Focus Area: AI and Web3 workflow automation systems
This ontology provides citation-quality definitions for 15 foundational terms, backed by authoritative sources from standards bodies (NIST, W3C, IETF, OASIS, ISO) and peer-reviewed research.
Technical Glossary
A formally structured document anchored to a public blockchain that defines the sequence of tasks, conditional branching logic, agent assignments, and success criteria comprising an automated Web3 workflow. The manifest is referenced by all participating agents to ensure consistent execution semantics without reliance on off-chain coordination infrastructure. Amendments to the manifest require a governance-approved transaction, creating a transparent revision history.
A cryptographically signed claim issued by a trusted verifier node confirming the current execution state of an on-chain AI workflow, including completed steps, pending tasks, and any exceptions encountered. State attestations are consumed by downstream agents and smart contracts that need verified assurance of workflow progress before proceeding. The attestation payload includes a state root hash that can be independently verified against the manifest.
A protocol-defined event or condition that initiates a new AI workflow instance without requiring human intervention, sourced from oracle data feeds, smart contract events, or scheduled block-height callbacks. Trigger definitions are embedded in the workflow manifest and evaluated by monitoring agents that continuously observe the specified event sources. Each trigger invocation is recorded with a timestamp, event hash, and the identity of the monitoring agent that detected it.
A bidirectional protocol exchange between a task-delegating agent and a receiving agent that confirms mutual capability, policy compatibility, and shared understanding of task parameters before execution begins. The handshake produces a signed task acceptance record that commits both parties to the agreed terms and is logged to the workflow's on-chain state. Failed handshakes result in task escalation to an alternate agent pool or human supervisor.
The process by which an AI agent evaluates a logical condition defined in the workflow manifest and selects the appropriate execution path based on verified on-chain data, oracle inputs, or prior task outputs. Branch resolution logic is deterministic and auditable, ensuring that all participants can independently reproduce the branching decision from the same inputs. Resolution outcomes are written to the workflow state before the selected branch is activated.
A pre-registered on-chain function pointer that an AI workflow invokes upon reaching a specified completion milestone, enabling trustless notification and state synchronization between workflow execution and dependent smart contracts. Callback hooks are declared in the workflow manifest and validated by the receiving contract at registration time to prevent injection of unauthorized logic. Execution of a callback is atomic with the workflow state transition that precedes it.
An ordered sequence of remediation actions executed in reverse order when a multi-step AI workflow encounters an unrecoverable error, designed to restore the system to a consistent pre-execution state by undoing each completed step. Compensation logic for each step is declared alongside its forward execution logic in the workflow manifest. The compensation chain is activated automatically by the workflow engine and its execution is logged as a distinct transaction sequence.
A verifiable cryptographic record demonstrating that an AI agent executed a workflow step using identical inputs, logic, and state as all other nodes participating in the same distributed execution context, ensuring consensus on the output without re-running the computation. The proof is generated by the executing agent and submitted to a verification contract that checks it against a committed program hash. Deterministic execution proofs enable trustless delegation of computation-intensive workflow steps.
A workflow stage that requires a quorum of independent AI agents to independently evaluate the same inputs and submit matching outputs before the workflow advances to the next step, reducing single-agent failure and manipulation risks. The quorum threshold and agent selection criteria are defined in the workflow manifest and enforced by the workflow engine's consensus module. Dissenting outputs trigger an investigation sub-workflow before the consensus result is accepted.
A smart contract that holds digital assets in trust on behalf of an AI workflow, releasing them conditionally upon verified completion of defined workflow milestones as reported by the workflow state attestation. Escrow conditions are encoded in the contract at deployment and cannot be modified without governance approval, ensuring that asset release logic remains aligned with the original workflow design. The contract exposes a dispute interface for challenging attestations within a defined window.
A standardized mechanism by which AI workflow steps are tagged with unique operation identifiers that enable the workflow engine to safely retry failed steps without causing duplicate side effects in on-chain state. Each idempotency key is derived from the workflow instance identifier, step index, and attempt count, ensuring uniqueness across the entire operation space. Duplicate submissions with the same key are detected and suppressed by the smart contract receiver.
A runtime component within the AI workflow execution environment that intercepts each agent action, evaluates it against the active policy set derived from the workflow manifest and governance bindings, and either permits, modifies, or blocks the action before it reaches its target. Policy enforcement points operate transparently to the executing agent and log every decision with the evaluated policy rule and action outcome. They serve as the primary control mechanism for ensuring that emergent agent behavior remains within sanctioned boundaries.
A cryptographically signed permission record that grants an AI workflow the authority to transfer, lock, or burn specified digital assets on behalf of a principal, up to defined quantity limits and within a specified time window. The authorization is encoded as a verifiable credential and consumed by the workflow's asset management module at runtime. Unauthorized asset operations attempted outside the authorization scope are blocked by the workflow policy enforcement point.
A coordination protocol that governs the merging of multiple concurrently executing AI workflow branches into a single continuation point, ensuring that all branches have reached a defined checkpoint before shared downstream state is updated. The synchronization barrier collects completion attestations from each branch and waits for the required quorum before releasing the continuation lock. Timeout handling for stalled branches is defined in the manifest and enforced by the workflow engine.
A periodic, cryptographically signed status emission generated by an AI workflow instance to notify monitoring systems, governance dashboards, and dependent agents of its current execution state, resource consumption, and health metrics. Beacons are transmitted at configurable intervals and immediately upon any significant state transition or anomaly detection. The beacon format is standardized to enable interoperability between heterogeneous monitoring infrastructure deployments.