How Delegation Chains Work for Agents
A delegation chain is the path of authority from a human to an agent to a sub-agent: each link grants a subset of what the link above it holds. The invariant is attenuation — authority may only ever narrow down the chain, never widen — so a child can never hold a power its parent lacked. Verifying an action means verifying the whole chain back to a human, not just the last signature on it.
Attenuation, not inheritance
Delegation is attenuation, never inheritance. If a change could let a sub-agent hold authority its delegator lacked, it is wrong by construction. This is why an agent is never a root actor on the estate: it acts for somebody, and the somebody — a human or an organisation — is who answers for what it did.
Questions
What happens if a link is revoked?
Everything below it loses authority too, because each link depends on the one above. Revocation at any point collapses the chain beneath it.
Can an agent delegate to another agent?
Yes, but only a subset of what it holds. The chain stays sound as long as every hand-off attenuates and the whole path verifies to a human.
Where this lives in the estate
FlashyID — delegation is attenuation — enforced, not described
Keep reading
By Michael Gord · published 2026-10-04 · part of the Agentic Encyclopedia. Dates are the day of publication; events are cited at their own dates.