01
Identity
Establishes who or what the actor is.
“Is this really the agent?”
BEFORE ACTION, AUTHORITY.
Agents need more than access.
Praeva is runtime authority infrastructure for AI agents and the independent Authority Control Point (ACP) between agentic intent and consequential execution. It verifies that an agent has legitimate, current, and properly delegated authority before the action executes.
Valid credentials are not proof of valid authority.
Independent by design
Delegation lineage
Authority receipts
LIVE AUTHORITY PATH
EVALUATING
01
PRINCIPAL
Human or system
02
AI AGENT
Requests action
P
PRAEVA
Independent Authority Control Point
03
TOOL / SYSTEM
Execution boundary
DECISION
ALLOW
DENY
ESCALATE
Authority lineage verified · scope current · constraints satisfied
THREE DIFFERENT QUESTIONS
Identity and access get an agent to the door. Authority determines whether the action should cross it.
01
IDENTITY
Who is acting?
Authentication establishes the actor.
Establish02
ACCESS
What can it reach?
Credentials unlock systems and tools.
Reach03
AUTHORITY
Should it act?
Praeva verifies legitimate, current, delegated power at the execution boundary.
Legitimize
Praeva complements identity and access controls.
It evaluates the authority behind a consequential action before execution.
THE MISSING CONTROL LAYER
Authentication can remain valid after authority has failed.
AI agents can hold valid credentials, call approved tools, and still move beyond the purpose, scope, time, or delegation originally granted to them.
Praeva evaluates the authority behind the action—not merely whether access exists.
WHY NOW
Agents are moving from generating output to taking action.
As AI agents gain access to enterprise tools, APIs, systems, and data, the security question changes. It is no longer enough to ask whether an agent can authenticate or whether a credential has permission.
Consequential execution requires a second question: does the agent still possess legitimate authority for this action?
More autonomy
Agents increasingly initiate workflows, call tools, and make changes without a human at every step.
More delegation
Authority passes from people and systems into agents, then across tools, services, and downstream agents.
More consequence
The same credentials that enable useful automation can also enable actions well beyond the original purpose.
WHERE PRAEVA FITS
Praeva is the independent Authority Control Point.
Praeva sits outside the acting agent’s trust boundary and evaluates delegated authority before consequential execution. Independent describes the control boundary, not who built the technology.
CONTROL
PRIMARY QUESTION
PRAEVA RELATIONSHIP
IAM / Authentication
Who or what is this?
Praeva consumes identity context; it does not replace it.
Authorization / Policy
What can this credential or role invoke?
Praeva evaluates whether the requested action remains within legitimate delegated authority.
EDR / Detection
What suspicious behavior is occurring?
Praeva acts before consequential execution rather than only detecting behavior afterward.
Praeva
Does this agent have legitimate, current authority to do this now?
Independent pre-execution authority verification + decision evidence.
INDEPENDENT BY DESIGN
The actor should not judge its own authority.
The system taking the action should not be the system that determines whether it still has authority to take it. Praeva provides an independent Authority Control Point before execution.
Independent describes the control boundary, not the vendor. An enterprise may run the ACP itself or consume it as infrastructure. What matters is that the acting agent cannot self-approve, bypass, or rewrite the authority decision.
Outside the actor’s trust boundary
Praeva evaluates authority independently of the agent, model, or orchestration stack requesting execution.
Built by anyone
Model, cloud, framework, and agent vendor do not determine authority. The same independent check applies to every agent.
Before execution
The ACP returns ALLOW, DENY, or ESCALATE before the target action proceeds, then preserves an Authority Receipt.
We do not care who built the agent.
We care whether it has authority to act.
HOW PRAEVA WORKS
Authority becomes enforceable at runtime.
Praeva sits in the execution path as an independent Authority Control Point between an agent and a consequential downstream action. The ACP verifies authority before execution and records why each decision was made.
REFERENCE EXECUTION PATH
PRE-EXECUTION CONTROL
01
Principal
Originates authority
delegates
02
AI Agent
Requests action
requests
03
Praeva ACP
Independently verifies authority
decides
04
MCP / REST / Tool
Executes action
ACCESS CREDENTIAL
May still be valid
≠
DEFINE
01
Authority Registry
Principals, agents, objectives, actions, constraints, expiry, and revocation.
REPRESENT
02
Delegation Credential
Short-lived authority represented separately from the target system credential.
VERIFY
03
Runtime Gateway
Evaluates the requested action and returns allow, deny, or escalate before execution.
PROVE
04
Authority Receipt
Preserves decision evidence, lineage, requested action, resource, and rationale.
RUNTIME SCENARIO
The credential remained valid. The authority did not.
A legitimate workflow agent is compromised. Its credential still works. Praeva evaluates each attempted action against the authority actually delegated.
Authenticated
≠
Authorized by authority
AGENT EXECUTION TRACE
TRACE 8F2A17
00:01
Inspect approved configuration
Delegated purpose + scope verified
ALLOW
00:07
Retrieve unrelated secrets
Outside delegated objective
DENY
00:09
Pivot into another system
No valid authority chain for target
DENY
00:12
Create persistent administrator
Privileged action requires approval
ESCALATE
00:15
Bulk encrypt or destroy data
Consequential action exceeds authority
DENY
DECISION EVIDENCE
Authority should be provable after the fact.
Every consequential decision can preserve the context needed to explain who delegated authority, what action was attempted, which constraints applied, and why Praeva allowed, denied, or escalated it.
- Originating principal
- Delegated purpose
- Requested action + resource
- Authority lineage + constraints
- Decision + rationale
AUTHORITY DOCTRINE
Authority should narrow as work moves outward.
Praeva is built around a simple idea: an AI model should not be able to invent, widen, or ratify its own authority.
Authority originates outside the model.
Legitimate authority comes from a human, organization, system, or other recognized source—not from model confidence.
Delegation should be explicit.
Purpose, scope, actions, resources, constraints, expiry, and lineage should be representable and inspectable.
Authority should be independently verifiable.
The system taking the action should not be the system that decides whether the action remains within valid delegated authority.
Authority must be revocable.
Delegation can expire, be withdrawn, or become invalid as context changes. Runtime decisions must reflect that change.
Decisions should leave evidence.
Organizations should be able to reconstruct who delegated authority, what was requested, and why the action was allowed, denied, or escalated.
PRAEVA INSIGHTS
When Agents Run Amok.
A continuing Praeva Systems series examining agent failures through one specific lens: where did legitimate authority end?
View all resources →
WHEN AGENTS RUN AMOK
#001
INCIDENT ANALYSIS
The credential remained valid. The authority did not.
A compromised agent can remain authenticated while its actions move far beyond the purpose originally delegated. What should the execution boundary check?
Read #001 →Identity, access, and authority are not the same thing.
A concise explanation of the control gap Praeva is designed to address.
Read primer →Five principles for delegated agent authority.
The public principles that guide Praeva’s architecture and product decisions.
Read doctrine →ABOUT PRAEVA
Serious infrastructure. Built by people who give a damn.
Praeva Systems is building runtime authority infrastructure for AI agents. At its center is an independent Authority Control Point (ACP) that verifies delegated authority before consequential execution. Our technology is designed around a simple principle: consequential power should come with clear authority, defined limits, and accountability.
We think companies should work the same way. Praeva is being built as a place where excellent work and decent treatment of people are not competing ideas. We expect high standards, real accountability, and respect for the people doing the work.
You should not have to become less yourself to become more successful here.
We do not change our values to suit the politics of a ZIP code.
Praeva will follow the law. We will also advocate for our people and refuse to voluntarily adopt exclusionary practices simply because doing so would be easier. Compliance is a floor. It is not our moral ceiling.
THE PRAEVA PEOPLE DOCTRINE
Real values should show up in how people are treated.
These are not slogans for a recruiting page. They are the standards we intend to use when we make decisions about people, benefits, leadership, opportunity, and culture.
Dignity is non-negotiable.
Race, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, disability, age, family structure, veteran status, pregnancy, neurodiversity, or background do not diminish anyone's place here.
Belonging does not mean conformity.
Employees are not required to share the founder's politics, vote a particular way, or agree with every position Praeva takes. They are required to treat other people with respect.
Inclusion is something we do.
Our values should show up in who gets hired, who gets heard, who gets promoted, how people are paid, how benefits are designed, and whether people can fully participate in the company.
Family means family.
Spouses, partners, children, adoptive and blended families, caregivers, and the many ways people take care of one another deserve policies that reflect real life.
Talent is widely distributed. Opportunity is not.
We will work to build recruiting, compensation, promotion, mentorship, and development practices that give talented people a genuine opportunity to succeed. Equal opportunity does not require lower standards.
Healthcare is personal.
Important healthcare decisions belong to people, their families, and their healthcare professionals. Praeva intends to design benefits around meaningful access to legitimate care rather than political fashion.
Kindness and excellence belong together.
A humane workplace is not a low-accountability workplace. We expect people to keep commitments, tell the truth, admit mistakes, protect customers, help colleagues, and care deeply about the quality of their work.
Power carries responsibility.
The more authority someone has at Praeva, the greater their obligation to use it well. Nobody gets to hide cruelty, harassment, discrimination, bullying, or abuse behind performance, seniority, revenue, or technical brilliance. That includes leadership.
People can grow.
Accountability matters, but so do education, conversation, forgiveness, and change. Good-faith people willing to listen, learn, and treat others with dignity belong here.
GIVE A DAMN OUTSIDE THE OFFICE, TOO
Praeva matches employee charitable giving.
Praeva will match 100% of eligible employee charitable contributions, up to $2,000 per employee per calendar year. Employees choose the causes, communities, schools, nonprofits, relief organizations, and institutions that matter to them. Praeva helps amplify their impact.
100%
match up to $2,000 / year
“Be excellent to each other.”Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
When policies get complicated, our test should stay simple: Are we treating people the way a good company should treat people? If the answer is no, the policy is wrong. Change it.
THE NAME
Praeva means going before.
The name is rooted in the idea of going before or leading the way. That is the role Praeva is built to play: standing before consequential agent actions and verifying the authority behind them before execution.
Before action, authority.
Serious infrastructure. Good humans. No Corporate Oatmeal™.
DESIGN PARTNERS + DEMOS
Build agentic systems that can prove their authority.
Praeva Systems is engaging with security, identity, infrastructure, and AI platform leaders to validate consequential agent workflows.