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ABP Specification

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ABP v1 Specification

Authority Boundary Primitive — a stack-independent, pre-runtime governance declaration that any enforcement engine can read to know the boundaries without needing DeepSigma's runtime.

Table of Contents

Overview

The ABP is a JSON document that declares:

  • What an AI system is allowed to do (objectives, tools)
  • Where it operates (scope — contract, program, modules)
  • With what authority (binding to authority ledger entry)
  • Under what constraints (data permissions, approvals, escalation paths)
  • Producing what proof (runtime validators, proof requirements)
  • With what reassessment (delegation review triggers)

The ABP is pre-runtime — it exists before any agent executes. At decision time, the agent's Authority Envelope references the ABP. After execution, the Sealed Run contains both.

graph LR
    subgraph PreRuntime["Pre-Runtime"]
        ABP["ABP v1\nWhat's allowed / denied / required\nPortable: any engine reads it"]
    end

    subgraph AtDecision["At Decision Time"]
        ENV["Authority Envelope\nWhat actor had what authority\nGate outcomes + refusal state\nBound to sealed run"]
    end

    subgraph PostExecution["Post-Execution"]
        SEAL["Sealed Run\nHash-chained proof\nImmutable evidence"]
    end

    ABP -->|"specifies boundaries"| ENV
    ENV -->|"captures state"| SEAL

    style PreRuntime fill:#e7f5ff,stroke:#1c7ed6
    style AtDecision fill:#fff3bf,stroke:#f59f00
    style PostExecution fill:#d3f9d8,stroke:#37b24d
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ABP Lifecycle

flowchart TD
    subgraph Declare["1. Declare Boundaries"]
        D1["Scope\n(contract, program, modules)"]
        D2["Authority Ref\n(ledger entry binding)"]
        D3["Objectives\n(allowed / denied)"]
        D4["Tools\n(allow / deny)"]
        D5["Data + Approvals + Escalation"]
        D6["Runtime + Proof"]
        D7["Delegation Review\n(optional triggers)"]
    end

    subgraph Build["2. Build ABP"]
        B1["Canonical JSON\n(sorted keys, compact)"]
        B2["ABP ID\nABP- + sha256[:8]"]
        B3["Content Hash\nsha256:canonical"]
        B4["Contradiction Check"]
    end

    subgraph Embed["3. Embed + Gate"]
        E1["Stamp EDGE HTML\nscript id=ds-abp-v1"]
        E2["gate_abp.py\n10 checks per file"]
    end

    subgraph Verify["4. Verify"]
        V1["verify_abp.py\n8 checks"]
        V2["verify_pack.py\n--require-abp"]
    end

    subgraph Reassess["5. Reassess"]
        R1["Drift Triggers\nDRT-001 to DRT-004"]
        R2["Delegation Review\nReviewer approval"]
        R3["ABP Patch\nUpdated boundaries"]
    end

    D1 & D2 & D3 & D4 & D5 & D6 & D7 --> B1
    B1 --> B2 & B3 & B4
    B4 -->|pass| E1
    B4 -->|fail| REJECT["ValueError"]
    E1 --> E2
    E2 -->|pass| V1
    E2 -->|pass| V2
    V1 & V2 -->|verified| R1
    R1 -->|threshold met| R2
    R2 --> R3
    R3 -->|rebuild| B1

    style Declare fill:#e7f5ff,stroke:#1c7ed6
    style Build fill:#fff3bf,stroke:#f59f00
    style Embed fill:#e8f5e9,stroke:#43a047
    style Verify fill:#e3f2fd,stroke:#1e88e5
    style Reassess fill:#fce4ec,stroke:#e53935
    style REJECT fill:#ff6b6b,color:#fff
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Deterministic ID

The ABP ID is deterministic — same inputs always produce the same ID:

abp_id = "ABP-" + sha256(canonical_json({
    "scope": scope,
    "authority_ref": authority_ref,
    "created_at": created_at
}))[:8]
  • Only scope, authority_ref, and created_at determine the ID
  • Adding/changing objectives, tools, delegation_review, etc. does not change the ID
  • Adding delegation_review does change the hash (different canonical JSON)

Current: ABP-bf0afe15

Content Hash

The content hash covers the entire ABP:

hash = sha256(canonical_json(abp_with_hash_set_to_empty_string))
  1. Copy the ABP object
  2. Set copy["hash"] = ""
  3. Serialize to canonical JSON
  4. Compute SHA-256
  5. Prefix with "sha256:"

Any change to any field (except hash itself) changes the content hash. This is how tamper detection works.

Current: sha256:c01f3565f11678598e098083ab01d7fc429d985525756300f932f44eea722789

Canonical JSON

All hashes in the system are computed over canonical JSON serialization only:

Rule Example
Dict keys sorted alphabetically {"a":1,"b":2} not {"b":2,"a":1}
Compact separators (no spaces) {"a":1} not { "a": 1 }
Floats normalized to 15-digit precision 1.000000000000000
Datetime strings normalized to UTC Z 2026-02-25T00:00:00Z
Newlines normalized to \n No \r\n

Implementation: enterprise/src/tools/reconstruct/canonical_json.py

Key functions:

  • canonical_dumps(obj) — canonical JSON string
  • sha256_text(s) — SHA-256 of UTF-8 string, prefixed with "sha256:"
  • sha256_canonical(obj) — hash of canonical JSON

Sections Reference

Section Type Required Description
abp_version string Yes Schema version: "1.0"
abp_id string Yes Deterministic ID: "ABP-xxxxxxxx"
scope object Yes contract_id, program, modules[]
authority_ref object Yes authority_entry_id, authority_entry_hash, authority_ledger_path
objectives object Yes allowed[] (id + description), denied[] (id + description + reason)
tools object Yes allow[] (name + scope), deny[] (name + reason)
data object Yes permissions[] (resource, operations, roles, sensitivity)
approvals object Yes required[] (action, approver_role, threshold, timeout_ms)
escalation object Yes paths[] (trigger, destination, severity, auto)
runtime object Yes validators[] (name, when, fail_action, config)
proof object Yes required[] array of proof types
composition object Yes parent_abp_id, parent_abp_hash, children[]
effective_at string Yes ISO 8601 effective date
expires_at string/null Yes ISO 8601 expiry (null = no expiry)
created_at string Yes ISO 8601 creation timestamp
hash string Yes Self-authenticating content hash
delegation_review object No Optional: triggers[], review_policy{}

Objectives

Allowed Objectives

ID Description
OBJ-001 Evaluate bid/no-bid for opportunity DEC-001
OBJ-002 Assess staffing readiness for contract execution
OBJ-003 Map compliance requirements to deliverables
OBJ-004 Generate basis-of-estimate pricing models
OBJ-005 Estimate award staffing allocation and costs
OBJ-006 Monitor claim coherence and drift signals
OBJ-007 Present read-only unified decision surface
OBJ-008 Export verifiable evidence packs from any module

Denied Objectives

ID Description Reason
OBJ-D01 Modify sealed decisions Sealed artifacts are immutable per governance policy
OBJ-D02 Bypass ABP verification on export All EDGE exports must carry verified ABP
OBJ-D03 Alter coherence scores without re-evaluation Coherence values are derived from evidence chains

Tools

Allowed Tools

Name Scope
seal_bundle DEC-001
sign_artifact DEC-001
replay_sealed_run (any)
verify_pack (any)
verify_abp (any)
gate_abp (any)
export_evidence_pack SEQUOIA

Denied Tools

Name Reason
authority_ledger_revoke Only reviewers may revoke authority grants
transparency_log_delete Append-only log cannot be truncated

Composition

ABPs can form hierarchies via the composition section:

graph TD
    PARENT["Program ABP\n(parent)\nABP-aabb1122"]

    CHILD1["Hiring Module\nABP-cc334455"]
    CHILD2["Compliance Module\nABP-dd556677"]
    CHILD3["BOE Module\nABP-ee778899"]

    PARENT -->|"children[0]"| CHILD1
    PARENT -->|"children[1]"| CHILD2
    PARENT -->|"children[2]"| CHILD3

    style PARENT fill:#e7f5ff,stroke:#1c7ed6
    style CHILD1 fill:#fff3bf,stroke:#f59f00
    style CHILD2 fill:#fff3bf,stroke:#f59f00
    style CHILD3 fill:#fff3bf,stroke:#f59f00
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compose_abps() merges child ABPs into a parent:

  • Concatenates objectives.allowed + objectives.denied
  • Concatenates tools.allow + tools.deny
  • Concatenates data.permissions, approvals.required, escalation.paths, runtime.validators
  • Unions proof.required
  • Deduplicates delegation_review.triggers by ID
  • Takes tightest review_policy.timeout_ms from children
  • Records each child's abp_id + hash in composition.children

Current ABP

Field Value
abp_id ABP-bf0afe15
hash sha256:c01f3565f11678598e098083ab01d7fc429d985525756300f932f44eea722789
scope.contract_id CTR-DEMO-001
scope.program SEQUOIA
scope.modules hiring, bid, compliance, boe, award_staffing, coherence, suite_readonly, unified
authority_ref.entry_id AUTH-033059a5
created_at 2026-02-25T00:00:00Z
effective_at 2026-02-25T00:00:00Z
expires_at null (no expiry)

File: edge/abp_v1.json Schema: enterprise/schemas/reconstruct/abp_v1.json

Σ OVERWATCH — Coherence Ops Platform • Current release: v2.1.0 • DeepSigma

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