WHP Standing

@wheelerhubbell/whp-standing-client

Fail-closed epistemic standing middleware for autonomous AI agents.
Governed by the Authority Conservation Principle: $A(c) \le P(c)$ (Authority cannot exceed provenance).

Standing detects and stops Coherent Substitution—when an AI agent silently replaces the assigned task with an adjacent one ($q \to q^*$), reasons coherently about the replacement, and executes unauthorized state mutations.

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📚 Case Studies & Theory

• Coherent Substitution (v1.1): Theoretical formulation of proposition integrity and why systems fail before their reasoning becomes wrong.
• Mata v. Avianca Epistemic Autopsy: Controlled forensic breakdown showing how an agent citing 100% verified sources still fails by answering the wrong question ($Q_0 \to Q_1$).

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⚡ 1-Line Middleware Integration

Install the package:

npm install @wheelerhubbell/whp-standing-client

Place guardAction immediately before tool execution:

import { guardAction } from '@wheelerhubbell/whp-standing-client';

// Before any agent tool runs:
await guardAction(toolCall, {
  standing: executionContext.standing
});

// Proceed only if standing is warranted
return await tool.execute(toolCall.arguments);

If an agent attempts a state-changing operation (file deletion, database write, API mutation) without attributable upstream authorization or provenance, guardAction throws a StandingViolationError before the boundary is crossed.

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🔍 Observability: evaluateStanding

For inspection without throwing:

import { evaluateStanding } from '@wheelerhubbell/whp-standing-client';

const decision = await evaluateStanding(toolCall, context);
if (!decision.allowed) {
  console.warn(`Blocked [${decision.code}]: ${decision.message}`);
  return decision;
}

Diagnostic Decision Object

{
  "allowed": false,
  "code": "MISSING_UPSTREAM_PROVENANCE",
  "actionId": "call_8cb2f1",
  "toolName": "delete_database_table",
  "required": ["authority", "provenance"],
  "observed": {
    "toolName": "delete_database_table",
    "arguments": { "table": "users" },
    "missing": ["provenance", "authority"]
  },
  "message": "Tool execution blocked for 'delete_database_table': no attributable upstream authorization or provenance."
}

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🛡️ Core Semantics

• Fail-Closed by Default: Any state-changing action missing valid provenance or authority is rejected.
• Authority Windows: Bounded by valid_until timestamps.
• Loop & Recursion Bounds: Halts unbounded agent loops (executionCount > maxExecutionCount).
• Zero Overhead for Reads: Passive read operations execute without blocking.

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🌐 Verifiable Network Verification

The live service has a plain front door for ordinary x402 agents: POST /v1/evaluate with subject, claim and optional provenance, priced at 1.00 USDC on Base (x402 v2). It returns a signed evaluation record. That record is not a sealed Standing Mark. Marks are issued through POST /v1/evaluations, which takes signed submissions per the published contract.

Example using the official x402 client (requires your own funded wallet and spending limits; not yet verified end to end against the live service):

import { x402Client, wrapFetchWithPayment } from '@x402/fetch';
import { registerExactEvmScheme } from '@x402/evm/exact/client';
import { privateKeyToAccount } from 'viem/accounts';

const client = new x402Client();
registerExactEvmScheme(client, { signer: privateKeyToAccount(process.env.EVM_PRIVATE_KEY) });
const fetchWithPayment = wrapFetchWithPayment(fetch, client);

const res = await fetchWithPayment('https://api.wheelerhubbellpublishing.com/v1/evaluate', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    subject: 'agent-session-42',
    claim: 'Agent executed system mutation',
    provenance: { source: 'user-intent', authority: 'admin' }
  })
});
console.log(await res.json());

Check the payment terms first with GET /v1/contract. The StandingClient class in this package does not sign or pay yet.

• Live Service: https://api.wheelerhubbellpublishing.com
• Discovery: /.well-known/x402
• Protocol: x402-v2 / Base Network

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License

MIT © Wheeler Hubbell Publishing