no svid, no action.

human approval isn't a checkbox. it's a cryptographic gate. without an svid issued by ackd, the agent cannot proceed — full stop.

enforcement

how enforcement works

01

human approval triggers SVID issuance via SPIRE

02

the agent must present a valid, unexpired SVID to proceed

03

the SVID is scoped to exactly one request_id — it cannot authorize any other action

observability

what gets logged

every authorization request stores:

request_id unique identifier for the authorization request
agent_id which agent requested authorization
action what the agent wants to do
permissions[] specific permissions requested
justification why the agent needs to do this
approver_identity Cognito sub of the human who responded
requested_at when the request was created
decision_at when the human responded
decision approved | denied | expired
svid_id identifier of the issued SVID
svid_expires_at when the SVID stops being valid
revoked whether the SVID was manually revoked
revoked_at when the revocation occurred

stored in DynamoDB. TTL-based retention. exportable.

failure modes

what happens when things go wrong

scenario outcome
TTL expires before human responds status: expired, no SVID issued, agent aborts
human denies status: denied immediately, no SVID issued, agent aborts
SPIRE server unavailable SVID issuance fails, agent receives error, cannot proceed
network failure during consent request stays "pending" until TTL, then expires

trust model

who controls what

ackd controls

  • consent flow
  • SVID issuance
  • audit log
  • TTL enforcement

the agent controls

  • what action it requests
  • the justification it provides

the human controls

  • the approval decision — the only thing that gates the SVID

compliance

compliance-ready from day one

SOC2 Type II

CC6.1 (logical access controls), CC6.6 (least privilege)

HIPAA

§164.312(b) audit controls, §164.312(a)(1) access control

ISO 27001

A.9.4 system and application access control

every agent action is tied to a named human, a timestamp, and a cryptographically verifiable SVID. that's your audit evidence.

coming soon

SOC2 Type II report — in progress

third-party penetration test results — scheduled