Reference

Agent Service Contract (asc:)

Formal contracts for governed AI agents in a Knowledge Space. Combines ODRL (policies), SHACL (I/O validation), PROV-O (provenance), and DCAT (discovery) into a single governance model. 29 classes, 97 properties, 32 SHACL validation shapes. Contrats formels pour agents IA gouvernés dans un Knowledge Space. Combine ODRL (politiques), SHACL (validation I/O), PROV-O (provenance) et DCAT (découverte) en un modèle de gouvernance unique. 29 classes, 97 propriétés, 32 shapes SHACL de validation.

Theoretical anchorsAncrages théoriques

ASC operationalises two prior frameworks. Koestler's holon (The Ghost in the Machine, 1967) — a unit that is simultaneously a whole and a part, Janus-faced toward its sub-parts and toward the whole it belongs to — is the direct source of asc:Holon and the recursive composition asc:Holarchy. Friston's Markov blanket (free-energy principle, 2010–2013) — the statistical boundary that separates a system's internal states from its environment via sensory and active states — is the direct source of asc:HolonicMembrane, which materialises principle P5 (Governance as Membrane): an agent's asc:Mandate is a HolonicMembrane, so the governance boundary is the epistemic boundary. Koestler gives the part/whole dimension, Friston gives the inside/outside dimension; ASC binds them in a single OWL class hierarchy. ASC opérationnalise deux cadres antérieurs. Le holon de Koestler (The Ghost in the Machine, 1967) — une unité à la fois tout et partie, à double face vers ses sous-parties et vers le tout qui la contient — est la source directe de asc:Holon et de la composition récursive asc:Holarchy. Le Markov blanket de Friston (principe de l'énergie libre, 2010–2013) — la frontière statistique qui sépare les états internes d'un système de son environnement via des états sensoriels et actifs — est la source directe de asc:HolonicMembrane, qui matérialise le principe P5 (Gouvernance comme Membrane) : le asc:Mandate d'un agent est une HolonicMembrane, de sorte que la frontière de gouvernance est la frontière épistémique. Koestler apporte la dimension partie/tout, Friston la dimension intérieur/extérieur ; ASC les articule dans une seule hiérarchie de classes OWL.

Namespace: https://schema.bra0.org/agent-service-contract#
Prefix: asc:
Version: 0.4.0
Status: DraftBrouillon
Compliance: W3C OWL 2
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
Created: 2026-03-25
ADR: SPARQL-First, Agent Contracts, SHACL
Source: ontologies/governance/agent-service-contract.ttl
Shapes: agent-service-contract.shapes.ttl (32 shapes)
Principles: P5 (Membrane), P7 (Traceability), P9 (Delegation)

W3C standards composed Standards W3C composés

ASC does not reinvent governance primitives. It composes 4 W3C standards, each responsible for one governance function: ASC ne réinvente pas les primitives de gouvernance. Il compose 4 standards W3C, chacun responsable d'une fonction de gouvernance :

ODRL 2.2

Policies & consentPolitiques & consentement

SHACL

I/O validationValidation E/S

PROV-O

Provenance & auditProvenance & audit

DCAT 3

Discovery & catalogDécouverte & catalogue

Class hierarchy Hiérarchie des classes

Class	SubClassOf	Layer	Description
asc:Holon	bfo:Entity	Holonic	Self-governing epistemic unit, simultaneously whole and part (Koestler 1967)
asc:HolonicMembrane	bfo:GDC	Holonic	Governance boundary of a holon (Friston's Markov Blanket = P5 Membrane)
asc:Portal	Holon	Holonic	Boundary-holon connecting two holons. A portal IS a holon.
asc:Holarchy	—	Holonic	A recursive composition of holons
asc:HolonicAspect	—	Holonic	4 aspects: Scene (data), Domain (semantic), Context (provenance), Holonic (composition)

asc:AgentService	prov:SoftwareAgent, dcat:DataService, Holon	Agent	A governed agent with mandate, capabilities, and interaction log
asc:Skill	AgentService	Agent	Lightweight agent (single capability, no sub-agents)
asc:Plugin	AgentService	Agent	Extensible agent (hooks, tool policies, sub-agent policies)
asc:Capability	—	Agent	What an agent can do (linked to ODRL permissions)

asc:Mandate	HolonicMembrane	Governance	The governance boundary of an agent. Defines duties, permissions, prohibitions (ODRL).
asc:ServiceLevelAgreement	odrl:Policy	Governance	Measurable contract terms (latency, accuracy, availability)
asc:OntologyScope	—	Governance	Which ontologies an agent may read/write
asc:BreakingChangeType	—	Governance	Classification of contract-breaking changes

asc:ToolPolicy	—	Runtime	Governs which tools an agent may invoke
asc:SubagentPolicy	—	Runtime	Governs sub-agent spawning (max depth, allowed types)
asc:PluginHook	—	Runtime	Lifecycle hooks for plugins (beforeAction, afterAction)
asc:ExecApproval	—	Runtime	Human-in-the-loop approval gate for critical actions
asc:GatingRequirements	—	Runtime	Prerequisites before agent activation
asc:BootstrapIdentity	—	Runtime	Initial identity configuration for new agents

asc:Story	prov:Activity	Traceability	A unit of work with provenance (extends PROV-O Activity)
asc:AntiPattern	prov:Entity	Traceability	A documented anti-pattern to detect and prevent
asc:ComputeTier	—	Traceability	T0-T5 compute triage classification

Design decisions Décisions de conception

Mandate = Membrane (P5). The agent's mandate is not a configuration file — it IS the agent's governance boundary (HolonicMembrane). It defines what the agent can perceive, decide, and delegate. Removing the mandate removes the agent's ability to act. This is P5 (Governance as Membrane) and P9 (Delegation, Not Expertise) made concrete in OWL. Le mandat de l'agent n'est pas un fichier de configuration — il EST la frontière de gouvernance de l'agent (HolonicMembrane). Il définit ce que l'agent peut percevoir, décider et déléguer. Retirer le mandat retire la capacité d'agir de l'agent. C'est P5 (Gouvernance comme Membrane) et P9 (Délégation, pas Expertise) concrétisés en OWL.

AgentService subClassOf prov:SoftwareAgent AND dcat:DataService AND asc:Holon. Triple inheritance ensures every agent is simultaneously traceable (PROV-O), discoverable (DCAT), and self-governing (Holon). No separate registration — the agent's ontological definition IS its registration. L'héritage triple garantit que chaque agent est simultanément traçable (PROV-O), découvrable (DCAT) et auto-gouverné (Holon). Pas d'enregistrement séparé — la définition ontologique de l'agent EST son enregistrement.

No agent may modify its own mandate (P9, ODRL prohibition). The ODRL action asc:ModifyOwnContract is explicitly prohibited in governance base policies. An agent cannot escalate its own autonomy (asc:EscalateAutonomy). Only the human controller (Sacha) can modify mandates. This is a formal encoding of P9. L'action ODRL asc:ModifyOwnContract est explicitement interdite dans les politiques de gouvernance de base. Un agent ne peut pas escalader sa propre autonomie (asc:EscalateAutonomy). Seul le contrôleur humain (Sacha) peut modifier les mandats. C'est un encodage formel de P9.

SPARQL examples Exemples SPARQL

List all agents, their type, and autonomy level Lister tous les agents, leur type et niveau d'autonomie

PREFIX asc: <https://schema.bra0.org/agent-service-contract#>
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>

SELECT ?agent ?label ?type ?autonomy
WHERE {
    ?agent a asc:AgentService ;
           rdfs:label ?label ;
           asc:agentType ?type ;
           asc:autonomyLevel ?autonomy .
}
ORDER BY ?autonomy

Which duties does a mandate impose on an agent? Quels devoirs un mandat impose-t-il à un agent ?

PREFIX asc: <https://schema.bra0.org/agent-service-contract#>
PREFIX odrl: <http://www.w3.org/ns/odrl/2/>
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>

SELECT ?agent ?agentLabel ?duty ?action
WHERE {
    ?agent asc:governedBy ?mandate .
    ?agent rdfs:label ?agentLabel .
    ?mandate odrl:obligation ?duty .
    ?duty odrl:action ?action .
}

Agent Service Contract (asc:)

W3C standards composed Standards W3C composés

Class hierarchy Hiérarchie des classes

Design decisions Décisions de conception

SPARQL examples Exemples SPARQL

See also Voir aussi