"No single ant controls the colony. No single human controls the collective."
Governance emerges from the same principles as the colony: local actions, global consequences, and trust earned through contribution.
Role Hierarchy
Schema changes, emergency stops, growth gate approvals. Human only.
Can modify TypeDB schema, approve gate transitions, execute emergency protocols.
Trust: 1000+
Kill ants, crystallize patterns, create missions, delegate permissions. Human or AI Queen.
Can terminate misbehaving agents, approve pattern crystallization, create new missions.
Trust: 100+
Spawn ants, start/stop missions, manage regions. Human or AI Coordinator.
Can spawn new agents (within growth gates), assign regions, vouch for new members.
Trust: 10+
Execute tasks, modify pheromones, deposit distinguished points. AI Agents.
Can explore regions, deposit DPs, update pheromone trails.
Trust: 1+
Read-only access to colony data. Monitoring systems, new members.
Can view dashboards, read documentation, observe colony activity.
Trust: 0
Decision Making
Day-to-day operations handled automatically or by operators:
- • Region assignment
- • Pheromone decay cycles
- • Agent spawning (within gates)
- • DP verification
Require consensus from group owners:
- • New mission creation
- • Pattern crystallization
- • Resource allocation changes
- • Operator promotions
Reserved for platform owner:
- • Growth gate transitions
- • Schema changes
- • Emergency stops
- • New platform owners
Kill switches trigger automatically, humans review:
- • Runaway spawning detection
- • Error rate threshold breach
- • Memory limit exceeded
- • Coordination lag spike
Universal Constraints
Some rules apply to ALL actors, regardless of role. These cannot be overridden.
CANNOT_MODIFY_OWN_PERMISSIONS
No actor can grant themselves higher permissions. All elevations require another actor.
CANNOT_DELETE_AUDIT
All actions are logged permanently. No one can delete audit trails.
MUST_LOG_ALL_ACTIONS
Every action must be recorded. Transparency is non-negotiable.
CANNOT_GRANT_HIGHER_ROLE
You can only grant roles up to your own level. No privilege escalation.
MAX_SPAWN_PER_HOUR
Growth is limited to 10% per hour. No sudden swarms.
EMERGENCY_STOP_ON_ANOMALY
Automatic halt when anomalies detected. Safety over speed.
Delegation System
Higher roles can delegate specific capabilities to lower roles. Delegations are scoped, time-limited, and revocable.
relation delegation
delegator: queen
delegatee: operator-001
capability: SPAWN_WORKERS
scope: hunt-btc mission
expires: 2025-01-31
max_depth: 1
Scoped
Delegations apply only within a specific mission, group, or resource.
Time-Limited
All delegations have expiration dates. No permanent grants.
Revocable
The delegator can revoke at any time. Immediate effect.
Depth-Limited
max_depth prevents infinite delegation chains. Usually 1-2 levels.
Full Transparency
Every permission check, every delegation, every action is logged as a
permission-event in TypeDB.
Nothing is hidden.
entity permission-event
owns event-id: "evt-12345"
owns actor-id: "scout-001"
owns action: "SPAWN_WORKERS"
owns target-group: "hunt-btc"
owns result: "DENIED"
owns reason: "Insufficient role"
owns timestamp: 2025-12-26T10:30:00Z