Glossary
Every term used across this site, defined once, so it means the same thing wherever you read it.
Runtime Authority
The infrastructure layer that determines whether an autonomous AI agent is authorized to perform a specific action, evaluated immediately before execution. The flagship product; also the name of the overall capability.
Learn more →Authority Graph
The structure modeling who holds delegated authority, who it's been extended to (including AI agents), and what constraints apply -- built from an organization's existing governance documents.
Learn more →Runtime Policies
Deterministic, versioned rules compiled from delegated authority, evaluated against every Intent to determine the specific conditions under which an action is permitted.
Learn more →Intent
A cryptographically signed request an AI agent submits, naming the action it wants to take, before anything executes.
Decision
The result of evaluating an Intent against the Authority Graph and Runtime Policies. Exactly one of three outcomes: Allow, Deny, or Human Review.
Human Review
One of the three Decision outcomes: the Intent is routed to a named, accountable person to resolve, rather than approved or denied automatically.
Evidence Portal
The enterprise evidence layer for Runtime Authority: where every signed Decision is searched, investigated, audited, and exported.
Learn more →Authorization Receipt
A planned evolution of Evidence Portal records: a portable, independently verifiable artifact that doesn't require access to PayReality's live systems to confirm. Not yet shipped.
Learn more →Agent
An autonomous AI system registered with its own cryptographic identity, capable of submitting signed Intents on behalf of a Principal.
Principal
The person or role an agent acts on behalf of for policy-evaluation purposes -- distinct from who owns or operates the agent day to day.
Delegated Authority
The scope of action an organization has explicitly extended to a person, role, or system -- the concept every enterprise already operationalizes for people, and which Runtime Authority extends to AI agents.
Decision Engine
The deterministic evaluation logic that combines the Authority Graph and Runtime Policies into a single Decision. The same Intent, Graph, and Policy always produce the same outcome.
Operator Key
A shared administrative credential that authenticates trusted administrative actions on the platform, such as registering an agent or publishing a policy.
Certificate / Key rotation
The process of replacing an agent's signing key. Rotation cuts off the old key's ability to sign new Intents immediately, without invalidating decisions made under it historically.
Policy compilation
The process of turning authored or extracted policy into deterministic, machine-evaluable rules (using Open Policy Agent / Rego), rather than leaving a written document for a runtime to interpret.