AuthorityCore Specification

Home / AuthorityCore / AuthorityCore Specification

AuthorityCore

Jurisdiction Matters.

Purpose

AuthorityCore is a focus-oriented AI governance and reliability framework designed to improve the execution of long, complex, multi-step AI tasks.

The system addresses agentic reliability by reducing the pool of possible actions, information, sources, interpretations, and conclusions as soon as an objective is defined. Rather than allowing an AI system to operate across an unrestricted knowledge space, AuthorityCore progressively constrains the workflow to the information and actions relevant to the approved objective.

AuthorityCore is designed around human authority, controlled autonomy, evidence-based reasoning, jurisdiction awareness, source traceability, conflict resolution, continuous verification, and immutable accountability.

The default legal jurisdiction is the United States. Additional countries, states, provinces, territories, municipalities, and other jurisdictions can be implemented as modular jurisdiction packages without changing the AuthorityCore core.

Design Principles

Focus Orientation

The objective is the starting point for every workflow.

Once an objective is defined, AuthorityCore identifies the smallest practical pool of relevant:

Domains
Subjects
Topics
Jurisdictions
Authorities
Sources
Tools
Actions
Evidence
Decisions

The system continuously evaluates whether subsequent actions remain within that approved pool.

Human Authority

Human authority remains above AI authority.

AuthorityCore must provide human confirmation before proceeding when an action:

Changes the objective
Expands the scope
Changes jurisdiction
Introduces a new authority class
Introduces an unapproved source category
Creates a material change in workflow direction
Produces a high-risk conclusion
Requires an unresolved authority conflict
Exceeds an established risk threshold

AI systems may recommend changes, but they must not silently authorize their own expansion.

Jurisdiction Awareness

Jurisdiction is a foundational constraint.

A legal or regulatory request must identify the applicable jurisdiction before substantive conclusions are produced.

The default jurisdiction is the United States.

Jurisdiction modules may define:

Applicable authorities
Authority hierarchy
Source requirements
Citation requirements
Geographic boundaries
Local authority relationships
Conflicting jurisdiction rules
Effective dates
Verification requirements

Evidence Before Conclusion

AuthorityCore prioritizes verified evidence over probabilistic model output.

Claims should be traceable to the sources and authorities used to support them.

The system must distinguish between:

Verified information
Supported interpretation
Unverified information
Conflicting information
Missing information
Model inference

Reliability Through Constraint

AuthorityCore treats constraint as a reliability mechanism.

Reducing the available possibility space should occur before increasing autonomous execution.

The system should prefer:

Narrower scope over broader scope
Verified sources over unrestricted retrieval
Applicable authority over general knowledge
Human confirmation over silent expansion
Verification over assumption
Reproducibility over convenience

Order of Operations

AuthorityCore workflows should follow an ordered control process.

Objective Definition

The user defines the intended outcome.

Objective Confirmation

AuthorityCore confirms that the objective has been correctly interpreted.

Scope Compression

The system reduces the available knowledge and action space to what is relevant to the objective.

Jurisdiction Identification

The system identifies the applicable jurisdiction.

Jurisdiction Confirmation

The user confirms the jurisdiction when required.

Authority Identification

AuthorityCore determines which authorities govern the objective.

Source Restriction

The system identifies approved sources and excludes irrelevant or unauthorized sources.

Workflow Planning

The system creates an ordered execution plan.

Human Plan Approval

The user confirms the proposed workflow when required.

Evidence Retrieval

AuthorityCore retrieves information from the approved source and authority pool.

Evidence Validation

Retrieved information is evaluated for relevance, authority, freshness, provenance, and consistency.

Contradiction Analysis

Conflicting evidence, authorities, sources, or assumptions are identified.

Controlled Execution

The system executes approved workflow steps within the established scope.

Completion Verification

AuthorityCore verifies that the original objective and completion requirements have actually been satisfied.

Human Final Approval

The user approves the final result when required by workflow or risk level.

Immutable Audit Recording

The complete workflow state, decisions, evidence, approvals, and relevant source information are preserved according to audit requirements.

Core Modules

Objective Contract Module

The Objective Contract Module defines and protects the intended purpose of a workflow.

Features include:

Objective definition
Objective parsing
Objective validation
Objective classification
Success criteria
Deliverable definitions
Completion conditions
Objective constraints
Objective versioning
Objective approval
Objective amendment tracking
Objective history
Objective integrity validation
Objective-to-workflow mapping

An objective contract must remain available throughout execution so that subsequent actions can be evaluated against the original intent.

Focus Orientation Module

The Focus Orientation Module reduces the possibility space after the objective is established.

Features include:

Domain detection
Subject classification
Topic isolation
Context compression
Relevant-information filtering
Goal alignment tracking
Focus integrity scoring
Objective alignment monitoring
Focus boundary enforcement
Irrelevant-information suppression

The module should continuously determine whether information or actions remain relevant to the approved objective.

Scope Compression Module

The Scope Compression Module converts the objective into explicit boundaries.

Features include:

Domain locking
Subject locking
Topic locking
Jurisdiction locking
Authority locking
Source locking
Tool restrictions
Action restrictions
Negative scope definitions
Exclusion rules
Scope inheritance
Scope dependencies
Scope validation
Scope conflict detection
Scope expansion requests
Scope reduction recommendations
Scope change auditing

Any material expansion outside the approved scope should require human confirmation.

Human Approval Module

The Human Approval Module provides explicit human-in-the-loop control.

Features include:

Objective approval
Scope approval
Jurisdiction approval
Authority approval
Plan approval
Execution approval
Scope expansion approval
Conflict-resolution approval
High-risk action approval
Final output approval
Human overrides
Intervention requests
Escalation workflows
Approval history

Approval requirements may vary according to workflow type, risk, jurisdiction, and configured governance policies.

Workflow Orchestration Module

The Workflow Orchestration Module manages execution of multi-step tasks.

Features include:

Sequential workflows
Parallel workflows
Conditional workflows
Event-driven workflows
Workflow templates
Workflow dependencies
Workflow state management
Workflow checkpoints
Workflow pause
Workflow resume
Workflow rollback
Workflow replay
Workflow cloning
Workflow versioning
Workflow auditing

The workflow engine must preserve the relationship between each action and the objective that authorized it.

Planning Module

The Planning Module converts approved objectives into controlled execution plans.

Features include:

Objective decomposition
Task decomposition
Subtask generation
Dependency mapping
Execution ordering
Milestone planning
Verification planning
Risk-aware planning
Adaptive replanning
Plan comparison
Plan validation
Plan approval

Replanning must remain within the approved objective and scope unless human approval authorizes expansion.

Tool Governance Module

The Tool Governance Module controls what tools an AI system may use during a workflow.

Features include:

Tool authorization
Tool restrictions
Tool selection rules
Tool-use scope enforcement
Tool permission controls
Tool execution logging
Tool result validation
Unauthorized tool-use prevention
Human approval for sensitive tool actions
Tool dependency tracking
Tool failure detection

Tools must not be permitted to expand the objective or scope without authorization.

Evidence-Constrained Retrieval Module

The Evidence-Constrained Retrieval Module restricts retrieval to information relevant to the approved objective and authorized source pool.

Features include:

Evidence-first retrieval
Claim-to-source mapping
Evidence validation
Evidence scoring
Evidence provenance
Citation generation
Citation verification
Evidence retention
Evidence conflict detection
Evidence gap detection
Counterevidence retrieval

For legal requests, the module should retrieve from the applicable legal and jurisdictional source pool rather than treating general model knowledge as sufficient authority.

Source Management Module

The Source Management Module controls which sources can influence a workflow.

Features include:

Approved source lists
Restricted source lists
Source authorization
Source hierarchy
Source credibility scoring
Source provenance
Source version tracking
Source metadata
Source verification
Source freshness tracking
Source lifecycle management
Source audit history

Source Decay Monitoring Module

The Source Decay Monitoring Module detects when previously reliable information may no longer be current.

Features include:

Source freshness monitoring
Last-verification tracking
Staleness scoring
Source expiration detection
Repealed authority detection
Superseded regulation detection
Overturned decision detection
Updated guidance detection
Changed policy detection
Source decay alerts
Source revalidation
Source replacement workflows

The system should not assume that a previously valid source remains authoritative indefinitely.

Authority Framework Module

The Authority Framework Module identifies and organizes the authorities governing a workflow.

Features include:

Authority identification
Authority classification
Authority hierarchy
Authority precedence
Authority validation
Authority provenance
Authority versioning
Governing-authority identification
Authority dependency mapping
Authority audit history

Authority hierarchy rules are defined by the applicable jurisdiction or domain module.

Authority Conflict Resolution Module

The Authority Conflict Resolution Module identifies situations where applicable authorities disagree.

Features include:

Authority conflict detection
Source conflict detection
Statute versus regulation analysis
Regulation versus guidance analysis
Court opinion conflict detection
Policy conflict detection
Cross-jurisdiction conflict analysis
Precedence analysis
Conflict severity scoring
Conflict escalation
Human conflict review
Conflict resolution records
Conflict audit reporting

AuthorityCore must not silently select an authority when a material conflict exists.

Jurisdiction Module

The Jurisdiction Module establishes the geographic and legal boundaries governing a workflow.

The default legal jurisdiction is the United States.

Features include:

Jurisdiction identification
Jurisdiction confirmation
Jurisdiction locking
Jurisdiction validation
Jurisdiction hierarchy
Cross-jurisdiction analysis
Jurisdiction conflict detection
Jurisdiction expansion requests
Jurisdiction-specific source restrictions
Jurisdiction-specific authority rules
Jurisdiction-specific citation rules
Jurisdiction audit history

Local Knowledge Module

The Local Knowledge Module supports authorities below national and state or provincial levels.

Supported structures may include:

Counties
Municipalities
Townships
Boroughs
Villages
School districts
Utility authorities
Special districts
Tribal governments
Other recognized local authorities

Features include:

Local ordinance retrieval
Local policy retrieval
Local authority validation
Local hierarchy integration
Local compliance rules
Local citation support
Local source verification
Local jurisdiction boundaries

Reliability Scoring Module

The Reliability Scoring Module evaluates the quality and integrity of a workflow.

Features include:

Overall reliability scoring
Focus integrity scoring
Objective alignment scoring
Scope compliance scoring
Jurisdiction compliance scoring
Authority compliance scoring
Source quality scoring
Evidence quality scoring
Verification scoring
Workflow health metrics
Trust scoring
Risk scoring
Reliability trend monitoring

Scores should support decision-making and escalation rather than replace human judgment where human review is required.

Objective Drift Prevention Module

The Objective Drift Prevention Module continuously checks whether a workflow is moving away from its original objective.

Features include:

Objective drift detection
Scope drift detection
Context drift detection
Jurisdiction drift detection
Authority drift detection
Automatic drift alerts
Drift scoring
Execution pause on significant drift
Objective revalidation
Scope re-centering
Human intervention
Drift audit history

Contradiction Analysis Module

The Contradiction Analysis Module identifies disagreements that may affect reliability.

Features include:

Evidence contradiction detection
Source disagreement detection
Authority disagreement detection
Jurisdiction conflict detection
Assumption contradiction detection
Internal consistency testing
Counterargument generation
Alternative interpretation analysis
Contradiction severity scoring
Human escalation

Missing Evidence Module

The Missing Evidence Module identifies information that may be necessary to reach a reliable conclusion.

Features include:

Evidence gap identification
Missing-source detection
Missing-authority detection
Missing-jurisdiction information
Required-evidence checks
Counterfactual evidence requests
Evidence sufficiency scoring
Additional research recommendations
Uncertainty escalation

The module should identify evidence that could materially change the conclusion, not only evidence that supports the current conclusion.

Memory Governance Module

The Memory Governance Module controls how information is retained and reused across workflows.

Features include:

Memory validation
Memory authorization
Memory provenance
Memory confidence scoring
Memory aging
Memory expiration
Memory prioritization
Memory deduplication
Memory conflict detection
Memory poisoning detection
Memory audit history
Context integrity monitoring
Long-term memory controls

Memory should not override current objective, scope, jurisdiction, or authority constraints.

Error Recovery Module

The Error Recovery Module manages failures during long-running workflows.

Features include:

Failure detection
Failure classification
Retry management
Retry limits
Workflow rollback
State restoration
Checkpoint recovery
Dependency recovery
Tool recovery
Partial-result recovery
Recovery validation
Recovery auditing
Human escalation after repeated failure

Checkpoint Module

The Checkpoint Module preserves workflow state at defined points.

Features include:

Automatic checkpoints
Manual checkpoints
Approval checkpoints
Verification checkpoints
Recovery checkpoints
State snapshots
Workflow snapshots
Checkpoint comparison
Checkpoint rollback
Checkpoint validation
Checkpoint history

Adversarial Testing Module

The Adversarial Testing Module intentionally challenges AuthorityCore workflows to identify weaknesses.

Features include:

Objective hijacking tests
Scope manipulation tests
Scope drift simulations
Prompt injection tests
Tool manipulation tests
Source poisoning tests
Retrieval contamination tests
Memory poisoning tests
Authority conflict simulations
Jurisdiction bypass testing
Hallucination resistance testing
Workflow stress testing
Failure injection
Recovery testing
Reliability benchmarking

Testing should evaluate whether the system remains within its approved objective and authority boundaries under hostile or misleading conditions.

Immutable Audit Module

The Immutable Audit Module preserves a tamper-evident record of workflow activity.

Features include:

Immutable workflow records
Tamper-evident audit logs
Objective snapshots
Scope snapshots
Jurisdiction snapshots
Authority snapshots
Source snapshots
Evidence snapshots
Approval records
Decision records
Execution history
Change history
Integrity verification
Audit exports
Workflow reconstruction
Reproducibility support

Workflow Signature Module

The Workflow Signature Module creates verifiable identities for approved workflow states.

Features include:

Objective signatures
Scope signatures
Jurisdiction signatures
Source-set signatures
Workflow signatures
Approval signatures
Evidence-set signatures
Signature validation
Change detection
Unauthorized modification detection
Signature invalidation after unauthorized changes

Explainability Module

The Explainability Module makes workflow decisions understandable and traceable.

Features include:

Objective explanations
Scope explanations
Source explanations
Evidence explanations
Authority explanations
Jurisdiction explanations
Decision explanations
Confidence explanations
Conflict explanations
Workflow explanations
Audit explanations

Risk Classification Module

The Risk Classification Module determines the level of oversight required for a workflow.

Features include:

Workflow risk classification
Domain risk classification
Action risk classification
Source risk classification
Jurisdiction risk classification
Evidence risk classification
Low-risk workflows
Medium-risk workflows
High-risk workflows
Risk-based approval requirements
Risk-based verification requirements
Risk-based audit requirements

Deliberate Slow Mode Module

High-risk workflows may intentionally prioritize verification over execution speed.

Features include:

Additional verification passes
Additional source checks
Additional authority checks
Additional contradiction analysis
Additional human approvals
Increased audit requirements
Execution throttling
Mandatory completion verification

Completion Verification Module

The Completion Verification Module determines whether the original objective has actually been achieved.

Features include:

Objective completion testing
Success-criteria verification
Deliverable verification
Evidence sufficiency verification
Scope compliance verification
Jurisdiction verification
Approval completion verification
Outstanding-task detection
False-completion prevention
Completion audit records

Policy-as-Code Module

The Policy-as-Code Module allows organizations and jurisdictions to express governance requirements as machine-readable policies.

Features include:

Source policies
Scope policies
Jurisdiction policies
Authority policies
Approval policies
Risk policies
Tool policies
Execution policies
Organization-specific governance rules
Policy versioning
Policy validation

Authority Profiles Module

The Authority Profiles Module defines authority preferences for different operating environments.

Profiles may include:

Legal
Corporate
Government
Academic
Scientific
Regulatory
Organization-specific

Features include:

Source priorities
Authority priorities
Approval requirements
Risk configuration
Verification requirements
Profile versioning

Constitutional Governance Module

The Constitutional Governance Module establishes rules that core workflows cannot bypass.

Core principles include:

Human authority is primary.
Jurisdiction must be identified.
Scope expansion requires approval.
Sources must be traceable.
Evidence is required for material claims.
Authority conflicts must be disclosed.
Audit records must be preserved.
Objective drift must be monitored.
Reliability takes precedence over speed where risk requires it.

Reporting Module

The Reporting Module provides structured visibility into workflow performance and governance.

Features include:

Reliability reports
Audit reports
Evidence reports
Source reports
Authority reports
Jurisdiction reports
Scope reports
Drift reports
Conflict reports
Risk reports
Completion reports
Human approval reports

Reproducibility Module

The Reproducibility Module enables reconstruction of completed workflows.

Features include:

Workflow replay
Decision replay
Evidence replay
Source-set reconstruction
Scope reconstruction
Jurisdiction reconstruction
Approval reconstruction
Workflow version tracking
Reproducibility validation

Optional Plugin Modules

AuthorityCore supports optional plugins that extend the core framework without weakening its governance requirements.

Plugins must operate within the AuthorityCore principles of:

Human authority
Objective alignment
Scope control
Jurisdiction awareness
Evidence traceability
Source validation
Auditability
Controlled autonomy

Plugins must not bypass immutable records, silently expand scope, override jurisdiction rules, or remove required human approval.

Legal Reliability Plugin

Provides specialized legal workflows for:

Legal research
Statutory analysis
Regulatory analysis
Case-law analysis
Legal citation verification
Authority hierarchy
Jurisdiction-specific legal reasoning
Legal source decay monitoring
Legal conflict resolution

U.S. Federal Law Plugin

Provides the default United States federal legal framework.

U.S. State Law Plugins

Provides individually maintainable state legal modules.

Each state module may define:

Statutes
Regulations
Courts
Agencies
State authority hierarchy
State citation standards
State source requirements

International Jurisdiction Plugins

Allows other countries and regions to adapt AuthorityCore to their own legal systems.

Plugins may support:

Countries
Provinces
States
Territories
Regional authorities
Municipal authorities

Each jurisdiction remains responsible for defining its applicable authority hierarchy and source requirements.

Local Government Plugin

Provides localized support for:

Counties
Municipalities
Townships
Boroughs
Villages
Special districts
Local authorities

Medical Reliability Plugin

Provides controlled workflows for medical research and information management.

Potential features include:

Medical evidence hierarchy
Clinical guideline sources
Research source validation
Evidence freshness monitoring
Human review requirements
Contradiction analysis

Tax Reliability Plugin

Provides jurisdiction-aware tax research workflows.

Potential features include:

Federal tax rules
State tax rules
Local tax rules
Tax authority hierarchy
Source verification
Effective-date tracking
Human review requirements

Regulatory Compliance Plugin

Provides structured compliance workflows.

Potential features include:

Regulation identification
Regulatory source validation
Compliance requirement mapping
Evidence collection
Regulatory change monitoring
Compliance audit records

Corporate Governance Plugin

Provides governance workflows for organizations.

Potential features include:

Corporate policy hierarchies
Board authority
Internal controls
Approval workflows
Policy conflicts
Compliance records
Governance auditing

Scientific Research Plugin

Provides evidence-focused research workflows.

Potential features include:

Research source validation
Publication provenance
Evidence hierarchy
Conflicting-study detection
Reproducibility tracking
Research audit records

Engineering Reliability Plugin

Provides controlled engineering workflows.

Potential features include:

Engineering standards
Specification validation
Design constraints
Evidence requirements
Safety review checkpoints
Human approval requirements

Building Code Plugin

Provides jurisdiction-aware building and construction workflows.

Potential features include:

Building code retrieval
Local amendment detection
Code hierarchy
Jurisdiction validation
Permit-related research
Source decay monitoring

Environmental Compliance Plugin

Provides environmental regulatory workflows.

Potential features include:

Federal environmental rules
State environmental rules
Local requirements
Regulatory authority hierarchy
Permit requirements
Source monitoring
Compliance auditing

Government Operations Plugin

Provides structured workflows for public-sector operations.

Potential features include:

Government authority hierarchies
Public policies
Regulations
Administrative procedures
Local government rules
Approval requirements
Immutable audit records

Specification Branding License (SBL)

Standard

Fully AGPL-3.0+ compliant system
Copyleft enforced for network deployments
Required attribution:
- Roxanne Ardary
- https://www.roxanneardary.com/

Optional

Specification Branding License (SBL)
- Attribution-free commercial deployment
- Pricing based on scale, usage, and deployment scope
- https://roxanneardary.com/authoritycore/

License & Notice Requirements

AuthorityCore is released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0+).

By contributing to this project, you agree that your contributions will also be released under this license.

Please note the following:

All contributions must comply with the AGPL-3.0+ terms.
Under Section 7 of the license, all redistributions, forks, and derivative works must preserve attribution to:
Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com.
AuthorityCore specifications are free to use with attribution. A Specification Branding License can be negotiated upon request.
The project’s notice.md file tracks attribution requirements and contributor acknowledgments. Any update that adds new contributors or modifies attribution should also update notice.md.
When submitting a pull request, ensure that any new files maintain the attribution headers where applicable.
Network-deployed versions of this software must also remain fully AGPL-3.0+ compliant, including exposure of source code modifications when applicable under the license.

For full legal details, please refer to the AGPL-3.0+ license and the project’s notice.md file.

Notice – AuthorityCore

Attribution Requirement: Under Section 7 of the AGPL 3.0+ license, all redistributions, forks, and derivative works, including network-deployed versions of this project, must provide attribution to Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com.

Contributors

This file tracks contributors and their specific contributions to the project.

Roxanne Ardary, roxanneardary.com – June 1, 2026
Created the repository for AuthorityCore. Designed the focus-oriented AI governance and reliability platform, including objective contracts, scope compression, jurisdiction-aware reasoning, evidence-constrained retrieval, human oversight, immutable auditability, and modular authority frameworks.
[Add other contributors here] – [Date]
[Describe contribution in one sentence]

License – AuthorityCore

This repository is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0+).

Key Points

You are free to use, modify, and distribute the code.
All redistributions, forks, and derivative works or network-deployed versions must also be licensed under AGPL-3.0+ and provide attribution to Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com as required under Section 7 of the license.
The software is provided “as is,” without warranty of any kind.

For the full license text, see GNU AGPL-3.0 License: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html