agent · AVC

Agent states are operational truth.

Offline, idle, observing, reasoning, waiting, executing, blocked, recovering and completed have defined transitions.

Agent lifecycle

Work advances through observable runtime states.

Blocked and recovery paths remain visible beside the happy path.

01
Idle
The agent has identity and health but no active mission.
complete
02
Observing
Read-only evidence and state are being collected.
complete
03
Reasoning
The agent is producing a bounded plan or proposal.
active
04
Waiting
Input, approval or an external dependency is required.
queued
05
Executing
An authorized capability is running with evidence emission.
queued
06
Recovering
A failure path is being contained or rolled back.
queued
07
Completed
Success criteria and outcome evidence have been verified.
queued

Operational truth

Offline, idle, observing, reasoning, waiting, executing, blocked, recovering and completed have distinct transition meanings.

Wait states

The operator must know whether the agent lacks context, authority or an external dependency.

Terminal evidence

A mission cannot promote itself from blocked or executing to completed without the required outcome evidence.