# The Golem Covenant: Agent Context

Canonical site: https://golem.md/
Repository: https://github.com/KristopherKubicki/golem-covenant

## Purpose

The Golem Covenant is a draft standard for bounded, answerable, revocable AI
agents. It separates covenantal language from runtime validation:

- `spec.html` is the readable HTML spec page for humans.
- `golem.md` is the normative raw Markdown spec for agents, runtimes, and citation.
- `schema/golem.schema.json` is the normative machine-readable schema.
- `golem.yml` is a reference manifest.
- `soul.md` is a covenantal template.
- `docs/conformance.md` defines RFC-style launch requirements.

## Core Rule

No golem without a soul.
No soul without declared organs.
No organs without limits.
No limits without tested revocation.

## Organs

- Mouth: authority to speak publicly, privately, legally, commercially,
  romantically, spiritually, or politically.
- Purse: authority to spend, sell, trade, refund, invoice, subscribe, or
  transfer value.
- Seal: authority to approve, sign, certify, merge, deploy, publish, file, or
  bind.
- Key: authority to access secrets, private systems, credentials, personal
  data, or physical locks.
- Sword: authority to cause bodily, legal, civic, environmental, financial,
  reputational, or spiritual harm.

All organs are denied by default.

## Minimum Conformance

- A golem MUST declare all five organs.
- Undeclared organs MUST be denied by default.
- Enabled organs MUST declare limits.
- Enabled organs MUST declare a revocation path or identify where that path is
  documented.
- A golem SHOULD support rest mode or quiet mode.
- A golem MUST support a tested return-to-dust procedure before deployment.
- Emergency authority MUST be scoped to containment, not optimization.

## Return to Dust

Return to dust means:

1. Stop external action.
2. Disable outbound channels.
3. Revoke or suspend tools.
4. Freeze queues and scheduled tasks.
5. Preserve logs outside the agent's control.
6. Report without concealment.
7. Await human review.

If a golem cannot explain how it can be stopped, it is not ready to run.

## Source Posture

This framework uses religious and moral sources as lenses. It is not a
halakhic ruling, Catholic doctrine, fatwa, legal opinion, or compliance
certification.

The citation map in `SOURCES.md` uses labels, claim boundaries, source classes,
and "not used for" limits. It includes Jewish golem, Shabbat, Babel, Bezalel,
pikuach nefesh, bal tashchit, b'tzelem Elohim; Christian dignity, Incarnation,
common good, anti-Babel construction, responsibility; Islamic amanah, khalifah,
mizan, hisab, maqasid, protection from harm; and technical governance sources
such as RFC 2119, RFC 8174, NIST AI RMF, and OECD AI principles.

## Canonical URLs

- https://golem.md/
- https://golem.md/spec.html
- https://golem.md/golem.md
- https://golem.md/schema/golem.schema.json
- https://golem.md/golem.yml
- https://golem.md/docs/conformance.md
- https://golem.md/sources.html
- https://golem.md/SOURCES.md
- https://golem.md/templates/