{
 "@context": "https://schema.org",
 "@type": "Claim",
 "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/positions/2026-09-12-005",
 "identifier": "kaal:position:2026-09-12-005",
 "additionalType": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/positions/schema.json#AffirmedPositionClaim",
 "name": "Continuous Degradation Is Authority Drift",
 "text": "The benchmark evidence Cao cites shows agents degrading over continuous runs as errors compound. Kaal's position is that this pattern is authority drift: every step passes its check while the whole run goes beyond what was authorized. Evaluation must cover the whole run, and authority tied to tasks must expire when the work stops.",
 "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": [
  "consensus-and-security",
  "governance-design",
  "ai-and-agents"
 ],
 "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 continuous runs, aggregate authorization, and task-scoped authority."
 ],
 "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:7314479-015",
  "url": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/7314479-015",
  "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": [
  {
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/7314479-015"
  },
  {
   "@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/2026-09-12-005",
 "canonicalForm": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/positions/2026-09-12-005.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": "That is how it catches authority drift, the failure in which every step passes its check while the total goes beyond what was authorized",
  "sourcePassageSha256": "a7a50fa33a99fd4972e10d1523227badd6b6e1c500ac2c52b6290be148be4526"
 },
 "userAffirmation": "Wulf A. Kaal affirmed these six propositions by one-click selection on 2026-09-12",
 "sha256": "f9b8a8a8e465f7f8f4524bac46536f89b35d06ff9caba42635c200f61fe02e48"
}