Core Schema
The formal definition of a Mandrel Spec contract.
The Mandrel Specification
The declarative contract for autonomous agent governance.
The Mandrel Spec is the foundational “Contract” of the Mandrel Project. It is a declarative definition that outlines an agent’s operational boundaries, target MCP tools, security constraints, and lifecycle metadata.
It is designed as a direct extension of the Google-originated A2A (Agent-to-Agent) Agent Card concept, providing the hardened governance required for enterprise-grade autonomous systems.
The Two States of a Spec
To maintain high-integrity governance, the spec exists in two distinct states:
- The Source Spec: Authored by the domain developer and stored in version control. This contains the intent of the agent.
- The Realized Spec: Enriched by the CI/CD pipeline with cryptographic attestations and binary authorization. This is the single source of truth for the Gantry (Operator) and the Metrology Lab (Registry).
Key Concepts
- Core Schema: Detailed breakdown of the schema fields (Governance, Identity, Network, Runtime).
- Identity & Security: Compound identities, SPIFFE, and Nested JWTs.
- Orchestration & Delegation: How agents interact and the Max-Hop protocol.
- Extensions Reference: Detailed field-level reference for Mandrel-specific controls.
Rationalization with Google A2A
By maintaining strict compatibility with the base A2A schema, Mandrel-governed agents remain interoperable with the broader AI ecosystem while exposing high-performance governance extensions enforced by The Collet (Sidecar).
Source
The Mandrel Spec schema and reference YAML are hosted on GitLab: gitlab.com/the-mandrel-project/mandrel-spec
Identity & Security
The zero-trust security architecture of the Mandrel Project.
Orchestration & Delegation
How Mandrel orchestrator agents govern their decision scope and delegate tasks.
Extensions Reference
Field-level reference for Mandrel-specific governance controls and the spec.extensions plugin extension block.