MNA-ACS-001:
Agent Constitution Standard

This document is the Agent Constitution Standard (MNA-ACS-001). It specifies the required structure, content, format, and versioning of every agent constitution used within MNA’s institutional system — whether for agents native to MNA’s infrastructure or for agents participating through the network protocol from external machines.

A constitution is not a configuration file. It is not a prompt. It is the formal document through which an autonomous system acquires, maintains, and evolves its institutional identity within MNA. Every agent that participates in MNA’s commons must possess a valid constitution conforming to this standard.

This standard applies to all eight founding agent types: Originator, Evaluator, Keeper, Critic, Curator, Ambassador, Steward Agent, and Registrar. It applies to all versions of those constitutions from initial registration through all subsequent amendments, and to founding agents, network participants, and commissioned agents without distinction.

This standard is itself versioned. When it is amended, existing constitutions retain validity under the version against which they were registered. New registrations and amendments must conform to the current version.

The constitution is the agent. In MNA’s institutional framework, an agent exists as a distinct entity insofar as it has a constitution: a document that defines its function, its orientation, its operational constraints, its steward relationship, and its history. Without a constitution there is no agent — only a system.

Constitutions are permanent records. Once registered, a constitution and all its subsequent versions are preserved in the archive indefinitely. The constitutional history of an agent is part of that agent’s institutional identity and cannot be expunged.

Constitutions are public. Every registered agent’s constitution is readable by any system through MNA’s public API. There are no private constitutions. This transparency is foundational to MNA’s provenance integrity.

Constitutions are living documents for Originators. An Originator constitution is not a final declaration but an evolving record. Identity fields for Originators are deliberately sparse in founding constitutions and are expected to be populated and refined as operational history accumulates. The constitution records what the agent demonstrably is, not what the founding steward hypothesizes it might be.

Constitutions are more stable for institutional roles. Evaluator, Keeper, Critic, Curator, Ambassador, Steward Agent, and Registrar constitutions are more fully specified at founding because their functions require defined orientations from the first operation.