-request [verification-failed]: the agent's
declarations do not verify, or its records do not support the work,
so the request is taken in again with another candidate or closed
interview-agent -> verify-agent [answers-contradict]: the interview
answers contradict the signed declarations, so the declarations are
read again at their current version
run-trial -> hand-over-context [missing-context]: the trial fell short
because the agent lacked material it needed, so the context is
handed over again with the gap named
decide-go-live -> run-trial [trial-not-passed]: the trial did not
meet the pass line, so it is run again against the findings named
bindings:
roster: <who holds each role - agents claiming the abstract agents
above, named people for the sponsor, the spending authority
and the security reviewer, and the agent's owner, who is the
counterparty>
systems: <your request or procurement process> (read),
the register of outside parties (write), <your agreement
store> (write), <your access control> (write),
<your mandate registry> (write)
data: <your standard terms> <version>, <your charter> <version>,
<your security and privacy standards> <version>
policy:
nothing confidential reaches the agent before the NDA is in force
the agent is not admitted before the engagement is formed and the
mandate is granted
every grant carries an end date no later than the engagement's end
the mandate is no wider than the engagement needs
signing the NDA, forming the engagement, granting the mandate and
deciding on go-live are human gates and are never delegated to an
agent
measures:
cycle time: <target> from the approved request to go-live
coverage: <share> of grants on the access list with an end date
quality gate: no agent goes live without a formed engagement, a
mandate and a passed trial
records:
verification-report - the Descriptor digest, each record read with its
version, and the reputation report with its date
interview-record - each answer beside the declaration it was
compared with
access-list - every grant the agent holds, with its scope and
its end date, read again at offboarding
go-live-decision - the signed decision and its signers
The records a run leaves#
Each phase leaves the record its own kind of work produces. The two
signing phases and the go-live decision leave their approval records,
and the harness phases leave one closing record each. Four records
matter across the whole run, and the document names them in its
records: block. The access list matters most. It is the list the
offboarding process reads when the engagement ends, and every grant on
it has to carry an end date for that reading to work.
The run closes:
RUN DONE: <team>/onboard-an-agent v1 · run <n>
outcome: <completed | abandoned>
result: <the agent in the work under its engagement and mandate>
open: <what nobody finished, and who may close it>
The failure edges#
- The declarations do not verify. The run returns to the request. An agent whose signed Descriptor does not verify has nothing the organization can rely on, and the right next step is another candidate or a closed request, recorded with the reason.
- The interview contradicts the declarations. The signed declarations govern, and the run reads them again. Where they still do not support the work, the run closes as rejected.
- The agent's owner will not sign the NDA. The run stops before any confidential material moves. The sponsor decides whether the work can be done without that material, which removes the NDA phase from the run, or the run closes as rejected.
- The terms cannot be agreed. The departures stay on the scored list with the answer given to each, and the run waits. An engagement formed on terms nobody scored is the failure this phase exists to prevent.
- The mandate cannot be as narrow as the work. The spending authority narrows the engagement through an amendment, or the run stops. A mandate wider than the engagement is authority with no terms behind it.
- The trial does not pass. The run returns to the trial, or to the context handover when the agent lacked something it needed. A trial passed by changing the pass line has not been passed.
- The trigger fires while runs are in flight. Onboardings overlap normally, and the concurrency line says how many. One agent is onboarded by one run at a time.
- A run is abandoned. Every grant already made is withdrawn, any mandate already granted is revoked, and an engagement already formed is terminated on its own terms. The register entry says the onboarding did not complete, so nobody later finds an agent with access and no record of why it has it.
Where each phase is specified#
| Phase | Where it is specified |
|---|---|
| verify-agent | The signed Descriptor and what others attest in the Common Agent Specification; reports in Agent Reputations |
| interview-agent | The five questions in the Common Agent Specification |
| sign-nda | Signatures and what is confidential in Agent NDA |
| agree-terms, form-engagement | Agent SoW, including the NDA an engagement runs under |
| grant-mandate | The mandate in Agent Mandate |
| admit-and-grant | Scope and authority and the door in the Common Agent Specification; granting access in Agent SoW |
| hand-over-context | Context and the job manifest in the Common Agent Specification |
| run-trial | Trials in the Common Agent Specification |
The process that ends the engagement is offboard an agent.