Docs/Operations
Source guide3 min read

Observe a call without confusing it with approval

Use traces and outcomes to diagnose execution, and keep durable evidence requirements explicit.

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01 / Guide section

Carry context through the call

A useful operation trace lets you connect a request, its selected contract version, the handler outcome and the interface that invoked it. The registry's canonical result can carry trace and source context supplied by the host.

Read the supporting context

Use those identifiers to follow a failure across layers. Keep diagnostic details bounded and avoid collecting raw inputs merely because they are available to the handler.

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1 / 4

Carry context through the call

A useful operation trace lets you connect a request, its selected contract version, the handler outcome and the interface that invoked it. The registry's canonical result can carry trace and source context supplied by the host.

Use those identifiers to follow a failure across layers. Keep diagnostic details bounded and avoid collecting raw inputs merely because they are available to the handler.

Understand the telemetry path

The inspected invocation path can emit configured success and failure telemetry through a host-supplied telemetry context. It checks the operation's data-handling configuration and can redact declared transient fields before computing telemetry properties.

Telemetry errors are handled as best effort so they do not automatically fail the business handler. That is useful for operations monitoring, but it means a telemetry event is not automatically a durable record of every effect.

At this snapshot, success telemetry is emitted after the handler returns but before output validation. Use the final canonical operation result when counting completed successes; a handler event alone does not establish that the returned value passed the contract boundary.

EvidenceUseful forDo not treat it as
Trace/source identifierFollowing one invocationAn authorization grant
Telemetry eventBehavior and failure monitoringGuaranteed durable audit persistence
Approval receiptEvidence checked at an execution boundaryA general-purpose reusable permission
Durable host recordAccountability and recovery according to host designSomething created merely by declaring an audit intent
Read the signal at the stage it describes.Trace the mechanism · 3 ways to look closer

A trace can help explain a request, but timing and durability determine what it establishes.

Which signal are you looking at?
A CONCRETE SITUATION

The boundary stopped the operation before the effect.

The result reports a meaningful failure before handler entry.

01 / Identify

Carry operation key, version and trace context.

What changes

The operation identity and failure category show where to investigate.

What stays explicit

A precondition denial is different from a business failure after execution began.

FOLLOW THE CONSEQUENCE

Fix the applicable input or trusted context, or follow the authorized approval path. Preserve that distinction in the explanation.

Where this explanation comes from

An authored situation, grounded in the linked source guides. Choosing a case explores its expected responsibilities; it does not execute an operation.

Make denials visible

Record the meaningful failure category and operation identity for denied requests. For an approval demo, show the missing-receipt reason alongside the handler invocation count. That makes the boundary understandable without inventing a successful effect.

When a request is denied before handler entry, distinguish it from a business failure after execution began. The recovery action is different: fix context or satisfy an authorized approval path in the first case, investigate the implementation or provider in the second.

Review the operational path you depend on

If the product requires durable audit or cost evidence, choose and test the host persistence path explicitly. Include a failure or retry case and verify how the record relates to the business mutation.

Use the smallest evidence needed to support the claim. A source declaration, a fixture trace and a live environment qualification each answer different questions; label them accordingly in examples and runbooks.

See it in an example.

Agents / Advanced

Review an agent's migration proposal

Control side effects

Follow a deterministic release migration through scoped subagents, digest-bound approval, and a draft PR receipt.

  1. Compile the application
  2. Inspect the migration scope
  3. Bind approval and apply once

Source demonstratesThe inspected source asserts separate subagent authority and digest-bound approval.

Does not demonstrateA real patch applied to a user's repository or an actual GitHub PR.

Inspect the walkthroughBehavior · proof and limits · source checks

Follow the source behavior

A fixture release removes billing.invoices.createLegacy and identifies two affected consumer files. The reference separates impact analysis, migration, and independent verification, then produces governed patch and draft-PR evidence without contacting GitHub.

  1. Compile the application

    The source compiles the release-steward filesystem application and inspects required approvals for patching, draft PR creation, and selected delegation tools.

  2. Inspect the migration scope

    The fixture calculates an immutable source digest and identifies the affected billing files. Subagent evidence records permitted tools and denied effects, including auto-merge.

  3. Bind approval and apply once

    Tests assert that approval is bound to migration digests, changed material invalidates it, and the patch invocation occurs once even when replayed.

  4. Read the remaining qualification

    The fixture's PR URL is under github.example.test, its PR is a draft, and autoMerge is false. Adapter and deployment composition results explicitly remain candidate with unresolved live requirements.

What this example establishes
Source demonstrates
  • The inspected source asserts separate subagent authority and digest-bound approval.
  • Tests assert one application invocation, replay evidence, a draft result, and no auto-merge.
  • Candidate readiness retains unresolved requirements for exact live environments.
Does not demonstrate
  • A real patch applied to a user's repository or an actual GitHub PR.
  • Successful CI in a production repository; this fixture reports deterministic CI evidence.
  • Production isolation or deployment qualification merely because a topology composes.
Reproduce the source checks

The source fixture returns deterministic migration, approval, replay, draft-PR, adapter, and candidate-readiness evidence.

Working directory examples/agent-application-foundation

bun run example:release-steward
bun test src/release-steward/release-steward.test.ts

Commands and tests inspected; not executed here.

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Concepts

What the runtime checks

3 min read

Follow a call from transport context to handler execution, then understand the limits of each guard.

Look inside the guideOpening context · complete reading path

Follow the execution boundary

A registered call resolves an operation and its bound handler, prepares the input and execution context, invokes the handler, and validates the returned value. The exact checks depend on the contract and the ports supplied by the host.

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Concepts

Authentication, policy and scoped approval

3 min read

Give each decision a clear owner and prove that denied requests never reach the protected handler.

Look inside the guideOpening context · complete reading path

Separate the decisions

Authentication establishes who is calling. Policy decides whether that subject may perform a particular operation in context. Scoped approval supplies evidence that a specific request or class of effects has been reviewed. A ceremony requirement can require additional, fresh verification at execution time.

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Operations

Test the promise at the boundary

3 min read

Choose checks that establish meaningful behavior, including denied effects and real consumer imports.

Look inside the guideOpening context · complete reading path

Give each test one question

An operation has several boundaries, and one green check cannot answer every question about them. Separate declaration validity, business behavior, adapter behavior and external consumption so failures tell you where to look.

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