Grant record template
Fields for issuer, holder, scope, evidence basis, expiry, revocation conditions, and state.
Authority grant register
Hold every delegated authority as a stateful record with provenance, scope, evidence basis, expiry, revocation conditions, and state history.
- 1 Evidence
- 2 Authority acts here
- 3 Decision
- 4 Consequence
- 5 Challenge
- 6 Reconsideration
- 7 Correction
Where it acts
At Authority, one of the seven stages every consequential decision passes through. It holds each delegated permission as a record with a scope, an evidence basis, an expiry, and conditions for revoking it.
Steps
Put the mechanism in motion
3 steps, in order. Check each one off as it is done; the records below show the work was done.
0 of 3 steps complete
Records this mechanism keeps
What a team running this mechanism keeps, and what each record is for.
State transition table
The permitted moves between grant states and who may make each one.
Renewal calendar
Upcoming expiries with the reviewer responsible for each renewal decision.
Reuse-ready snippets
Copy policy, audit, and incident language
Use these snippets in requirements, audits, and postmortems with the mechanism permalink.
Policy requirement
Policy requirement (MEC-13 Authority grant register) - Maintain a register of delegated authorities with issuer, scope, evidence basis, expiry, and revocation conditions. - Record every grant state change with its reason and reviewer, and expose the register to the decision log. Reference: https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/authority-grant-register
Product requirement
Product requirement (MEC-13) - Each consequential action names the grant identifier and grant state it ran under. - Grants past expiry move to review_required and are refused until a reviewer renews them.
Audit evidence checklist
Audit evidence checklist (MEC-13) [ ] Every exercised authority has a register entry with issuer and scope. [ ] Grants carry an expiry and stated revocation conditions. [ ] State history shows who changed each grant and on what basis.
Postmortem trigger
Postmortem trigger (MEC-13) Trigger review when an action runs under a grant that is missing, expired, or not in the allowed state.
Example usage
Registering an agent's refund authority
One scenario with each part of the mechanism in place.
How it plays out
A support platform records the agent's refund authority as a grant with a value ceiling, an evidence basis in the last accuracy review, a 90-day expiry, and revocation on any confirmed mis-refund; the refund endpoint reads the grant state before acting.
Anti-patterns
Common failure cases and counterfactuals
Each case passes on paper and fails in operation. The counterfactual shows what would have worked.
Permissions as config
Authority lives in a role file or feature flag with no issuer, basis, or expiry, so widening it is a deploy rather than a decision.
Counterfactual: Authority lives in a register where each grant names its issuer, basis, expiry, and revocation conditions.
Exception: Config can still enforce the grant; the register is the record of why the config says what it says.
Register without state
Grants are documented once and never move, so an expired or contested grant reads the same as a current one.
Counterfactual: Each grant carries a current state and an appended history of transitions.
Exception: A stable grant is fine; what matters is that the register can show it was reviewed and left in place.
Diagnostics for this mechanism
Tools that size the risk this mechanism addresses.
Diagnostic
Delegation audit
Walks a team through one workflow against six questions and returns an exposure score, the permissions nobody can justify, and whether its decisions can be undone. Start here when the system keeps no decision records yet; use the record conformance checker once it does.
Cite this page · v1.2.1 · updated Oct 6, 2026 · CC BY-SA 4.0
APA
Ethotechnics Institute. (2026). Authority grant register (MEC-13). Ethotechnics Institute. https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/authority-grant-register
MLA
Ethotechnics Institute. "Authority grant register (MEC-13)." Ethotechnics Institute, 2026, https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/authority-grant-register.
Chicago
Ethotechnics Institute. "Authority grant register (MEC-13)." Ethotechnics Institute. Oct 6, 2026. https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/authority-grant-register.
BibTeX
@misc{mechanism_authority-grant-register,
title={Authority grant register (MEC-13)},
author={Ethotechnics Institute},
year={2026},
howpublished={Ethotechnics Institute},
url={https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/authority-grant-register},
version={v1.2.1}
}
RIS
TY - WEB TI - Authority grant register (MEC-13) AU - Ethotechnics Institute PY - 2026 UR - https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/authority-grant-register ER -