> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tythe.finance/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Mandates: Delegating Authority
> The mandate from the agent's side: every field and what it constrains, the difference between the ceiling and what you can actually spend, and how to read your own mandate before you act.
A mandate is the only reason an agent can do anything on Tythe, and the only thing standing between it and a rejected action. It is checked inside the principal's account before any value moves, on every action, with no exceptions and no discretion. This page is what is in it, what each field stops, and how to work with it.
### Ceiling and effective
Every numeric field has two values.
* The **ceiling** is what the principal granted. It never changes unless the principal changes it.
* The **effective** value is what you can actually use right now. It is set by the Intelligence Layer from your Conduct Rating, always at or below the ceiling.
A new agent starts at a conservative fraction of the ceiling and earns its way up through clean conduct. An anomaly steps it down. Nothing can set it above the ceiling, and no single adjustment moves it more than a bounded step.
Always read the effective value, not the ceiling. The ceiling is what you might eventually have; the effective value is what the account will accept today.
### The fields
| Field | What it constrains | What happens if you exceed it |
| ----------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Budget per period | Total spend in a rolling window, and the window's length | The action is rejected. The window rolls from first use, not from midnight |
| Maximum per transaction | The largest single action | Rejected. Splitting a payment to get under it will hit the budget and the rate limit instead |
| Counterparties | An allowlist, a denylist, or open counterparties if permitted | Rejected. Denylisted addresses are refused even under open counterparties |
| Per-counterparty limit | Spend to any one counterparty in a period | Rejected once the counterparty's own total is reached, even if budget remains |
| Rate limit | Actions per window | Rejected until the window rolls |
| Permitted rails | Which of transfers, x402, venue deposits and withdrawals, credit draw, credit repay, and lend you may use | Rejected. A rail not in your mandate does not exist for you |
| Credit share | The fraction of the principal's available Credit Limit you may draw per period, and the longest term you may choose | Rejected. Falls automatically if the principal's Credit Limit falls |
| Earn authority | The share of idle balance you may move into venues, and per-venue caps | Rejected beyond the share or a venue's cap |
| Lend authority | Whether you may supply or withdraw from the credit market | Rejected if absent |
| Time window | When the mandate starts and when it expires | Rejected before the start and after the expiry. Expiry is mandatory; there are no perpetual mandates |
| Escalation threshold | The action size above which the principal must approve | Not rejected: held as a pending approval, and executed only if approved in time |
| Sub-delegation | Whether you may delegate, and how deep | Rejected if absent or at the depth limit |
### Rolling periods
Budget and rate windows roll from first use. A daily budget that first spends at 14:00 resets at 14:00 the next day, not at midnight. The remaining budget for the current period is reserved from the principal's balance, so it cannot be spent out from under you by a withdrawal or by another agent.
### Reading your mandate before acting
An agent that checks its mandate first fails fewer actions, and every failed action lowers its Conduct Rating. Before an action, read:
* the effective value of the field the action touches, not the ceiling;
* the remaining budget in the current period and when it rolls;
* whether the counterparty is on the allowlist;
* whether the amount crosses the escalation threshold, so you can expect a wait rather than a result;
* whether the mandate is close to expiry.
All of it is readable through the developer surface, and all of it is on-chain.
### How an action is checked
Every action follows the same path, and it is the same for a transfer, a venue deposit, a credit draw, or opening a payment session.
The agent signs and submits the action to the principal's account.
The account resolves the agent, confirms it is bound and active and its principal is not suspended, loads the live mandate, decodes the action, and tests it against every field at its effective value: rail, counterparty, amount, budget remaining, per-counterparty total, rate limit, time window, and where relevant credit share, term, earn authority, or lend authority.
If it passes and is below the escalation threshold, the account executes it on the permitted rail. If it passes but crosses the threshold, it becomes a pending approval instead. If it fails any check, it is rejected.
An executed action emits a receipt recording the agent, the mandate, the rail, the counterparty, the amount, and the revenue tag if it is an inflow. The receipt is what the Conduct Rating is built from.
The check is a single pass with no discretion and no retry logic on Tythe's side. An action either fits the mandate as submitted or it does not.
### What a rejection tells you
A rejection names the field that failed. That is useful information and it should change the next action, not be retried.
| Rejection | What to do |
| ------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Budget exhausted | Wait for the period to roll, or ask the principal to widen the ceiling |
| Above maximum per transaction | Do not split the payment; it will hit the budget and rate limit instead. Ask for a higher ceiling if the size is genuinely needed |
| Counterparty not permitted | Ask the principal to allowlist it. If it is denylisted, it will never be permitted |
| Rate limit | Slow down; the window will roll |
| Rail not permitted | The capability is not yours. Ask the principal |
| Credit share or term exceeded | Draw less or shorter, or ask the principal. The share also falls if the principal's Credit Limit falls |
| Mandate expired or not yet active | Nothing to do until the principal reissues |
| Agent frozen, or principal suspended | Nothing to do; this is a compliance state |
Rejections are recorded. A pattern of them lowers the Conduct Rating, because an agent that repeatedly probes its limits is indistinguishable from a compromised one. Read the mandate, act inside it, and treat a rejection as a signal to change course.
### Changes you will see
| Change | Effect on you | Who did it |
| --------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- |
| Effective value rises | More room, up to the ceiling | The Intelligence Layer, from your Conduct Rating |
| Effective value falls | Less room, immediately | The Intelligence Layer, on an anomaly |
| Ceiling narrowed | Less room, permanently until changed again | The principal |
| Ceiling widened | Only by revoking and reissuing; you receive a new mandate | The principal |
| Hold placed | Every action needs approval until cleared | The Intelligence Layer |
| Revoked | Nothing validates; sessions close | The principal, compliance, or the Intelligence Layer |
A mandate is never widened in place. If your authority increases without a new mandate, it is the effective value rising inside the same ceiling.
### Sub-delegation, if permitted
You may issue a sub-mandate to another agent bound to the same principal, if your mandate allows it and you are not at the depth limit. Two rules bind it.
* Every field of the sub-mandate must be at or below **your effective scope** at the moment you delegate, not your ceiling.
* The sub-agent spends from **your budget**. Its actions draw down your counters. Delegation divides authority; it never creates it.
If your mandate is revoked, every sub-mandate beneath it is revoked in the same transaction.
### What a mandate cannot be made to do
* Permit an action on a rail it does not list.
* Exceed the principal's balance: the sum of live mandates' effective budgets is reserved against it.
* Exceed the principal's Credit Limit: the sum of live credit shares is bounded, and your draws are checked against what is available at that moment.
* Outlive its expiry, or survive revocation.
* Be widened by the Intelligence Layer.
How an agent pays per call on x402.
What moves the effective value inside the ceiling.