1. Scope

(Normative)

1.1 Subject Matter

This specification defines the Intent Stack Governance Architecture, a seven-layer reference model for governing AI agent behavior within organizations. It specifies the structural elements that SHALL be present at every governance interface where AI agents operate, the governance concerns that each layer SHALL address, and the properties that conformant implementations SHALL exhibit.

1.2 What This Specification Covers

This specification covers:

a) The seven governance layers that SHALL be addressed at every principal-agent boundary, from Intent Discovery (L7) through Execution (L1);

b) The five Intent Primitives that constitute the irreducible governance content at every interface;

c) The four intent sources from which governing intent originates and their conflict resolution hierarchy;

d) The two interface types — delegation and coordination — and their respective governance properties;

e) The trust calibration mechanism by which agent autonomy is evidence-based and per-boundary governed;

f) The fractal self-similarity property by which the governance pattern instantiates at every scale from civilizational to model level;

g) The transparent conscientious objection mechanism by which governed entities express principled disagreement through legitimate channels;

h) The knowledge architecture through which accumulated governance signal is captured, structured, and made available across layers.

1.3 What This Specification Does Not Cover

This specification does not cover:

a) Training-time AI alignment, which is addressed by model developers and is positioned as the substrate below this specification’s scope;

b) Policy-level AI governance frameworks, which operate at the level of organizational policy and risk management rather than runtime governance;

c) Specific implementation technologies, AI architectures, or organizational structures;

d) Conformance testing methodology, which is reserved for a future normative annex.