AI agent governance
Govern AI agents before their authority outruns your controls
AI agents act on your systems with credentials, tool access, and delegated authority, often faster than anyone reviews what they were allowed to do.
Sentient defines the identity, ownership, permissions, controls, and oversight around AI agents.
01
- Owner
- Authority
- Access
- Expiry
What AI agent governance is
Every agent needs an owner, a mandate, and a record.
AI agent governance defines who owns each agent, what authority it has been granted, what it can access, and what requires human approval.
It covers the agent's working life: inventory, identity, permissions, runtime controls, escalation, revocation, change, and evidence of what the agent did.
Those controls are built into the tools and workflows teams already use to build and run agents, so approvals, evidence, and review are generated as the agents work, not added as separate tasks.
Questions every agent should answer
- Who owns this agent?
- What authority has it been granted?
- What can it access?
- What requires human approval?
- When does that authority expire?
- What happens when ownership changes?
Agent identity and ownership
02
- Inventory
- Identity
- Owner
Identity and ownership
Know every agent, and who answers for it.
Governance starts with a list that stays current and a person accountable for each entry.
01
Agent inventory
A current record of every agent in use: what it does, which systems and vendors it depends on, who owns it, and how it changes.
Systems and dependencies
02
Identity
Each agent acts under its own identity, so its access, actions, and records can be attributed to it instead of a shared account.
Agent identity governance
03
Accountable human ownership
A named person answers for each agent's purpose, authority, and review, and ownership is reassigned when that person changes roles.
Ownership and sponsorship
Sentient defines what ownership and identity must cover. Your identity and access systems issue and manage the identities.
03
- Permissions
- Delegation
- Access
- Approval
Permissions and delegated authority
Define what each agent may do, and what it may not.
Authority given to an agent should be specific, bounded, and visible to the people accountable for it.
01
Permissions
Task-specific permissions sized to what the agent needs, reviewed when its purpose or scope changes.
Least privilege
02
Delegated authority
Which decisions the agent may make on someone's behalf, within which limits, and when that authority expires.
Authority boundaries
03
Tools and data access
Which tools, systems, data, credentials, and actions the agent can reach, and which require a separate grant.
Agent authorization
04
Human approval thresholds
The points at which an action needs a named person to approve it, and whether that review can actually stop the outcome.
Human review
04
- Enforce
- Escalate
- Revoke
Runtime controls, escalation, and shutoff
Controls that hold while the agent is running.
Sentient defines the governance architecture around runtime enforcement: which controls are required, and which runtime mechanisms should enforce them. Where appropriate, that architecture aligns with the execution-time conditions defined in the Deployment AI Governance Standard (DAGS).
Sentient is not the enforcement platform, and it is not an identity or access management vendor. Your runtime mechanisms enforce the controls Sentient helps you define.
01
Runtime controls
Runtime enforcement
Which limits, restrictions, and blocks must apply while the agent acts, and which mechanism in your environment enforces each one.
02
Escalation
Escalation paths
When the agent must stop and hand a decision to a person, who receives it, and how the handoff is recorded.
03
Revocation and shutoff
Fail-closed governance
Who can suspend or revoke an agent's authority, how quickly that takes effect, and how the agent stops when a required control is unavailable.
05
- Change
- Approval
- Records
Change management and evidence
When the agent changes, the record changes with it.
AI change management for agents covers new models, prompts, tools, data, vendors, permissions, and owners.
What is usually stated
What the record shows
What is usually stated
The agent was updated.
What the record shows
Change traceability: which model, prompt, tool, or permission changed, who approved it, and what was reviewed again.
What is usually stated
The agent has an owner.
What the record shows
Ownership changes recorded, with authority confirmed again or revoked when the owner moves on.
What is usually stated
The agent acted.
What the record shows
An action record: what the agent did, under which identity and authority, with which systems and versions.
What is usually stated
A human approved it.
What the record shows
An approval record naming the reviewer, the threshold that triggered review, and the decision.
What is usually stated
Access is reviewed.
What the record shows
Agent permission reviews on a set cadence, with the outcome of each review preserved.
06
- MCP
- Delegation
- Security
MCP, delegation, and security
Connections that extend an agent's reach.
Security for AI is not just model safety. It is protecting the environment around the system: access, authority, evidence, misuse paths, escalation, and the controls that keep consequential activity inside defensible boundaries.
01
MCP considerations
Model Context Protocol connections give agents new tools and data. MCP governance sits beneath agent governance: each connection belongs in the inventory, with an owner, a defined scope, and a review when it changes.
MCP governance
02
Agent-to-agent delegation
When one agent hands work to another, authority should not grow along the chain. Each handoff needs a defined scope, a traceable record, and an accountable owner.
Delegated authority
03
Related security controls
Sentient helps companies identify where AI creates new security exposure across tools, vendors, data flows, credentials, prompts, outputs, and automated actions.
AI security governance
When those controls are tested by an actual incident, the same structure is what makes the response fast rather than improvised.
07
- Owner
- Permissions
- Approval
- Shutoff
Questions, answered
AI agent governance, answered.
What is AI agent governance?
AI agent governance defines who owns each agent, what authority it has been granted, what it can access, and what requires human approval. It covers the agent's working life, from inventory and identity through permissions, runtime controls, revocation, change, and records of what the agent did.
How agent governance fits AI governanceWho should own an AI agent?
A named person who answers for the agent's purpose, authority, and review. When that person changes roles, ownership is reassigned and the agent's authority is confirmed again or revoked, so no agent runs without an accountable owner.
What permissions should an AI agent have?
Only what its task requires, granted to its own identity, with defined limits on data, tools, and actions and a date when that authority expires. Permissions are reviewed when the agent's purpose, tools, or owner change.
When should human approval be required?
When an action is consequential or hard to reverse, such as sending to customers, changing records, moving money, or granting access, and whenever it falls outside the agent's approved boundaries. The approval point must sit where a person can still stop the outcome.
How should agent authority be revoked or shut off?
Name who can suspend or revoke the agent, how quickly that takes effect, and which runtime mechanism enforces it. The agent should fail closed when a required control is unavailable. Sentient defines these requirements; your identity and runtime systems enforce them.
08
- Discuss
- Design
- Implement
- Operate
Be ready before they ask
Build the operating structure before the next customer, investor, insurer, partner, or buyer demands proof.
Sentient builds the governance structure companies need to show how AI is owned, controlled, reviewed, evidenced, and operated. Talk to Sentient about what your customers, investors, insurers, partners, or buyers will expect to see.