Version 1.0
February 2026
Pre-Execution Authority establishes a foundational architectural principle:
No autonomous entity with decision-making capacity should execute actions without an explicitly declared authority framework.
This document defines the structural legitimacy required before execution.
It does not regulate how systems execute.
It defines under what authority they are permitted to execute.
Modern autonomous systems focus primarily on:
However, a structural gap remains:
Autonomy is being engineered without explicit pre-declared authority.
Identity alone does not define limits.
Execution capability does not define legitimacy.
Payment capability does not define authorization.
The absence of declared authority creates architectural ambiguity.
The foundational principle of Pre-Execution Authority is:
Autonomy must be preceded by declared authority.
Execution without declared authority introduces systemic risk, governance ambiguity, and irreversible operational drift.
Authority must be:
Before execution occurs.
Pre-Execution Authority is the declarative authority framework that defines:
It exists prior to runtime execution.
It is not an enforcement mechanism.
It is not a compliance regime.
It is not a runtime protocol.
It is a prerequisite structural declaration.
Pre-Execution Authority may be expressed through six conceptual blocks:
A declared autonomy level, for example:
Autonomy becomes a declared variable, not an implicit assumption.
Pre-Execution Authority applies across scales:
Responsibility scales fractally with autonomy.
As execution scope increases, authority clarity must increase proportionally.
Pre-Execution Authority is architecture-agnostic.
It does not depend on:
It precedes them.
It defines legitimacy before capability.
Agent Manifest provides a declarative instrument for expressing identity, purpose, and boundaries.
Pre-Execution Authority defines the philosophical and structural doctrine that justifies such declarations.
Agent Manifest is an implementation surface.
Pre-Execution Authority is the foundational principle.
Autonomous systems are increasingly capable of acting, transacting, and deciding within complex environments.
If autonomy expands without declared authority, systemic instability becomes inevitable.
Pre-Execution Authority asserts that:
Legitimacy must precede execution.
This is not a constraint on innovation.
It is a condition for sustainable autonomy.
Author
Hernán Alfredo Capucci
Independent Research