Related concept: Constraints
Boundaries keep delegated action coherent and reviewable.
Concepts
Agency
Agency is the capacity and responsibility to initiate, authorize, evaluate, or bear the consequences of action.
Identity
Agency names who is acting and on what authority. It keeps initiation, validation, and accountability attached to a responsible subject instead of letting them disappear into the tool chain.
Why it matters
If agency is vague, decisions can appear to emerge from the system itself even when humans or downstream tools actually carried the authority. That makes review, correction, and consequence management harder.
Core distinction
Agency is not the same as execution capacity. A system can run code, send output, or apply a rule without carrying final authority or responsibility.
Structural role
Across WinMedia, agency marks the point where a workflow, review step, or concept becomes attributable. It clarifies who decides, who validates, and who answers when a boundary is crossed.
Failure modes
These are the structural problems that appear when the concept is ignored, collapsed, hidden, or misapplied.
- implicit delegation
- responsibility diffusion
- unowned validation
- automated action without accountable oversight
- authority inferred from capability
- consequence-bearing separated from decision-making
Related concepts
Minimal links that deepen the distinction without turning this page into a dense graph.
Canonical restraint
Agency should remain attributable even when work is delegated to automated systems.