The vocabulary
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Canonical agent | The business record for an accountable agent, with its own ID and decisions. |
| Observation | A selected source report, scoped to one configured connection and provenance. |
| Binding | The explicit connection from an observation to exactly one canonical agent. |
| Source owner | An owner/account reported by the provider; distinct from business accountability. |
| Business owner | The accountable person/team recorded in CatProof; assignment does not imply acceptance. |
| Provenance | The distinction between seeded demonstration, observed and manual evidence. |
| Freshness | Source-observation availability and timestamps, not runtime health. |
| Review revision | The optimistic version of the latest pair decision. |
| Binding revision | A monotonic count that catches intervening identity moves. |
Example: two records, one business agent
Fictional Databricks record db-017 is named Invoice helper. ServiceNow record sn-204 is named Invoice assistant. The responsible team confirms both represent the same business agent. A reviewer moves one source identity to the existing Finance-owned record. Both source IDs remain attributable; provider records are unchanged.
Example: same name, different agents
Development and production both report Support assistant. They have different scopes, purposes and owners. Choose Keep separate with a reason. A timestamp-only refresh preserves the choice. A material ownership or scope change reopens it for review rather than silently merging either record.
Example: a rename versus replacement
If db-017 is renamed Invoice helper v2, update that observation while preserving its binding and business owner. If the provider issues db-028, do not assume continuity from the name alone. Review whether it is a replacement deployment or a different business agent.
Example: a shared tool
Two agents use a related MCP server. An explicit asset link can show the shared context. That does not prove they are the same agent or that one calls the other. Runtime behavior needs its own evidence contract.