PALO FRAMEWORKStale or incomplete context
A relevant restriction is omitted, an approval expires or the resource changes after review.
Control: mandatory dependency closure, explicit exclusions, validity intervals and external version bindings.
AGENTIC GOVERNANCE | ADDITIVE REFERENCE PROFILE 0.1
Every decision has a knowledge base,
a context and a permitted path.
PALO Tri-Graph Governance connects these three foundations to the authority, evidence and accountable roles that already exist in PALO.
Local reference preview | 29 October 2026 | PALO 3.1 remains the canonical foundation
Inspect a decision Read the technical specificationTHE GOVERNANCE NEED
Correct facts can still produce an invalid action.
Authority inferred from text
A plausible answer, a high confidence score or an external instruction is treated as permission.
Control: separate evidence quality from authority. Evaluate curated guards and an exact mandate scope.
Uncertain effects and unsafe retries
A timeout hides a completed write. Retrying can duplicate the effect; compensation may be impossible.
Control: reconciliation before another write, a new mandate for recovery and explicit limits on reversibility.
THE THREE PILLARS
One semantic contract across the decision.
Knowledge Graph
Attributed assertions, policy versions, provenance and typed dependencies.
What the evidence supportsContext Graph
A case snapshot with purpose, scope, selected facts, exclusions and version bindings.
What applies to this decisionProcedural Graph
States and guarded transitions with required evidence and an accountable role.
Which transition may be proposedShared ontology and SKOS taxonomy / versioned dictionary / deterministic checks / decision receipt / reviewed change proposal
The graphs are logical views. A JSON snapshot and a state machine are sufficient for this reference implementation. A graph database is optional. Provenance and dependency queries are the reason to introduce graph structure.
DYNAMIC SEMANTIC EXPLORER
Inspect the meaning and its connections.
Concepts, relationships, definitions and field dictionaries load from the same versioned sources. Selecting a concept reveals its incoming and outgoing relationships and the existing PALO artifact it extends.
Loading the versioned catalogue...
Inspect the generated field dictionary
| Field | Type | Allowed values | Semantic concept |
|---|
OWL ontology | SKOS taxonomy | SHACL constraints | JSON-LD concepts | Full dictionary
THE ENGINE, EXPOSED
Change a condition. Inspect the decision.
All inputs are synthetic. The fixed evaluation time belongs to the fixture, not to a live deployment. This local evaluator never calls a target tool and never grants execution authority.
Curated knowledgeBound contextGuarded transitionCandidate / Hold / Deny
Loading the reference evaluator...
| Rule | Check | Witness |
|---|
Inspect the exact receipt
Synthetic input | Caller-owned observations fixture | Evaluator source
TRANSPARENCY | EXPLAINABILITY | ACCOUNTABILITY
Trace the rule and preserve the right to challenge.
Transparency
Expose the data origin, selected and excluded inputs, release versions and capability boundary.
Explainability
Provide deterministic rule results and replay inputs. A receipt explains the policy evaluation; it does not expose hidden model reasoning or prove the real-world effect.
Accountability
Assign owners to curation, admission, execution and review. Preserve original decisions, record challenges and issue linked corrections.
Correction workflow
Assertion correctedReverse dependenciesContexts to reassessAccountable review
Production alerting, service-level targets, persistence and independent review remain implementation requirements.
EVIDENCE AND LIMITS
Reference properties are testable. Operational superiority is still a hypothesis.
| Layer | Available in this extension | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Semantic model | Versioned registry and generated OWL, SKOS, SHACL, JSON-LD and field dictionary | Does not establish truth, compliance or storage immutability |
| Reference evaluator | Deterministic candidate / hold / deny, dependency closure, time and scope checks, replay checks, local impact query | Caller observations are fixtures; no authentication or production adapter |
| External execution | Documented integration contract with existing PALO Action Claim and Effect Contract | Target-side compare-and-swap, revocation fences and effect observation require qualification |
| Learning and challenge | Explicit change and challenge concepts; local reassessment list | Human workflow, durable evidence retention and operating effectiveness untested |
Validation record | Generated artifact manifest | Review findings and fixes | Source repository
Research foundations
- W3C PROV-O for provenance; SKOS for concepts and labels; SHACL for RDF constraints.
- OPA decision logs and LangGraph persistence provide a competent baseline for comparison.
- The supplied Rakesh Gohel infographic inspired the three-pillar framing. It is conceptual guidance, not a governance standard. PALO adds explicit authority, guarded transitions and effect evidence.