Definition · safety governance
agent safety
agent safety is the work of keeping an agent’s goals, choices, and effects within set limits. You can spot agent safety in practice when the record shows what the system observes, what choice it makes, and what changes next, without asking the reader to guess or trust a slogan.
157 definitions656 sourced recordsNamed source: ACL Anthology
Why does agent safety matter?
Safety asks if an agent stays within its bounds when inputs shift, tools fail, or rules clash. For agent safety, start with three checks: What is the agent allowed to do? Where does a person approve or interrupt it? What record remains after the run? The answers should point to visible evidence, not a promise.
What does agent safety look like?
A lab agent must stop when a request goes past the approved test plan. This example makes agent safety visible by naming the actor, the action, and the result in practice. It is an illustration for readers, not a claim that every product behaves this way.
What is agent safety easy to confuse with?
Agent safety limits harmful behavior. Agent security guards the system from attack, theft, and misuse. The closest entries here are agent identity, agent security, agent payments. Compare their definitions with agent safety before using the names as if they mean the same thing. That comparison keeps agent safety separate from nearby ideas without pretending the boundary is always perfect.
How certain is this definition?
This definition is provisional. ACL Anthology supports the version you see today, but a better or more direct source may change it. Open the cited page and check its date before you use this entry to choose a product, write a policy, set a safety control, or design a system.
Who introduced the term agent safety?
We have not verified who first introduced agent safety. The source supports a useful definition, but it may not be the earliest use. Until a dated primary record settles the question, we leave the origin open. A popular article or product page is not enough to name the person who coined a term.
What should you understand before agent safety?
Read agent governance first when agent safety depends on a more basic idea or mechanism. The link gives you a useful route through the glossary. It does not mean every author teaches the subject in this order, so follow the source when the sequence matters.
What should this term help you answer?
Use agent safety to ask what an agent can observe, decide, change, remember, or hand off. The questions below turn the definition into a practical check. They are prompts for your own work, not claims made by the source, so change them to fit the system you are examining.
- What is the agent allowed to do?
- Where does a person approve or interrupt it?
- What record remains after the run?
Which source supports this definition of agent safety?
ACL Anthology supports this working definition of agent safety. We checked the link on 2026-07-12. Open the original record for its context, methods, limits, and publication details. The short explanation here is a guide to agent safety; the linked source remains the evidence to inspect when the wording or boundary matters.
source foundagent safetyChecked 2026-07-12→