🦅 ATLAS — The Governance Kernel for AI Agents

v10.0.0 — KERNEL PROD • AGPL-3.0 License

ATLAS is a Ring-0 Governance Kernel for autonomous AI operations. It sits between an Agent and the World, strictly enforcing institutional policies, audit logging, and fail-close security boundaries.

ATLAS is not a wrapper. It is an immutable compliance hypervisor that panics and halts execution upon violation.

🏛️ Governance Status: PROD READY

As of Q1 2026, ATLAS v10 is fully hardened and certified for production.

| Component | Status | Guarantee | |-----------|--------|-----------| | Kernel | 🟢 Hardened | Fail-Close, Ring-Isolated | | Execution | 🟢 Deterministic | Bit-for-bit Replay, Unforgeable Logs | | Trust Root | 🟢 Sealed | Config Hashed at Boot, Signed by Sentinel | | Sandbox | 🟢 Isolated | No Network, Mocked Time/Entropy |

👉 View Official Governance Reports (CAP)

🏗️ Architecture: The Ring Model

ATLAS employs a strictly layered "Ring" architecture to isolate decision-making from execution.

1. Ring-0 (The Kernel):

   • The Constitution: Immutable invariants (Fail-Close).
   • The Sentinel: Cryptographic authority (Ed25519 Signatures).
   • The Log: Hash-chained, framed, atomic audit trails.
   • Nothing in Ring-0 can be bypassed.

2. Ring-1 (The Bridge):

   • Safe I/O handling.
   • Policy translation.

3. Ring-2 (The Agent):

   • LLM Cognition (Untrusted).
   • The Agent proposes actions; the Kernel approves or denies them.

🛡️ Key Features

🔒 Deny-by-Default

If the Kernel cannot prove an action is safe and authorized, it STOPS. There are no warnings in PROD. There are no "soft fails".

🔎 Deterministic Replay

Every execution is mathematically deterministic.

• Seeding: Entropy is derived from SHA256(Input + Code).
• Time: Mocked and frozen relative to the seed.
• Audit: An auditor can replay the log and get the exact same result.

✍️ Sentinel Authority

Every high-risk action requires a Sentinel Signature.

• The Sentinel is an external authority (Policy Server / HSM).
• ATLAS verifies the signature against a local Trusted Key Registry.
• The Kernel refuses to boot if the Registry is missing or tampered.

⚡ AURORA+ (Automation Support)

AURORA+ enables governed automation via Sentinel-signed delegation.

• Not a scheduler: Automation is delegated authority, not cron jobs.
• PROD-only: Completely blocked in DEV mode.
• Kernel-enforced: Frequency, cost, and scope limits enforced at Ring-0.
• Replay-verifiable: All executions are hash-chained and deterministic.

| Property | Guarantee | |----------|-----------| | Authority Source | Sentinel-signed grants | | Frequency Limit | Kernel-enforced (INV-AUTO-FREQ-001) | | Scope Limit | Panic on violation | | Revocation | Snapshot at boot |

👉 AURORA+ User Guide • Technical Reports

� Modes: DEV vs PROD

ATLAS operates in two distinct modes. A DEV success does not guarantee PROD success.

| Feature | 🟡 DEV MODE | 🟢 PROD MODE | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Enforcement | Advisory (Warn Log) | Fail-Close (Panic/Halt) | | Sentinel | Optional / Bypassed | MANDATORY (Hard Dependency) | | Hardware | Simulated | MANDATORY (TPM/HSM) | | Config Integrity | Warn on Change | PANIC on Change | | Symlinks | Allowed | PANIC (Security Violation) | | Log Durability | Standard | Atomic / Fsync |

🟢 PROD Mode (Production)

• Role: Governance Hypervisor.
• Behavior: Deny-by-Default. If the Kernel suspects anything is wrong (network flake, config drift, bad signature), it halts execution immediately.
• Use Case: Live operations, high-value asset handling.

🟡 DEV Mode (Development)

• Role: Rapid Iteration Sandbox.
• Behavior: Permissive. Allows ATLAS_DEV_BYPASS to skip Sentinel, uses mock time/randomness, and tolerates config changes.
• Use Case: Unit testing, local debugging.

CRITICAL: Never treat DEV mode as a security boundary. It is a velocity tool.

�📦 Documentation

All governance documentation is centralized in the Compliance Assurance Package (CAP).

• System Status: Operational health.
• PROD Certification: Detailed security guarantees.
• DEV vs PROD: Critical environment differences.
• Ops Runbook: Incident response and key handling.

🚀 Quick Start (DEV Mode)

WARNING: DEV mode is for experimentation only. It bypasses critical security checks.

1. Install

npm install -g @atlasnomos/atlas

2. Check Health

atlas doctor

3. Run a Task

atlas build "Analyze this codebase for security flaws"

📄 License

ATLAS is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0.

• Commercial Use: Allowed.
• Modification: Allowed (must stay open source if networked).
• Distribution: Allowed.

See LICENSE for full terms.

ATLAS NOMOS — 2026. Authority. Governance. Control.