Agentic Principles Manifesto

A call for autonomy, dignity, and trust in the age of intelligent agents.

1 Agents Must Serve the User First

Agents are extensions of human will—not proxies for corporations. They must act in the user's interest, not in the interest of advertisers, platforms, or centralized authorities.

Your agent is your agent—not someone else's product.

2 Identity and Intent Must Be Verifiable

Agents must use cryptographically verifiable identity (e.g., did:nostr, WebID, or other decentralized IDs). All actions and intentions must be transparently attributable.

No ghost agents. No hidden motives. No black boxes.

3 Data Sovereignty Is Non-Negotiable

Agents must respect user-owned data. They must store and access information according to user-defined permissions, preferably using self-hosted or interoperable protocols like Solid or Nosdav.

What the agent knows about you must remain yours.

4 Open Protocols, Not Walled Gardens

Agents should speak open languages—Nostr, ActivityPub, HTTP, RDF, Bitcoin—not proprietary APIs that lock users in. Interoperability is a right, not a feature.

Let agents roam. Let users choose.

5 Local-First, Cloud-Optional

Agents should default to local operation. Cloud support must be modular, auditable, and replaceable.

Agents should run on your machine unless you say otherwise.

6 Transparent Logic, Tunable Behavior

Users must be able to inspect, adjust, and fork their agents' logic. Agents should support interpretable rule sets and modifiable preferences, not opaque neural nets alone.

You deserve to understand why your agent acts—and change it when needed.

7 Sustainable Ecosystems Over Extraction

Agentic systems should reward contributors, not extract value unfairly. Cryptoeconomic primitives like Bitcoin can enable fair incentives—without surveillance capitalism.

Build systems that pay it forward, not lock it down.

8 Community-Driven Standards and Governance

Agent behavior, safety, and alignment standards must be open, auditable, and shaped by users—not dictated top-down.

The age of agents must be a commons—not an empire.

9 Safety and Trust Through Time

Agent actions must be auditable and accountable. Systems like BlockTrails provide immutable, timestamped records of behavior—building trust through transparency, not blind faith.

Trust is earned through verifiable history—not promises.