Choose the narrowest autonomy, tool scope, duration, and data access that can accomplish the goal. More autonomy raises the reachable harm surface and verification burden.

Use the Least Agency Necessary

In this situation—an assistant only needs to draft, not send, a legal notice—which choice best applies “Use the Least Agency Necessary”?

A runtime monitor observes proposed transitions and blocks or escalates ones that violate a machine-checkable invariant. It complements, rather than replaces, design-time verification.

Runtime Monitors Enforce Critical Invariants

A sandbox limits filesystem, network, credentials, compute, and lifetime for untrusted execution. Its boundary must be enforced outside the generated code or agent prompt.

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