Ark Authority Envelope

Declare what an agent may request before a tool can run.

An Authority Envelope declares tools, actions, resources, budgets, claims, credential handles, approval thresholds, and human handoff rules for an agent session.

Permits govern action. Packets preserve authority.
The agent sees a handle. Ark owns the boundary.
A review packet is still not permission to execute.

Build Envelope Run Arena Open Console

Builder

Authority envelope JSON.

This is a static product mockup. It shows the primitive: proposed actions resolve against declared authority, then Ark emits ALLOW, DENY, or REQUIRE_APPROVAL plus a boundary packet.

Session Authority

Agent identity

Session purpose

Allowed tools

Allowed actions

Denied actions

Token budget

API budget USD

Approval threshold

Claim boundaries

Credential handles

Human handoff queue

Fail closed when evidence, policy, handle, or approval state is missing.

authority_envelope.json

Envelope

Declare what the agent may request in this session.

Proposed Action

A tool, claim, resource, credential, or money action is requested.

Policy Verdict

Ark emits ALLOW, DENY, or REQUIRE_APPROVAL.

Permit or Hold

Low-risk bounded actions can receive permits. High-risk actions remain blocked or routed.

Packet

The record preserves evidence, blocked claims, no-op receipt, handoff, and hash.