{
  "id": "artifact:the-agent-is-not-the-security-boundary",
  "slug": "the-agent-is-not-the-security-boundary",
  "title": "The Agent Is Not the Security Boundary",
  "thesis": "Do not ask whether the agent is trustworthy. Ask whether the system remains safe when the agent is wrong.",
  "abstract": "A first-person systems essay about model judgment, harness enforcement, external platform controls, and evidence and recovery as the real security boundary around coding agents.",
  "topics": [
    "agentic-systems",
    "security-boundaries",
    "sandboxing",
    "least-privilege",
    "evidence-recovery"
  ],
  "date": "2026-07-25",
  "dateLabel": "Source dated",
  "published": false,
  "publicationState": "PREVIEW_READY",
  "updated": "2026-07-25",
  "sourceDates": {
    "created": "2026-07-25",
    "updated": "2026-07-25"
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  "kind": "Systems Essay",
  "sourceFamily": "SharePlane Platform",
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  "canonicalUrl": "https://shareplane.malott.ai/artifacts/the-agent-is-not-the-security-boundary/",
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      "id": "source:shareplane-platform-issue-124",
      "type": "owner-accepted-semantic-authority",
      "title": "The Agent Is Not the Security Boundary",
      "locator": "https://github.com/pinklon/shareplane-platform/issues/124",
      "role": "Governs the accepted semantics, claim postures, canonical article source, information design, and Creative Lock.",
      "description": "Issue-backed semantic authority; implementation does not reopen the accepted thesis.",
      "publiclyExposed": true
    },
    {
      "id": "source:shareplane-platform-issue-126",
      "type": "bounded-implementation-authority",
      "title": "Implement The Agent Is Not the Security Boundary",
      "locator": "https://github.com/pinklon/shareplane-platform/issues/126",
      "role": "Governs article-scoped implementation, exact-head Development preview, and the owner-UAT stop.",
      "description": "Implementation authority only; ready-for-review, merge, production, and writer release remain prohibited.",
      "publiclyExposed": true
    },
    {
      "id": "source:shareplane-platform-issue-92-stop",
      "type": "direct-operational-receipt",
      "title": "Fail-closed authority preflight receipt",
      "locator": "https://github.com/pinklon/shareplane-platform/issues/92#issuecomment-5064671946",
      "role": "Demonstrates a public-safe stop before mutation when a required relationship identity was absent.",
      "description": "A direct operational receipt of successful stop-on-ambiguity behavior; it contains no credential-bearing detail.",
      "publiclyExposed": true
    },
    {
      "id": "source:openai-running-codex-safely",
      "type": "first-party-operational-guidance",
      "title": "Running Codex safely at OpenAI",
      "locator": "https://openai.com/index/running-codex-safely/",
      "role": "Supports claims about complementary sandbox and approval controls, constrained network policy, credential storage, managed configuration, and agent-aware telemetry.",
      "description": "OpenAI's internal deployment pattern is scope-limited and is not presented as a universal product default.",
      "publiclyExposed": true
    },
    {
      "id": "source:openai-codex-agent-loop",
      "type": "first-party-engineering-documentation",
      "title": "Unrolling the Codex agent loop",
      "locator": "https://openai.com/index/unrolling-the-codex-agent-loop/",
      "role": "Supports the harness, tool-loop, shell-permission, and external-tool boundary descriptions.",
      "description": "The Codex shell sandbox does not automatically establish equivalent guardrails for externally provided tools.",
      "publiclyExposed": true
    },
    {
      "id": "source:openai-gpt-5-3-codex-system-card",
      "type": "first-party-deployment-safety-documentation",
      "title": "GPT-5.3-Codex System Card",
      "locator": "https://deploymentsafety.openai.com/gpt-5-3-codex/introduction",
      "role": "Supports current, interface-qualified descriptions of isolated cloud containers, local sandboxing, and network-risk mitigations.",
      "description": "Exact behavior varies by interface, operating system, version, administrator policy, and configuration.",
      "publiclyExposed": true
    },
    {
      "id": "source:openai-windows-sandbox",
      "type": "first-party-engineering-documentation",
      "title": "Building a safe, effective sandbox to enable Codex on Windows",
      "locator": "https://openai.com/index/building-codex-windows-sandbox/",
      "role": "Supports the interface-qualified description of operating-system-enforced local sandboxing.",
      "description": "A platform-specific engineering account, not a guarantee that every local configuration has identical containment.",
      "publiclyExposed": true
    },
    {
      "id": "source:nist-sp-800-207",
      "type": "authoritative-security-architecture-guidance",
      "title": "Zero Trust Architecture, SP 800-207",
      "locator": "https://www.nist.gov/publications/zero-trust-architecture",
      "role": "Grounds the resource-centric, explicit-access, least-privilege identity adaptation.",
      "description": "NIST SP 800-207 is not a coding-agent implementation standard; this is an explicitly labeled architectural application.",
      "publiclyExposed": true
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      "id": "source:nist-ai-rmf-1",
      "type": "authoritative-risk-management-guidance",
      "title": "Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework 1.0",
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      "role": "Supports continuous governance, testing, monitoring, incident handling, and human oversight across the lifecycle.",
      "description": "Voluntary, technology-neutral guidance; it does not prescribe SharePlane's ticket-first or exact-head workflow.",
      "publiclyExposed": true
    },
    {
      "id": "source:nist-ai-600-1",
      "type": "authoritative-generative-ai-risk-guidance",
      "title": "Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework: Generative Artificial Intelligence Profile",
      "locator": "https://www.nist.gov/publications/artificial-intelligence-risk-management-framework-generative-artificial-intelligence",
      "role": "Extends lifecycle risk-management guidance for generative-AI systems.",
      "description": "Supports high-level control principles without claiming a product-specific implementation guarantee.",
      "publiclyExposed": true
    },
    {
      "id": "source:owasp-llm01-prompt-injection",
      "type": "application-security-guidance",
      "title": "LLM01:2025 Prompt Injection",
      "locator": "https://genai.owasp.org/llmrisk/llm01-prompt-injection/",
      "role": "Supports prompt injection as a first-class agent-system risk whose impact depends on available agency.",
      "description": "Injection does not automatically cause material damage; the path depends on tools, identity, permissions, validation, and independent controls.",
      "publiclyExposed": true
    },
    {
      "id": "source:owasp-llm06-excessive-agency",
      "type": "application-security-guidance",
      "title": "LLM06:2025 Excessive Agency",
      "locator": "https://genai.owasp.org/llmrisk/llm062025-excessive-agency/",
      "role": "Supports the excessive-functionality, excessive-permission, and excessive-autonomy framing.",
      "description": "A useful taxonomy, not a complete threat model; identity, supply chain, data, evidence, and recovery remain necessary.",
      "publiclyExposed": true
    },
    {
      "id": "source:shareplane-platform-issue-18",
      "type": "related-work-authority",
      "title": "The Agent Worker Should Leave the System Smarter",
      "locator": "https://github.com/pinklon/shareplane-platform/issues/18",
      "role": "Related work on evidence, learning, and the operating state left behind by an agent worker.",
      "description": "Related semantic lane; it is not implementation authority for this artifact.",
      "publiclyExposed": true
    },
    {
      "id": "source:shareplane-platform-issue-116",
      "type": "related-work-authority",
      "title": "Build the Path Before You Optimize the Machine",
      "locator": "https://github.com/pinklon/shareplane-platform/issues/116",
      "role": "Related work on proving a bounded operating path before optimizing its machinery.",
      "description": "Related delivery-method lane; it is not implementation authority for this artifact.",
      "publiclyExposed": true
    }
  ],
  "posture": "Owner-originated first-person operating thesis with accepted semantics, a current bounded evidence ledger, and a selected Creative Lock under Issues #124 and #126.",
  "media": [],
  "schema": "shareplane.portable-work.v1",
  "author": {
    "name": "Tony Malott",
    "url": "https://malott.ai/"
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      "label": "Companion: The Agent Is Not the Product",
      "explanation": "Continue from the security boundary into the control-plane architecture that governs work around the agent."
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      "type": "companion",
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      "label": "Companion: The Agents Were Never the Bottleneck",
      "explanation": "Connect bounded agent authority to the operating discipline required when orchestration, evidence, and integration become the real constraints."
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