Pattern matrix/White paper/G3

Progressive Commitment governs local, version-bound authority. It records an agent version's authority for a capability, scenario, resource, and environment instead of assigning one global trust score.

Coordinate and authority unit

Governance × Chain. Shadow, recommendation, bounded execution, and expanded scope have evidence prerequisites. Incidents, dependencies, and version changes can move the chain backward.

authority_key = (
    agent_version,
    capability,
    scenario,
    resource_scope,
    environment
)

Validation and submission by the same payroll agent should have separate grants.

Autonomy tiers

Evidence

Task and outcome evidence shows goal completion and downstream use. Process evidence covers planning, tools, memory, and recovery. Foundation evidence covers model, tool, storage, and policy health. An average success rate cannot replace these levels or expose high-risk tails.

Running example

Payroll agent v7 validates in Shadow and then Recommend. Routine batches are stable while new-hire and cross-region cases remain weak, so only the routine slice receives Bounded Execute. Submission remains reviewed under G1. A payment-tool upgrade freezes the affected validation grant and returns it to Shadow while unrelated capabilities retain their state.

Disposition, failure, and verification

A review can promote, hold, narrow, demote, or retire. Missing eval coverage, a changed dependency, rising error rates, owner departure, or long inactivity can invalidate authority without an incident.

Reject global agent levels, one-way ladders, easy-sample selection, authority inheritance after material changes, agent-writable grants, and immediate full traffic after promotion. Verify grant granularity, evidence coverage, post-promotion rollback, demotion latency, version inheritance, retirement, and real reduction in human load.