# Guarantees

URL: /agents/autonomy-levels/guarantees · Id: `page:agents/autonomy-levels/guarantees`

> What holds for every Startup at every autonomy level, under every operating model, enforced by the platform rather than by agent instructions.

These guarantees hold for every [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) at every autonomy level and under every operating model. No [Setting](/business/nouns/setting), [Mandate](/business/nouns/mandate) or agent version turns one off.

## What every Startup gets
| Guarantee | Enforced by |
| --- | --- |
| Every [Action](/business/nouns/action) records who acted, for whom, and under which Mandate or [Permission](/business/nouns/permission). | [Action accountability](/systems/trust-and-governance/controls/action-accountability), [Authenticated Actions](/systems/trust-and-governance/controls/authenticated-actions) |
| Authority is checked by the platform, the same way on every [Interface](/business/nouns/interface). | [Authenticated Actions](/systems/trust-and-governance/controls/authenticated-actions) |
| An Action over a [Limit](/business/nouns/limit) waits for an [Approval](/business/nouns/approval). Nothing else needs a yes. | The Limit itself |
| A one-way Action passes review, then waits its [delay window](/agents/autonomy-levels/delay-windows). | [One-way Action windows](/systems/trust-and-governance/controls/one-way-windows) |
| Nothing is deleted. A revert is a new [Change](/business/nouns/change). | [Append-only records](/systems/trust-and-governance/controls/append-only-records), [Revert by query](/systems/trust-and-governance/controls/revert-by-query) |
| No effect happens twice. An unknown result is settled before any retry. | [Action completion](/systems/trust-and-governance/controls/action-completion) |
| A new agent version passes its eval suite before it reaches a customer. | [Agent definition evals](/systems/trust-and-governance/controls/agent-definition-evals) |
| An agent never edits the [Metrics](/business/nouns/metric), [Evaluators](/business/nouns/evaluator) or guardrails that grade it. | [Agent definition evals](/systems/trust-and-governance/controls/agent-definition-evals) |
| An agent acting as itself says it is an agent. | [AI disclosure](/systems/legal-and-corporate/floor/ai-disclosure) |
| Everything an agent sends in a person's name appears in that person's stream. | [Delegated sending](/systems/legal-and-corporate/floor/delegated-sending) |
| Pause, cancel, revoke and brake take effect at once. | [Watchers](/agents/autonomy-levels/watchers) and [brakes](/agents/autonomy-levels/brakes) |
| [Customers](/business/nouns/customer), revenue and Metrics come from the record. A Startup cannot show an invented customer, number or badge. | [Outcome confirmation](/systems/trust-and-governance/controls/outcome-confirmation) |

## Why they hold
Each guarantee runs as platform code outside the agent. An agent cannot talk its way past one, and a prompt that tries to has no effect. Every Startup inherits them, and with them the controls its compliance rests on.

No [Experiment](/business/nouns/experiment) randomizes the legal floor, consent, AI disclosure or refund rights. Those stay fixed while everything around them is tested.

## Guarantees and outcomes
Guarantees bound how a Startup acts; they do not promise results. A customer who needs a promised result buys under an [Outcome Contract](/business/nouns/outcome-contract): `done`, then accepted, then billed, with a remedy on a miss.

## In practice
The founder of a [b2b](/business/motions/b2b) billing API lets an agent send up to 20 introduction emails a day from her own mailbox. The Mandate limits topics to integration partners. Each send shows in her stream, marked by the agent and for her.

At 9:02 she revokes the Mandate. The send queued for 9:03 is `refused`, and the record shows why.