From the public website’s September 2026 source edition. This is architectural analysis and commentary. For current status and source documents, use the publication record.
The same authority problem recurring under a different vocabulary in each domain.
These are not seven arguments. They are one argument in seven vocabularies.
What an authority surface means here
It is a place where a system’s capabilities meet a decision about what may happen. A tool can execute a command; the governing interaction must establish whether that command is authorized. A stored record can supply context; the interaction must establish whether that context may influence the next action.
This question extends beyond agents. It also arises when a person needs an accessibility service, a device changes networks, a media source enters a waiting interval, or processing moves to another location. The proposed common primitive is an authority boundary that remains in control through those changes.
The pages below examine different forms of that question. These thematic essays are distinct from the named inventions in the patent family and from the seven failure domains. Use the patent record when evaluating a particular claim of protection.
- Capability and Authority
Capability explains what can be done. Authority decides what may become admissible inside the interaction.
- Memory and Authority
Memory creates derivative state that must remain bound to the governed interaction.
- Attention and Authority
Attention becomes a governed surface when it occurs inside a live interaction.
- Token and Authority
Tokens are evidence of authorization, not the live authority-bearing object itself.
- Access and Authority
Access decisions need an interaction boundary to remain coherent across change.
- Provenance
A record is useful only when it can bind what happened to the governed event.
- Token Toll Reconciliation
Tokenized obligations require continuity across the event that gives them meaning.