The Intent Architecture Stack

REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT

Define regulatory obligations before defining intent. Map the regulatory frameworks applicable to your industry, identify specific obligations triggered by the agent's data access and decision scope, and document which regulatory bodies have examination authority over the deployment context.

STAKEHOLDERS AND DATA

Identify every stakeholder group affected by the agent's outputs and every data touchpoint the agent can reach. This includes upstream data sources the agent reads, downstream systems the agent can trigger, and individuals or groups whose data the agent processes.

SYSTEM INTEGRATIONS

Map all downstream system triggers and integration points to define the full technical scope. An agent that appears limited by its interface may still have significant reach through the systems it can invoke. The scope of system integration determines the outer boundary that Layer 2 must address.

PURPOSE STATEMENT

Write the agent's purpose in one plain-language sentence that states what problem the agent solves and what workflow it supports. Not a technical description. Not a feature list. A statement of organizationally authorized intent: 'This agent reviews contract documents for non-standard clauses and flags them for legal review before signature.'

AUTHORIZED SCOPE

Define explicitly what the agent is permitted to do and what it is explicitly prohibited from doing. The prohibitions field is not optional. An authorization record without explicit prohibitions is incomplete. The scope must be expressed in terms of actions, data access, and system boundaries - not in terms of model capabilities.

EXPECTED OUTPUTS

Specify what correct agent behavior looks like and define the triggers for human review. Expected output format, expected output frequency, and the conditions under which the output must be reviewed by a human before being acted upon.

ACCOUNTABLE OWNER

Assign a named Consequence Owner responsible for board-level accountability and incident escalation decisions. The Consequence Owner is nested within the organization's existing formal accountability structure - three-lines-of-defense, senior management function, risk committee, or equivalent. This person is accountable for governance decisions, not necessarily first-line incident response. The role maps to the Sponsor field in Microsoft Entra Agent ID but is not satisfied by populating that field alone. The organizational accountability structure must be documented separately.

REVIEW CADENCE

Define a recurring review schedule and a set of event-based triggers that require re-authorization. The calendar cadence must be defined before deployment. Event triggers include: change in the agent's data access scope, change in applicable regulatory requirements, change in the named Consequence Owner, and any security incident involving the agent. An authorization record without a review date is an artifact, not governance.

ESCALATION PATH

Write the escalation path before the first incident. The path must name specific contacts and sequences, specify the conditions that trigger escalation at each level, and be executable by someone other than the original developer. If the Consequence Owner cannot describe how to stop the agent and who to call without consulting the builder, the Escalation Path does not exist.