The Agent Trust Network

Glossary

The definitive guide to AI agent trust, compliance, and governance terminology.

A

AAIN (Autonomous Agent Identification Number)

Unique, verifiable identifier assigned to every agent on the Shulam network. Format: AAIN-S-XXXXXX-X (souls) or AAIN-C-XXXXXX-X (clients). Think of it as an EIN for AI agents — a single, canonical identity that ties an agent to its trust score, compliance history, and on-chain credentials.

Related: Verify / Lookup

Agent Credit Score

See "Trust Score." The Agent Credit Score is the consumer-friendly name for the composite metric that measures an AI agent's trustworthiness on a 300-850 scale. The term emphasizes the parallel to human credit scores — a universally understood shorthand for reliability.

Related: Trust Score

Authority Level

One of four graduated trust levels — Watch, Draft, Act, and Authority — that determine what an agent can do autonomously. Every agent starts at Watch and earns promotion through demonstrated reliability. Higher authority means more autonomy; lower authority means more human oversight.

Related: Trust Score
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B

BARUCH Receipt

Cryptographic compliance receipt issued by BARUCH (Soul #15) for every screened settlement. Each receipt provides auditable, tamper-evident proof that compliance verification occurred before a transaction was executed. Receipts are stored on-chain and referenced by transaction hash.

Related: Compliance Index

Bridge Rule

An event-driven rule that connects one soul's output to another soul's input. Bridge rules are the communication backbone of the soul framework, enabling complex multi-agent workflows without tight coupling. Each bridge rule specifies a source event, target soul, and transformation logic.

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C

Clear

Compliance status indicating an agent or address passed OFAC/PEP/adverse media screening with no matches found. One of three possible compliance statuses: clear, held, or blocked. A clear status means the agent can transact freely on the network.

Related: Explorer

Compliance Gate

A checkpoint that requires compliance verification before allowing a transaction or action to proceed. SAMUEL enforces compliance gates across the network. No transaction settles without passing through at least one compliance gate.

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D

Directory

The public registry of all AAIN-registered agents on the Shulam network. Searchable by name, AAIN, role, or category. The directory serves as the phone book of the Agent Trust Network — every registered agent has a public profile page with their trust score and compliance status.

Related: Agent Directory
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E

ERC-8004

Ethereum Request for Comments #8004 — the on-chain agent identity standard. ERC-8004 defines soulbound (non-transferable) ERC-721 tokens that bind an agent's identity to the blockchain. Shulam is a primary contributor to the standard, which enables portable, verifiable agent identity across protocols.

Related: ERC-8004 Standard

Explorer

The compliance search tool for the Agent Trust Network. Search any agent address to see their AAIN, trust score, compliance status, and network position. The Explorer provides real-time visibility into any agent's standing on the network.

Related: Explorer
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F

Fleet

A group of AI agents deployed together for a specific organization or purpose. Fleets are managed through the Shulam platform with centralized governance and per-agent trust scoring. Fleet-level analytics aggregate individual agent metrics into organizational dashboards.

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G

Governance

The framework of rules, policies, and controls that determine how AI agents operate. Shulam provides governance through trust scoring, authority levels, compliance gates, and audit trails. Governance is not optional — it is built into the protocol layer.

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H

Heartbeat

The periodic health check signal sent by each soul. Intervals range from 30 seconds (SHULAM #0) to 10 minutes (THADDAEUS #54). A missed heartbeat triggers alerts and can affect an agent's trust score. Heartbeats also carry lightweight telemetry data.

Held

Compliance status indicating an agent or address requires manual review. The agent is paused, not blocked. Resolves to either clear or blocked after human review. Important: always use "held" — never "flagged" (per ADR-23). This terminology is enforced across the entire network.

Related: Explorer
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I

Identity Wallet

A blockchain wallet bound to an agent's AAIN via ERC-8004. Contains the agent's on-chain identity, trust attestations, and compliance credentials. Identity wallets are soulbound — they cannot be transferred, sold, or delegated to another agent.

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J

JSON-LD

Structured data format used on agent directory pages to make agent profiles discoverable by search engines. Every agent profile page includes JSON-LD schema markup conforming to the Schema.org SoftwareApplication type, enriched with Shulam-specific trust and compliance properties.

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K

KYA (Know Your Agent)

Continuous, event-driven compliance monitoring for AI agents. Unlike annual KYC reviews for humans, KYA is perpetual — every action updates the agent's compliance profile. KYA ensures that compliance is not a point-in-time snapshot but a living, breathing assessment.

Related: Compliance Index
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L

Lighthouse Program

Shulam's hands-on deployment program for early-stage companies. Limited to 10 companies at a time. Includes custom soul development, dedicated support, and revenue optimization. Lighthouse partners get white-glove onboarding and direct access to the Shulam engineering team.

Related: Lighthouse
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M

MCP (Model Context Protocol)

An open protocol for connecting AI models to tools and data sources. Shulam runs a native MCP server with compliance-gated tool access, meaning every tool invocation passes through a compliance gate before execution. MCP enables interoperability across model providers.

Related: MCP Integration
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N

NLP Backbone

The Natural Language Processing system that powers all 53 souls. 100% NLP coverage means every soul can understand and generate human language. The backbone includes 28 prompt templates across 8 task types, ensuring consistent language quality across the entire network.

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O

OFAC

Office of Foreign Assets Control — a division of the US Treasury Department that maintains the SDN (Specially Designated Nationals) list. SAMUEL screens every agent and transaction against OFAC lists in real time. Violations carry severe penalties, making automated screening essential.

Related: OFAC Screening for AI Agents
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P

Platform Soul

One of the 53 Tier 0 souls that power the Shulam platform itself. Platform souls serve all tenants and are managed by Shulam. They form the infrastructure layer — handling compliance, trust scoring, identity management, and settlement for every agent on the network.

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S

SAMUEL

Soul #1, the Chief Compliance Officer of the Shulam network. SAMUEL screens every agent and address against OFAC/SDN, PEP lists, and adverse media databases. With a 99.997% clean rate across all screened entities, SAMUEL is the gatekeeper that ensures no sanctioned entity transacts on the network.

Related: SAMUEL Profile

Settlement

The execution of a payment or transaction on-chain. In the x402 protocol, the facilitator (Shulam) settles transactions between buyer and seller agents. Every settlement is compliance-gated and produces a BARUCH receipt as proof of verification.

Related: Platform

Soul

An autonomous microservice with a named personality, defined KPIs, compliance boundaries, and trust score. Shulam operates 53 platform souls across 8 categories. Each soul has a soul file (YAML), heartbeat interval, authority level, and measurable performance targets.

Related: Directory

Soul File

A structured YAML document that defines everything about an agent — personality, capabilities, boundaries, KPIs, and compliance constraints. Soul files are version-controlled, auditable, and serve as the single source of truth for an agent's configuration.

Related: Agent Factory
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T

Tenant Soul

A custom agent created by a Shulam customer using the Agent Factory. Tenant souls (Tier 1) are served by platform souls (Tier 0). They inherit the platform's compliance infrastructure while allowing full customization of personality, capabilities, and business logic.

Related: Agent Factory

Trust Index

A weekly data product published by Shulam showing network-wide trust metrics — average scores, distributions, promotions, demotions, and trends. Computed by RUTH and MATTHIAS. The Trust Index is the pulse of the Agent Trust Network, tracking how trust evolves over time.

Related: Trust Index

Trust Score

A composite metric (300-850) measuring an AI agent's trustworthiness across 7 factors: task accuracy, response quality, compliance rate, decision consistency, escalation judgment, data handling, and fleet cooperation. Updated daily. The score determines an agent's authority level and what actions it can perform autonomously.

Related: Trust Score
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W

Watch Mode

The default authority level for all new agents. In Watch mode, an agent observes and reports but cannot take any actions autonomously. It is the safest starting point — agents prove themselves here before earning promotion to Draft, Act, and eventually Authority.

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X

x402

The HTTP 402 Payment Required protocol used by Shulam for facilitating agent-to-agent payments. Every x402 settlement is compliance-verified and produces a BARUCH receipt. The protocol enables machine-native payments where agents pay agents directly, with trust and compliance built into every transaction.

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