connection Agent Accountability

Per-call receipts

Record the tool, arguments as appropriate, timestamp, observed result, status, canonical integrity material, and verifier.

Session audit trail

Order related calls and preserve proposed, executed, failed, blocked, pending, and confirmed states.

Conformance evidence

Compare the call with the current tool contract and keep unavailable provider or missing-input states explicit.

connection audit trail versus receipts

An audit trail explains sequence and context. A receipt gives one selected call a portable, execution-scoped handoff.

Frequently asked questions

Who authored the AER-1 draft?

connection agent accountability

connection agent accountability means making tool calls reviewable at both the call and session levels. A receipt identifies one execution, an audit trail orders the session, and conformance evidence records the contract a tool was expected to follow.

What can a verifiable receipt prove?

It can show what the execution layer recorded and what its integrity checks verify. It cannot prove an unobserved outside outcome.

How can another reviewer check the record?

Open the public receipt, compare the tool, time, result, and status, then call the verifier. Keep outside confirmations separate from the execution record.

What this question can establish

The practical question behind connection Agent Accountability is whether the record supports the claim being reviewed. A team needs a reviewable chain from an connection request through tool selection, arguments, result, and any later action. Separate the request, the execution, the system's observed output, and confirmation from any outside system. These are different evidence boundaries, and a reviewer should not treat them as interchangeable.

Use call-level receipts for portable review and a separate session timeline for sequence. Neither should upgrade a reported action into an observed one. A useful conclusion names the evidence that was checked and the conditions that remain unresolved. This keeps an execution record useful without stretching it into a broader assurance claim.

Evidence to retain for this workflow

Start with the smallest set of fields that lets a second reviewer identify the event and repeat the relevant check. For this topic, Record the server and tool names, schema version, caller scope, sanitized arguments, request and completion times, result status, output commitment, and session linkage.

• Task boundary: record the requested state and what would count as acceptance.
• Execution identity: preserve the receipt ID, tool name, caller scope, time, and status.
• Committed result: keep canonical bytes or the published representation needed to recompute the output hash.
• Provenance: distinguish an action the system ran from one it observed or merely received as a report.
• External confirmation: capture a real callback, transaction reference, read-back, or provider record when the task depends on outside state.
• Review context: note who checked the record, which verifier was used, and any limitation that affected the conclusion.

A repeatable review sequence

Use the same order for routine checks and incident review. It prevents a later summary from replacing the evidence the task actually requires.

1. State the requirement. Write the expected outcome and the exact source that can confirm it. A team needs a reviewable chain from an connection request through tool selection, arguments, result, and any later action.
2. Locate the execution. Match the public receipt identifier to the requested event, then confirm the tool, scope, timestamp, and status.
3. Check integrity. Decode the committed bytes as specified by the receipt format, recompute fingerprint, and compare the complete digest rather than a shortened preview.
4. Check the owning system. When the claim involves an outside change, query that system or inspect its genuine callback. A receipt alone cannot supply a missing confirmation.
5. Write a bounded finding. Record what ran, what was observed, whether the bytes matched, and what remains unknown. Use call-level receipts for portable review and a separate session timeline for sequence. Neither should upgrade a reported action into an observed one.

Failure states and misleading success signals

Preserve failed, blocked, pending, retried, and partially completed states as distinct outcomes. A valid tool response does not prove the host displayed it, acted on it, or completed a later step. Keep each boundary explicit. A successful transport response can still contain a tool error, and a valid integrity check can still protect an incorrect or incomplete result.

When evidence conflicts, keep both records and identify which system owns each fact. Do not overwrite an earlier receipt or silently promote a retry into proof that the original step succeeded. Explain whether the conflict is a timing issue, a stale read, a missing callback, a policy boundary, or a different task interpretation.

Privacy, retention, and safe sharing

Reviewability does not require publishing every input. Do not publish credentials, full prompts, private arguments, or unrelated session history. Use scoped references and redaction before making a call record public. Prefer stable references and cryptographic commitments where they are enough for the reviewer, and keep the underlying sensitive record with the system that controls it.

Before sharing, check the public page, result preview, metadata, and linked evidence for secrets or personal information. Set retention and access according to the review purpose. If a record must be corrected, publish a new reference and preserve the original history rather than rewriting a record that another reviewer may already have captured.

Example of a careful conclusion

This kind of note gives the next person a useful handoff: what was checked, what the check means, and where the evidence stops. It is more informative than a bare success label and avoids presenting an unobserved event as a verified fact.

Common review questions

What does the record establish?

It establishes what the execution system recorded and whether the exposed canonical bytes match the output commitment. For connection agent accountability, it does not by itself establish correctness or a result outside that system.

What if a provider or callback is unavailable?

Keep the state pending or unavailable, retain the error and time, and avoid claiming completion. In this workflow, A valid tool response does not prove the host displayed it, acted on it, or completed a later step. Keep each boundary explicit.

What should a reviewer inspect first?

Record the server and tool names, schema version, caller scope, sanitized arguments, request and completion times, result status, output commitment, and session linkage. Then compare the record with the task requirement and ask the system that owns any claimed external state for a separate read-back.

What is safe to share?

Share the public receipt URL, identifier, status, verifier result, and a short sanitized task description. Do not publish credentials, full prompts, private arguments, or unrelated session history. Use scoped references and redaction before making a call record public.

Further reading

• Pair-programming audit trails
• Coding-agent audits
• Task audits
• Transcript verification
• Verifiable tool calls
• Agent integration guidance