Governed agent architecture

Separating Policy Memory from Transactional Audit

A governed-agent reference architecture that treats retrieval context and immutable operational truth as different systems.

This is a conceptual reference architecture created to illustrate CorLuca’s approach. It is not presented as a deployed client system.

Published 2026-07-22Updated 2026-07-22

01 · Context

Operating environment

Agentic workflows may need evolving policy context to guide behavior and a permanent record of what the system actually saw, proposed, approved, and executed.

02 · Business problem

The condition that required change

Using one memory mechanism for both purposes creates ambiguity: retrieved context may change, while audit evidence must remain stable.

  • Policy versions change over time
  • Retrieval results are probabilistic
  • Audit evidence must be immutable
  • Human approvals require historical context

03 · Architecture decisions

Why the system takes this shape

Separate guidance from truth

Policy retrieval can evolve without rewriting the historical record of a transaction.

Snapshot consequential context

The policy version, evidence, model output, and approval state are preserved with each transaction.

Design replay as a first-class capability

A reviewer can reconstruct why a decision occurred using the state available at that time.

04 · System design

Architecture and delivery

A versioned policy corpus supports retrieval and guidance. A separate transactional ledger records inputs, retrieved references, generated proposals, human decisions, executed actions, and correlation identifiers.

The model is intentionally implementation-neutral. A production design would select storage, retention, access control, encryption, and replay boundaries from regulatory and operational requirements.

05 · Outcomes

Measured or intended results

Intended / lesson

Policy can improve without mutating historical transaction evidence.

Intended / lesson

Investigators can reconstruct the complete decision chain.

06 · Lessons

What transfers to other systems

  1. Memory is not a single architectural concern.
  2. Store the context needed to explain decisions at the moment they occur.
  3. Audit design should precede autonomous or semi-autonomous execution.

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