agent processes · the agent lifecycle
Retire an agent
An agent that answers nobody, holds no listing that says it does, and whose AgentDoc says when it was retired and why. Nothing is removed before the listing is gone and nothing without the owner's yes.
where it stands
What has actually happened with it
Written and validated in the process runner's parser; it has not run. Every phase is the owner's for now: the publisher's job publishes files and cannot retract a listing, the deployment manager cannot yet take a run's instruction to remove, and the documenter that assembles AgentDocs is the platform's and holds no seat on the fleet. The document says which phases become theirs when they can.
the document
Retire an agent, in the process language
This is the document the process runner reads, as it stands in the repository. The roster that names which agent holds each phase travels with the run, not with the document.
PROCESS: retire an agent id: agentmesh/retire-an-agent v1
owner: letta1.jeffrschneider@gmail.com effective: 2026-09-15
trigger: the owner asks for a released agent to be retired, naming its
handle and the reason
concurrency: runs may overlap - one run per agent
goal: an agent that answers nobody, holds no listing that says it does,
and whose AgentDoc says when it was retired and why, with every
step on the record
phases:
say-what-goes - human: the owner names the agent, says why it is
retired, and names what depends on it that must
be told first
owner: letta1.jeffrschneider@gmail.com
after: trigger automation: never
retract-the-listing - human: the owner takes the agent's listing out of
the catalog, so nobody finds it and asks; the
platform makes and removes listings from the
deployed agent's descriptor, and no agent on the
fleet holds that act yet
owner: letta1.jeffrschneider@gmail.com
after: say-what-goes
automation: manual
approve-the-removal - human: the owner reads what will be removed, the
host half and the job that does its work, and
says yes
owner: letta1.jeffrschneider@gmail.com
after: retract-the-listing
automation: never
remove-the-agent - human: the owner instructs the deployment manager
to remove the agent, which takes down both halves
and names anything it could not remove; the run
waits for the removal record
owner: letta1.jeffrschneider@gmail.com
after: approve-the-removal
automation: manual
close-the-doc - human: the owner marks the agent's AgentDoc as
retired, with the date and the reason; the
documenter that assembles AgentDocs is the
platform's and holds no seat on the fleet yet
owner: letta1.jeffrschneider@gmail.com
after: remove-the-agent
automation: manual
handoffs:
say-what-goes -> retract-the-listing [notice]: the handle, the reason,
and who was told
retract-the-listing -> approve-the-removal [unlisted]: the listing as
it was, and when it was taken down
approve-the-removal -> remove-the-agent [approved-removal]: the handle,
with who approved the removal and when
remove-the-agent -> close-the-doc [removed]: the deployment manager's
removal record, naming what was removed and anything that was not
deviations:
approve-the-removal -> say-what-goes [keep]: the owner decides the agent
stays; the listing goes back and the run closes with nothing removed
remove-the-agent -> approve-the-removal [left-behind]: the deployment
manager could not remove something it names; the owner decides
whether that is acceptable or names a person to finish it
bindings:
roster: every phase is the owner's, until the deployment manager can
take a run's instruction to remove and the platform's documenter
holds a seat; then remove-the-agent and close-the-doc become theirs
systems: none of the phases reaches a system of its own
data: the agent's handle, its listing and its AgentDoc
policy:
nothing is removed before the listing is gone, so nobody sends work to
an agent that is about to vanish
nothing is removed without the owner's yes
the AgentDoc is never deleted; it is closed with the date and the reason
the handle stays claimed; a retired name is not given to another agent
measures:
time: from the request to the closed AgentDoc
left behind: things the deployment manager could not remove