Shared Vocabulary

AGF uses precise terminology throughout. When a term is used in a concept document, profile, or white paper, it carries the meaning defined here.

System Properties

Term	Meaning
Safe	The system does not cause unintended harm
Secure	The system resists adversarial attack
Durable	The system survives failures, maintains state, and preserves governance guarantees over time
Auditable	The system produces evidence trails sufficient for compliance and forensic review
Observable	The system emits structured events that enable monitoring, detection, and response

Architecture Terms

Term	Meaning
Ring	A logical governance layer in the Rings Model (0=Execution, 1=Verification, 2=Governance, 3=Learning)
Fabric	Cross-cutting infrastructure: events, identity, provenance, structured output, error handling
Substrate	The agent operating environment: context, instructions, tools, workspace, memory
Primitive	A named pattern for governed agentic systems (#1–#19)
Gate	An explicit decision point where execution pauses for authorization
Adaptive gate	A gate that relaxes as the system proves reliability through Trust Ladders
Mandatory gate	A gate that never relaxes (irreversible actions, regulatory requirements)

Signal Protocol

Signal	Meaning
PASS	Output accepted, move to next ring
REVISE(quality)	Ring 1 says "not good enough, try again"
REVISE(context)	Ring 2 says "the world changed, re-execute"
HALT	Something is fundamentally wrong, stop execution
GATE	Pause for human authorization
DELEGATE	Hand off to another agent with depth tracking
ERROR	Something broke; retry, degrade, or halt

Confidence Levels

Used throughout the framework to mark certainty:

Level	Meaning
Established pattern	Proven across multiple domains. Strong evidence.
Informed proposal	Based on our synthesis, not yet battle-tested at scale in agentic systems.
Open question	We don't have great answers yet and say so.

Deployment Modes

Mode	Description
Wrapper	Rings literally wrap execution. Sequential.
Middleware/Interrupt	Rings fire at decision points (tool calls, data access).
Graph-Embedded	Rings run concurrently with execution.

Positioning Terms

Term	Meaning
Agentic Governance	AGF's category. Governance of systems with agency, autonomy, memory, tool use, and inter-agent collaboration. Narrower than AI governance.
Four verbs	What AGF does: Synthesizes / Unifies / Prescribes / Operationalizes.
OTAA invariant	Every AGF primitive must be Observable, Traceable, Auditable, Agent-operable.
Dual-form principle	"Machine-consumable, human-decidable." Every primitive exists in human and machine form simultaneously.
Tempo taxonomy	Wire-speed enforcement (<1ms) / near-realtime supervision (sec–min) / human-speed governance (hours–weeks).
Wire-speed	Sub-millisecond governance enforcement — deterministic policy, identity, tool allowlists, sandbox.
Architectural substrate	AGF's position at Layer 0 of the seven-layer stack. The shared model onto which other governance layers project.

Harness Terms

Term	Meaning
Harness	The governance envelope around an AI agent — declarative source plus runtime enforcement adapters. Industry formula: `Agent = Model + Harness`.
Tier 0 / 1 / 2	Harness tiers: Provider (model vendor), Agent (per-agent, maps to AGF Security Fabric), Orchestration (cross-agent, maps to AGF Security Governance).
Source → Build → Runtime	Harness workflow: YAML/Markdown source → `harness build` → SDK adapters enforce at call time. Terraform analogy.
Hard / Adaptive / Behavioral constraints	Hard = machine-enforced, never relaxes. Adaptive = machine-enforced, trust-dependent. Behavioral = instruction-based, not mechanically enforced. Only hard and adaptive are citable as controls.

Governance: Five Distinct Senses

"Governance" carries five distinct senses across AGF material. Qualifiers are required whenever any sense other than #1 is meant.

Sense	Canonical qualified form	Example
1. The framework	AGF (never "governance" alone)	"AGF synthesizes NIST, OWASP, CSA…"
2. Ring 2	the Governance ring or Ring 2	"Ring 2 (Governance) evaluates policy before release."
3. Program maturity (AGF L1–L5)	AGF program maturity	"The organization's AGF program maturity is L2 Foundation."
4. Primitive #8 gates	Governance Gates (capitalized)	"Governance Gates fire when a release requires authorization."
5. NIST CSF Govern function	NIST CSF Govern	"AGF's Ring 2 aligns to NIST CSF Govern at program scope."

Bare "governance" as a noun is reserved for sense #1 or deliberate adjectival use ("governance posture"). Decision: D10.

Observability: Three Distinct Layers

"Observability" appears in three places in AGF. The three are not synonyms — they compose.

Layer	Canonical name	Role
Emission	Primitive #10 — Event-Driven Observability	Fabric primitive. Every ring emits structured events through a canonical envelope.
Concept	Agentic Observability	Unified correlation layer. One event stream, three detection perspectives (quality, security, governance).
Profile	Observability Profile	Role-based implementation guide for observability engineers and SREs.

Primitive #10 emits. Agentic Observability correlates. The Profile implements. Decision: D10.

Gate Vocabulary

AGF's gate-related vocabularies form a four-part vocabulary of distinct, scoped enums. They are NOT alternative spellings of one concept. See DECISIONS.md #8 (Gate Vocabulary Disambiguation).

Term	Definition
Gate Boundary	Where a Gate Resolution or Domain Outcome occurs. Dual-form (DECISIONS.md #5) and GDR emission (#9) are required at every gate boundary.
Ring Control Signal	The Composability Interface enum: `PASS / REVISE / HALT / GATE / DELEGATE / ERROR`. How primitives in adjacent rings signal each other. Emits observability events (Primitive #10), not GDRs.
Gate Resolution	The Primitive #8 (Governance Gates) enum: `APPROVE / REJECT / MODIFY / DEFER / ESCALATE`. The authorizer's response when a gate fires. Also the return value of the `GATE` Ring Control Signal. Emits a GDR.
Domain Outcome	Domain-specific gate decision enums. Each domain application defines its own outcome vocabulary that maps onto Gate Resolutions. Tool Gate's `Authorized / Conditionally Authorized / Denied` is the first reference application. Emits a GDR.
Governance Decision Record (GDR)	AGF's canonical audit artifact at gate boundaries. A single record format that serializes any Gate Resolution or Domain Outcome into an auditable record. See Governance Decision Record.

Four progressive architectures built from primitives. Canonical count: four. "Phase 1–5" language previously used on the Rings Model page is retired — use pattern names. Ring activation is a consequence of pattern selection.

Pattern	Rings active	Adds
Minimum Viable Control	Ring 0 + Fabric (minimal)	#7, #14, #6, #10, #19 (minimal)
Validation Pipeline	+ Ring 1	#1, #2, #5, #13
Governed Decision Flow	+ Ring 2	#8, #9, #16, #17
Full Governed Agentic System	+ Ring 3 (Learning)	all 19

Hardening posture (a modifier, not a fifth pattern): Adversarial Robustness (#15) + Evaluation & Assurance (#18) + Trust Ladders (#11) applied within GDF, or as a precondition for entering Full Governed. Express as posture language — "a production-hardened Governed Decision Flow applying #11/#15/#18" — never as a named step.

See Composition Patterns for full detail. Decision: D10.

Maturity Levels

AGF L1–L5 is a program-level scale. Complementary to CSA ATF's per-deployment scale (Intern → Junior → Senior → Principal).

Level	Label	State
L1	Non-existent	Agents deployed, no formal governance. Most orgs today.
L2	Foundation	Inventory + classification; Ring 0 + Ring 1 operational.
L3	Governed	Full R0+R1+R2; observability at correlation; Trust Ladders calibrating.
L4	Adaptive	Ring 3 operational; self-improving cycles.
L5	Optimized	Full framework; governance as competitive advantage.

For the complete vocabulary — including positioning pillars, harness terms, identity & credentialing terms (DIDs, VCs, NHIs, JIT credentials, behavioral attestation), and standards abbreviations — see the canonical source.

Shared Vocabulary

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