Platform
An independent control plane at the action boundary.
CipherQuay is a human-managed console plus an API-first control plane. Humans define authority, policy, approvals and oversight. AI agents and enterprise systems interact through APIs, gateways, connectors, SDKs and enforcement integrations.
Private enterprise preview — capability is being introduced in stages
Architecture
Four functions, one operating record.
Discovery informs delegation. Delegation constrains enforcement. Enforcement produces evidence. Evidence corrects delegation.
Module 01
CipherQuay Radar
Discovery and machine-authority mapping
Radar builds and maintains the picture of what is operating in your estate: agents, models, frameworks, skills, tools, MCP servers, service accounts, credentials, data pathways, accountable owners and the consequential capabilities each machine holds. It distinguishes documented authority from inherited or undeclared reach, and highlights machines with no accountable sponsor.
- Inventory of agents, tools, skills and MCP servers
- Credential and identity reachability
- Owner and sponsor attribution
- Consequential capability classification
- Change detection across the authority surface
| Machine | Accountable sponsor | Reachable systems | Authority state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build fleet agent | Platform Engineering | Repositories, CI | Mandated |
| Release pilot | Engineering | CI/CD, staging, production | Overbroad |
| Cloud housekeeper | Unassigned | Cloud, IAM | No sponsor |
| Support responder | Customer Operations | CRM, email | Under review |
| Procurement assistant | Finance | Supplier records | Mandated |
| MCP tool server | Undocumented | Files, shell, network | Unmapped |
Illustrative — not live data
Module 02
CipherQuay Mandates
Purpose-bound delegation and policy
A mandate is a written, versioned statement of delegated authority. It names the sponsor and the permitted purpose, lists the resources and actions in scope, sets limits and approval requirements, defines expiry, states the evidence required, and specifies the conditions under which authority is revoked. Anything not granted is not authorised.
- Sponsor, purpose and scope
- Explicit exclusions and limits
- Approval and quorum requirements
- Time bounds, expiry and renewal
- Revocation conditions and evidence expectations
- mandate.id
- mnd_4f1c · v3
- machine
- agent://build-fleet/refactor-01
- sponsor
- Head of Platform Engineering
- purpose
- Remediate dependency advisories in service repositories
- resources
- repo:payments-api, repo:ledger-lib
- actions
- read, branch, propose-change
- excluded
- merge, deploy:production, iam:*, secrets:rotate
- limits
- ≤ 25 changed files per proposal, no schema changes
- approvals
- human review by repository owner
- credential
- short-lived, purpose-scoped, non-retained
- expiry
- 14 days from issue
- revocation
- on sponsor withdrawal, policy change, or anomaly
- evidence
- full request, decision and diff record required
Illustrative — not live data
Module 03
CipherQuay Gate
Runtime action control and approval
Gate evaluates a proposed consequential action at the action boundary and returns an enforceable decision. Evaluation considers the machine's identity, its sponsor, the applicable mandate and policy, the target environment, and the present operating conditions. Approvals are routed to accountable humans rather than to the requesting machine.
- Decision at the action boundary, not after the fact
- Independent approval routing
- Environment separation and change windows
- Interruption, containment and revocation paths
- Machine
- agent://release-pilot-02
- Sponsor
- Director of Engineering
- Mandate
- mnd_9a20 · staging release
- Present conditions
- outside declared change window
Production deployment is outside the mandate. The action is narrowed to a staging release; a production release requires an independently controlled approval from a sponsor who is not the requesting machine.
Illustrative — not live data
Module 04
CipherQuay Black Box
Evidence, incident reconstruction and audit support
Black Box retains a defensible operating record: what was requested, which machine acted, who sponsored it, which mandate and policy applied, what decision was returned, what approvals were obtained, what changed, whether the action stayed within authority, and whether containment or reversal succeeded.
- Chronological reconstruction of an incident
- Authority attribution for each action
- Approval and decision provenance
- Export for internal audit and regulatory enquiry
- record
- evd_77b1 · sealed
- requested
- production deployment of payments-api
- machine
- agent://release-pilot-02
- sponsor
- Director of Engineering
- mandate applied
- mnd_9a20 · v2
- policy applied
- change-window, environment-separation
- decision
- narrowed to staging; production approval required
- approvals
- 1 of 2 obtained; production approval not granted
- state change
- staging revision 41 → 42
- within authority
- yes
- containment
- not required
- retained for
- audit, incident reconstruction, regulator enquiry
Illustrative — not live data
Decisions
Enforcement is more than permit or deny.
A useful control plane can reduce an action rather than refuse it outright, so that legitimate work continues under a tighter boundary.
The action is within an active mandate and present conditions are satisfied.
The action falls outside any granted authority.
A reduced form of the action is permitted; the consequential part is withheld.
An accountable person must approve before the action proceeds.
Two or more independent approvers are required.
Additional assurance about context, target or intent is required first.
The action may be modelled or dry-run without effect.
A short-lived, purpose-scoped credential is issued and not retained.
The action is held for a defined interval or window.
Authority is withdrawn and the machine's active grants are terminated.
Integration
Placed where consequence occurs.
CipherQuay is model-agnostic and designed to be introduced incrementally: observe first, mandate next, enforce where consequence is highest, and evidence throughout.
- Control-plane API
- Agent and service SDKs
- Gateway and proxy enforcement
- Connectors and webhooks
- Identity providers
- Repositories and CI/CD
- Cloud and IAM
- Databases and data platforms
- Finance and procurement
- Communications and CRM
- Ticketing and change management
- Security operations
Illustrative — not live data
Integration surfaces described here are planned or illustrative. CipherQuay is in private enterprise preview; no integration or enforcement capability should be assumed to be generally available. Availability is confirmed in writing during preview engagement.
Next step
Understand the authority your machines already hold.
The Machine Authority Exposure Assessment is a read-only engagement that establishes what your agents can do today, who sponsors them, and what evidence exists if something goes wrong.