Agent Authority Design
Define the job, tools, permissions, approvals, prohibitions and escalation paths.
SERVICE / SVC-04 / AGENTIC SUPPORTDEFINED SERVICE SCOPE
Delegated work within explicit authority.
We design human-supervised agents and coordinated agentic workflows for defined work, approved tools and explicit escalation paths. The purpose is not maximum autonomy. It is useful delegation that remains governable.
SVC / 04AGENTIC SUPPORT
SKILLSPINNED / VERSIONED
ACTIONSAPPROVE / ESCALATE
LIFECYCLEEVAL / MONITOR / ROLLBACK
SMALLEST CREDIBLE ENTRY POINT
Begin with the decision that must become possible—not with the largest possible scope.
AGENTIC SUPPORTAUTHORITY CONTROLLED
01PINNED SKILLS02HUMAN GATE03ROLLBACK
AGENTIC SUPPORT / REFERENCE DIRECTION
Support that does not just answer. It acts within permission.
The reference becomes a controlled sequence: understand, verify, propose, approve, act, confirm and escalate. Human judgement remains the boundary for sensitive or ambiguous work.
DELEGATION WITHOUT BLIND AUTHORITY
AN AGENT BECOMES VALUABLE WHEN ITS JOB, TOOLS AND LIMITS ARE MORE PRECISE THAN ITS PROMISE.
Many organisations can identify work that should move faster: research, triage, document preparation, coordination, monitoring, routing or repetitive system updates. The risk appears when a broad objective is translated into open-ended authority.
Agentic Support defines the role, context, tools, approval gates, escalation conditions, evidence requirements and recovery procedures before operation.
AGENTIC SUPPORT
AGENTIC SERVICE CATEGORIES
- 01
Task agents for narrow, testable work.
- 02
Professional agents grounded in approved role knowledge.
- 03
Coordinated agent teams with explicit handoffs.
- 04
Private agentic workflows connected to controlled systems.
- 05
Evaluation, release and change-control design for the accepted agentic workflow.
- 06
Tool and connector contracts with approval boundaries.
- 07
Action ledgers, interruption and escalation design.
BUSINESS OUTCOME
WHAT CONTROLLED DELEGATION CAN CHANGE
- 01
Repeatable work moves forward without requiring constant manual initiation.
- 02
Sensitive actions pause at explicit human gates.
- 03
Uncertainty is escalated instead of hidden behind fluent output.
- 04
Tool use and material state changes can be examined.
- 05
Agent behaviour can be evaluated against a defined job rather than general impressions.
- 06
Authority can be narrowed, suspended or removed.
WHAT YOU BRING
- 01
The exact job, intended outcome and accountable human owner.
- 02
Approved tools, systems, knowledge and data boundaries.
- 03
Actions that may proceed, require approval or remain prohibited.
- 04
Escalation conditions, failure modes and evidence requirements.
- 05
Expected volume, service level, cost and operating environment.
WHAT RELESONA PRODUCES
- 01
Agent role and permission specification.
- 02
Context, memory and knowledge boundary design.
- 03
Tool contracts and approval gates.
- 04
Evaluation scenarios and acceptance criteria.
- 05
Working agent or coordinated workflow within the agreed scope.
- 06
Action ledger, interruption, escalation and operating runbook.
HUMAN GATE PRINCIPLE
RESPONSIVENESS DOES NOT REPLACE PERMISSION.
Understanding context, proposing an action, receiving authority and recording what occurred remain separate stages. A consequential action does not become authorised merely because the system can describe it convincingly.
- 01
Context enters.
- 02
Evidence is identified.
- 03
Authority is checked.
- 04
Action is bounded or submitted for approval.
- 05
The result is recorded and reviewable.
CONTROL BOUNDARIES
THE CAPABILITY IS DESIGNED WITH THE LIMITS THAT KEEP IT CREDIBLE.
- 01
No open-ended authority is inferred from a broad objective.
- 02
Sensitive actions require explicit approval and traceable execution.
- 03
Uncertainty is escalated rather than disguised.
- 04
Budgets, rate limits and external side effects are bounded.
- 05
The human owner can interrupt, suspend and revoke the workflow.
- 06
Agent identity is not confused with a human employee or legal decision-maker.
WHO THIS WORK IS FOR
Agentic Support is suited to organisations that can define repeatable work, accountable ownership and clear action boundaries—and that value observable, interruptible automation over theatrical autonomy.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
QUESTIONS TO RESOLVE BEFORE AGENTIC SUPPORT BEGINS.
01Can an agent act on our behalf?
Only within the explicit authority, tools and approval rules defined for the engagement. Consequential actions can require human confirmation.
02Is a multi-agent system automatically better?
No. Additional agents increase coordination, state, cost and failure surface. The architecture should use the smallest role structure that can be verified.
03Can authority be revoked?
The operating design should support suspension, tool removal, permission narrowing, credential rotation and safe shutdown.
NEXT DECISION
DELEGATE THE WORK. KEEP THE AUTHORITY.
Describe the exact job, the approved tools and the action that must remain human. We will determine the smallest agentic design that can be tested and governed.