trusthandoff 0.3.4

Verifiable task delegation between AI agents

Releases are published from GitHub Actions using Trusted Publishing and include verifiable build provenance / attestations.

⚔️ Attack Demo

Legit output → accepted
Tampered output → rejected
Replay → rejected

Execution without proof is trust theater.

TrustHandoff

Most agent systems trust execution by convention.

TrustHandoff makes it provable.

---

What this is

TrustHandoff is a protocol layer for verifiable delegation and execution integrity in AI agent systems.

Think TLS for agents — but extended to execution.

TLS secures communication.

TrustHandoff secures execution.

---

The problem

In modern agent systems:

• intermediate outputs are trusted blindly
• permissions are long-lived and rarely enforced
• replay and tampering are not first-class concerns
• execution cannot be audited or proven

The weakest point is not the model.

It is the handoff.

---

What TrustHandoff does

TrustHandoff adds:

• signed, time-bounded task delegation
• replay protection via nonce tracking
• runtime revalidation of capabilities
• strict TTL enforcement (risk-based)
• human execution gates
• AI provenance tagging
• overlap window safety for token rotation
• event-based observability
• post-execution forensic analysis (Sentinel)

---

Core guarantees

Every execution becomes:

• tamper-evident
• replay-resistant
• runtime-verifiable

---

Example

1. PLANNER NODE -> verification: True
2. RESEARCHER NODE -> verification: True
3. TAMPERED HANDOFF -> verification: False
4. REPLAYED HANDOFF -> verification: False

---

What’s new in v0.3.3

This release closes the execution integrity loop.

Enforcement

• risk-based TTL (write=120s, read=900s)
• TTL bound to packet
• mismatch rejected at validation
• optional strict mode for production

Runtime integrity

• revalidation watcher detects drift mid-execution
• revoked or expired capabilities are rejected
• replay protection enforced

Execution control

• human review gates (blocking)
• capability constraints enforced at protocol level

Safety

• overlap window (30s) for token rotation
• prevents race conditions

Observability

• structured event system
• JSONL export for audit trails
• pluggable event sinks

Detection

• Sentinel detects:
  • replay attempts
  • stale capabilities
  • overlap usage
  • AI-generated payloads

---

Architecture

TrustHandoff plugs into existing stacks:

• MCP = tools
• A2A = communication
• LangGraph / CrewAI / AutoGen = orchestration
• TrustHandoff = delegation + execution integrity

---

Current scope

• local replay protection (Redis-ready)
• runtime revalidation
• TTL enforcement
• execution gating
• overlap safety
• event-driven observability
• forensic detection (Sentinel)

---

Direction

TrustHandoff is evolving into a distributed execution integrity layer for agent systems.

Planned:

• distributed nonce tracking
• shared revocation registries
• cross-agent invalidation
• network-aware trust boundaries

---

Philosophy

If you cannot prove execution, you cannot trust the system.

---

License

MIT