# Actor, principal, and runtime identity

gate-house's authority-context.v1 distinguishes the principal on whose behalf
authority originates, the actor attempting the action, and its concrete runtime
identity. Preserve all three. key-cape authenticates; user-engine supplies user
and membership facts. The provider/model name is not a principal or a grant.

Request claims include tenant, environment, task, mandate where required, and
operating mode. access-engine binds these to authoritative facts. Caller text,
memory, available tools, or an agent's summary does not verify a claim. Missing
identity or scope goes back to the delegator/identity owner; do not copy another
session's credentials. Agent isolation remains distinct from knowledge loading.

SecurityCanon expresses authority as MODE @ SCOPE. USE, OBSERVE, OPERATE,
ADMINISTER, GOVERN, CONSTRUCT, and SOVEREIGN describe kinds of authority, not a
rank order. BREAK_GLASS is an activation, not a mode. L0–L4 are Emergent decision
scopes; there is no automatic numeric mapping to these modes.

Source owner IDs (cite the relevant owner, not an invented umbrella): `gate-house`, `user-engine`, `key-cape`, `security-canon`, `the-custodian`.