Where commitments appear
- Answer: a response reaches a customer or operator.
- Citation: a source becomes evidence attached to a claim.
- Tool call: generated intent becomes an external action.
- Database write: a proposed change becomes persistent.
- Agent handoff: one system's output becomes another system's premise.
Why govern the boundary
Governance on the token path is expensive and still does not identify which output became consequential. The commitment boundary evaluates once, at the point where a candidate is about to become real, using the checks and authorities appropriate to that action.
Map one real action
- Name the candidate and the consequence of release.
- Identify the modules that must evaluate it and the authority each consults.
- Define which missing conditions resolve to Observe and which failed conditions resolve to Abstain.
- Record the final disposition, evidence and reason before commitment.
A practical example
A request intends to update one customer record, but the proposed operation touches 51,000. Valid credentials and valid syntax do not make the blast radius authorized. The boundary keeps the proposal in Observe while authority is clarified, records the resulting refusal, and evaluates a new one-record warrant from the beginning.