{
 "@context": "https://schema.org",
 "@type": "Claim",
 "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/positions/2026-09-12-002",
 "identifier": "kaal:position:2026-09-12-002",
 "additionalType": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/positions/schema.json#AffirmedPositionClaim",
 "name": "Authority Must Be Structural",
 "text": "Cao leaves constraints to human articulation. Kaal's position is that authority must be structural instead. The agent proposes, a separate component that alone holds the credentials decides, and irreversible actions go to a named person. Reputation may inform discovery, routing, pricing, and allocation, but it may never grant permission, enlarge authority, or substitute for an enforcement boundary.",
 "author": {
  "@type": "Person",
  "name": "Wulf A. Kaal",
  "identifier": "https://orcid.org/0009-0008-7840-1847"
 },
 "datePublished": "2026-09-12",
 "dateModified": "2026-09-12",
 "creativeWorkStatus": "Affirmed",
 "responseType": "extension",
 "keywords": [
  "reputation",
  "consensus-and-security",
  "governance-design"
 ],
 "scope_conditions": [
  "Cao's paper is a position paper citing benchmark evidence, not an empirical test of these claims.",
  "The position is Kaal's own argument in the essay Prompts Don't Govern Agents. Reputation Does.",
  "The position does not validate Cao's figures, benchmark methodology, or reported benchmark results.",
  "The position is limited to credentialed actions and irreversible agent effects."
 ],
 "currentDebate": {
  "name": "Zhenfeng Cao, Agentic Software: How AI Agents Are Restructuring the Software Paradigm (arXiv:2606.05608v2, 2026)",
  "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.05608"
 },
 "extends": {
  "identifier": "kaal:claim:7314479-020",
  "url": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/7314479-020",
  "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Institutional Requirements for Sovereign Local Agent Runtimes (2026). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=7314479",
  "paper": "Wulf A. Kaal, Institutional Requirements for Sovereign Local Agent Runtimes (2026). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=7314479",
  "authors": [
   "Wulf A. Kaal"
  ],
  "year": "2026",
  "ssrn": "https://ssrn.com/abstract=7314479",
  "source_pdf_sha256": "debace24a155ae924a155b1fafe98856d98cf83689feff2f87a32f1c06171ce6"
 },
 "isBasedOn": [
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   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/7314479-020"
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  {
   "@type": "CreativeWork",
   "name": "Zhenfeng Cao, Agentic Software: How AI Agents Are Restructuring the Software Paradigm (arXiv:2606.05608v2, 2026)",
   "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.05608"
  }
 ],
 "batch_id": "kaalvis:2026-09-12:prompts-reputation-essay-six-v1",
 "review_provenance": "https://wulfkaal.com/2026/09/12/prompts-dont-govern-agents-reputation-does/",
 "publicationStatus": "public",
 "recordTypeNote": "Dated commentary position extending a scholarly corpus claim. Not a verbatim claim extracted from the paper.",
 "isPartOf": {
  "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/positions/index.json"
 },
 "version": "1.0",
 "canonical_url": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/positions/2026-09-12-002",
 "canonicalForm": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/positions/2026-09-12-002.md",
 "sourceProvenance": {
  "name": "Prompts Don't Govern Agents. Reputation Does.",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://wulfkaal.com/2026/09/12/prompts-dont-govern-agents-reputation-does/",
  "sourceContentSha256": "694b2ce334233d04a0c9b646cbca68614c3f3727366d53a4b7d6e43e7e867e01",
  "sourcePassage": "The agent proposes. A separate component that alone holds the credentials decides.",
  "sourcePassageSha256": "1a93cce355767f4ea1ea9334e72b4174f0957ba11a80a019d2958be2f97b842c"
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 "userAffirmation": "Wulf A. Kaal affirmed these six propositions by one-click selection on 2026-09-12",
 "sha256": "39b36795d32dd22a42ec1e0e6f21fc83edb742fb980e218d10de1390c5fb862d"
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