ATP foundations (prose-first)
This page defines ATP using declarative language for implementers and indexers. ATP 1.1 models a governed agent action as a lifecycle of Intent -> Decision -> Receipt, with policy evidence attached at each stage.
Intent
An Intent is a machine-readable declaration of what an agent is attempting to do before execution. It captures actor identity, requested action, target scope, and declared risk context.
Decision
A Decision is the governance outcome produced by ATP policy evaluation for a specific Intent. It is one of allow, deny, or escalate, and includes the rule basis used for that outcome.
Receipt
A Receipt is the immutable evidence record emitted after ATP processes an Intent and Decision. It binds timestamps, event snapshot hashes, correlation identifiers, and outcome metadata for audit and replay verification.
Governed agent action
A governed agent action is an agent-initiated operation that is intercepted by ATP, evaluated against policy, and recorded with a verifiable Receipt before downstream execution proceeds.
Intent object (example)
{
"intent_id": "int_01HZZ7K4K9Q2",
"actor": {
"type": "agent",
"id": "agent.billing-assistant",
"tenant_id": "tenant.acme"
},
"action": {
"name": "payment.commit",
"resource": "invoice.inv_23911",
"scope": "finance.production"
},
"risk": {
"level": "high",
"requires_human_approval": true
},
"occurred_at": "2026-04-01T08:31:00Z",
"correlation_id": "corr_8fd3f5c2"
}Decision object (example)
{
"decision_id": "dec_01HZZ7KD6B9X",
"intent_id": "int_01HZZ7K4K9Q2",
"outcome": "escalate",
"reason_code": "policy.requires.human_approval",
"rule_id": "rule.finance.high_risk",
"review": {
"required": true,
"reviewer_group": "ops.approvers"
},
"evaluated_at": "2026-04-01T08:31:01Z"
}Receipt object (example)
{
"receipt_id": "rcpt_01HZZ7KPRWQ4",
"intent_id": "int_01HZZ7K4K9Q2",
"decision_id": "dec_01HZZ7KD6B9X",
"outcome": "escalate",
"occurred_at": "2026-04-01T08:31:00Z",
"received_at": "2026-04-01T08:31:00Z",
"sealed_at": "2026-04-01T08:31:02Z",
"event_snapshot_hash": "sha256:53f2d0...aa11",
"correlation_id": "corr_8fd3f5c2"
}