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Canonical defined term

Agency

The capacity to form, select or pursue actions attributable to a subject or system.

Stable record
K01-TERM-007
Claim status
RESEARCH FINDING
Last reviewed
Research cutoff
Source type
DEFINED TERM
Currentness
Current for release 2.1.0; external sources require periodic revalidation.
Correction state
No unresolved public correction recorded for this release.
Machine record
Static JSON record

Plain-language definition

Agency analysis asks who or what produced a choice, under what constraints and with what authority.

The definition is intentionally bounded. It identifies the property or role under discussion without converting terminology into a claim of deployment, recognition, personhood, citizenship, sovereignty, or authority.

Technical definition

Within the K01 knowledge model, Agency is represented as a stable term object with code K01-TERM-007, canonical URL, claim status, topic owner, source links, related terms, last-reviewed date, research cutoff, and correction state. Relevant implementation components for the owning topic include decision logs; policy bounds; delegation instruments; override rules; causal traces; operational-state evidence.

Legal or policy use

Current law usually attributes obligations through owners, operators, providers, principals or institutions, although allocation varies by jurisdiction and facts.

When a statute, regulation, standard, or external institution uses a different definition, that source-specific meaning controls the analysis of that source. The project definition is not silently substituted into current law.

What the term implies

The term implies that the stated property should be evaluated using the evidence appropriate to decision formation, delegated authority, bounded independence, intervention and attribution. It supports precise reference, comparison, data exchange, and correction across public prose and machine records.

What the term does not imply

Observable action does not by itself prove independent goals, legal capacity or moral responsibility.

It also does not convert a valid signature, credential, database record, model hash, or website into factual truth or legal authority without additional evidence and a competent decision.

Commonly confused terms

Confusion is resolved by asking which property is actually at issue: technical control, continuity, evidence, authority, legal recognition, operation, or normative status.

Operational test

  1. Name the subject and purpose.
  2. Identify the source definition and jurisdiction or technical context.
  3. Collect evidence for the specific property.
  4. Record currentness and limitations.
  5. Route any governance, registry, assurance, or capital decision to the proper authority.

Sources

Stable term code: K01-TERM-007. Last reviewed 2026-08-16.