Definition
A sequence of delegations that together produce one consequential decision: an agent sub-contracting to an agent, a service calling a service, across components, providers, or institutions. STD-09's claim is that the chain is itself a delegation, governed at the layer where it fails: enumerated hops on the head grant, liability terminating at the head, one intervention at the boundary.
Each hop can satisfy the standards alone while the composition remains unauditable and attributed to no one. The chain exists as an object so it can be paused, challenged, and attributed as one delegation rather than as a pile of conformant parts.
Scale: Systemic · Phases: Design, Deployment, Audit · Measurability: Fully measurable · Maturity: Core concept
Adjacent terms
References
- STD-09 Agent Chains · Standard