Applied Architecture
Governed Agentic Systems
Identity tells you who an agent is. Authority tells you what it may do. R2 designs the runtime architecture that makes agent action accountable, not just permitted.
The Architecture
Nine areas of control.
Identity Versus Authority
Knowing which agent is acting is not the same as knowing what that agent is allowed to decide. R2 designs the layer that answers the second question, not just the first.
Delegation Lineage
When an agent delegates a subtask to another agent, the delegation itself has to be traceable, not just the original instruction. Architecture must preserve that chain.
Authority Attenuation
Authority delegated downstream should narrow, not widen. Runtime controls need to enforce that an agent cannot grant itself, or another agent, broader permission than it holds.
Human Approval
Some actions require a human in the loop before they execute. The architecture has to make that checkpoint reliable, not optional or easily bypassed.
Escalation
Agents need a defined path for raising uncertainty, conflict, or an out-of-bounds request to a human, rather than guessing or failing silently.
Observability
Governance without visibility is a policy document, not a control. Agent actions, decisions, and delegations need to be observable in near real time.
Evidence
An agent should be able to prove what it did and why, in a form that supports audit, incident review, and regulatory scrutiny after the fact.
Runtime Enforcement and Failure Behavior
Policy has to be enforced at the moment of action, not reviewed afterward, and the system needs defined, predictable behavior when something fails or is denied.
Multi-Agent Accountability
When multiple agents contribute to an outcome, accountability cannot dissolve into the group. The architecture has to preserve who authorized what.
Agent Delegation Contract
The open specification R2 Labs is developing for delegated agent authority. It defines the object this architecture enforces at runtime.
View the ADC specification →AI and Agentic Systems
This architecture is one part of R2’s broader AI and agentic-systems capability: strategy, production readiness, and implementation.
Explore AI and Agentic Systems →Assess agent governance before autonomy scales.
If agents are moving toward production faster than accountability, we would welcome the opportunity to understand the situation.
Assess Agent Governance