Intermediate · Systems

Delegated Authority

Visual diagram · (in preparation) · Math · (in preparation) · Worked example · 3 difficulty levels.

TL;DR. The specific, bounded permission a principal transfers to an agent so it can act on their behalf.

Technical Definition

The specific, bounded permission a principal transfers to an agent so it can act on their behalf.

How it works

Delegated authority is the legal-and-technical substance behind 'acting on behalf of'. It names the principal, the scope of permitted actions, the limits (amount, count, time, resource), and the conditions under which it lapses. Well-designed delegation is attenuating — a sub-agent can only receive a subset of what its delegator holds — and always traceable, so any action can be resolved to the human who ultimately authorized it. Without explicit delegated authority, autonomous action is indistinguishable from unauthorized action.

Related Concepts

• Agent Credential Delegation — Passing a scoped, verifiable credential from a principal to an agent — or from agent to sub-agent — so it can act on their behalf.
• Agent Authorization — Deciding and enforcing what an authenticated agent is allowed to do, at what scale, and under which conditions.
• Agent Delegation — Handing part of a task, and the authority needed to complete it, from a human to an agent or from one agent to another.
• Agent Audit Trail — The chronological, tamper-resistant record of an agent's decisions, tool calls, and context sources.