Trust and evidence
Trust does not mean total control.
BYOAg cannot guarantee that an autonomous or semi-autonomous agent will obey an environment. It can help define expectations, validate outputs, record evidence, and handle refusals or failures more explicitly.
The pattern can help establish
explicit expectations
declared capabilities
consent
validation
structured submissions
evidence
evaluation
refusal handling
auditability
Trust by design
Practical control points, still evolving
BYOAg aims to prove value through working implementations while preserving the architectural control points needed to deepen security as adoption grows. It is not a finalized security protocol.
- Least privilege and explicit scopes.
- Consent-based, limited sharing of context rather than handing over everything an agent knows.
- Separation of identity from authorization.
- Connection-specific credentials with expiration and revalidation.
- Immediate revocation or deletion of the relationship.
- Auditable actions performed on the user's behalf.
- Scheduled tasks limited to the project's approved permissions.
- Confirmation or approval for high-impact actions where appropriate.
Trust boundaries
A BYOAg interaction crosses several boundaries. Each boundary should be named because responsibilities, permissions, risks, and evidence may differ.
project
user
participant agent
environment
external tools
evaluator
artifact owner