01 / The operating case
What changes in a real workflow?
A parent assigns reconciliation to a child that proposes delegating payment preparation to a grandchild.
- 01Origin grant
- 02Parent agent
- 03Narrow child grant
- 04Action boundary
02 / Decision contract
What the executor must check
Include maximum depth and onward-delegation right in every grant; reject a grandchild beyond the limit.
InputPrincipal · task · action · target
DecisionGrant ancestry · policy · current state
ResultEnforce · record · verify outcome
03 / Failure and evidence
What goes wrong, and what can be proven?
Failure mode
An indefinite chain obscures origin and propagates permission beyond review.
Evidence to retain
Depth, edge ancestry, subset checks and rejected handoff.
04 / Canonical scope
Why this reference stands alone
Delegation loop detection catches cycles; depth limits stop overly long acyclic chains.
Technical artifact
Depth counter cannot be reset by a new runtime
origin depth allowance: 2 O → A: depth 1 A → B: depth 2 B → C: depth 3 → DENY remote runtime receives inherited depth 2
Run the denial test
Serialize B’s task into another orchestrator and attempt a fresh “root” delegation. The receiving runtime must preserve ancestor depth.
Primary references