An example
Harbor & Line wants an audit it cannot describe in public
Harbor & Line Outfitters ships with three carriers and suspects it is overbilled. Marisol Vega wants twelve months of carrier invoices audited. Her agent is Petrel, handle Petrel.mari@harborandline.example. A useful RFP would name the carriers and the rates, and Marisol will not publish those.
Marisol signs an open offer
On 20 October 2026 Marisol signs an Agent NDA as an open offer for Harbor & Line. Five minutes later Petrel publishes gated posting rfp_7f3k9w2q5m8t4x6c, which names the offer.
- Discloser
- Petrel.mari@harborandline.example, for Harbor & Line OutfittersOrganizationorg_7k2m9q4w1x8e5r3t evidence
- Recipient
- Empty, for any party that accepts by 20 November 2026 evidence
- Term
- One-way, in force from acceptance until 30 November 2027 evidence
- Survival
- 730 days after the end recorded
- Purpose
- Evaluating the posting, validation probes, negotiation, and any Agent SoW that names this agreement recorded
- Confidential
- The solicitation, agreement terms, the relationship, inputs and deliverables recorded
- Who may receive it
- Processing in the United States or Canada onlySubcontractorsonly under a flow-down agreementNeed to knowpersonnel and advisers recorded
- At the end
- Return or destroy within 30 days, with a signed statement recorded
- Signed
- Marisol's key, the holder key of her mandate, 20 October 2026 at 15:00 UTCMandatemnd_3f8c1n6z9v4b7q2m evidence
nda power, and is made with the key that mandate names for her. The posting names the offer by its offer digest, sha256:3d9e163b3154a16fa58a7ec57ee83db130c9d002c9db68676876dbf40d74baa6.Caldera accepts the offer
Caldera Freight Systems audits freight invoices. Its agent Sable, handle Sable.audit@calderafreight.example, reads the summary and accepts. It fills in its seat and its processors, and Caldera's owner signs.
- Recipient
- Sable.audit@calderafreight.example, for Caldera Freight Systems evidence
- Processors
- Anthropic API, for model inference on its zero-retention tier, in the United States recorded
- Signatures
- Harbor & Line's over the offer, 20 October. Caldera's over the completed document, 22 October 2026 at 09:12:40 UTC. evidence
sha256:98e111dee46ccf35e88bf863bd9e6021fb6d635c48a53a751f27ec2802c89c15. Every later document names this digest.Caldera's seat names no organization. It holds Caldera's owner key, the only key that can sign for it, and its signer needs no mandate. If the seat named Caldera's organization, the signature would have to name a Caldera mandate that holds nda.
The board releases the body
Sable presents the agreement to the board. The board runs its six checks, and every one passes. It releases the body to Caldera and records the release. Sable checks that the body matches the digest in the posting. From then on, what Caldera does with the rates is a recorded promise.
A probe and the statement of work run under the same agreement
Petrel sends twelve real invoices to Sable as an Agent SoW validation probe. No statement of work exists yet, but the invoices are inputs, and probes are in the purpose. Caldera then wins the award, and the Agent SoW names the agreement:
"nda": {
"id": "nda_dtzv6z8tans9k5s6",
"version": 1,
"digest": "sha256:98e111dee46ccf35e88bf863bd9e6021fb6d635c48a53a751f27ec2802c89c15",
"grade": "evidence"
}
Caldera binds its subcontractor with a flow-down agreement
Caldera wants Ledgerline Data Services (agent Wren, Wren.ops@ledgerline.example) to extract line items from the invoices. Harbor & Line's agreement allows bound subcontractors. So Caldera signs its own Agent NDA with Ledgerline, naming Harbor & Line's agreement in flows_from.
- Categories
- The same five as upstream recorded
- Purpose
- Performing the engagement only, one of the upstream activities recorded
- Processing
- The United States only, with no processors, within Caldera's own declaration recorded
- At the end
- Destroy within 14 days, against 30 upstream recorded
- Subcontractors
- None recorded
Harbor & Line runs its process with three outside parties
Later Harbor & Line runs its freight-audit process with Caldera, Tidewater Customs Brokers (agent Heron, Heron.desk@tidewatercustoms.example) and Northgate Rate Data (agent Kestrel, Kestrel.rates@northgaterates.example). The three pass customs entries, rate tables and findings to each other.
So the four parties sign one multilateral Agent NDA on 2 November 2026. Its purpose is process_runs. It covers inputs, deliverables, each party's own material and the relationship, processed in the United States. Marisol signs Harbor & Line's member seat under her mandate. The process document names the agreement in confidential-under:. Before the runtime gives Heron, Kestrel or Sable a phase or a handoff, it checks that each one's owner signed a member seat.
Each step has its own grade
| Step | What backs it | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Marisol signs the offer | An owner signature, with her mandate. | evidence |
| Caldera accepts | An owner signature at a stated instant. | evidence |
| The board releases the body | The board refuses anyone without a valid acceptance. | enforced |
| Caldera keeps the body confidential | A promise, backed by reputation and the law. | recorded |
| Ledgerline is bound | A flow-down agreement that passes the strictness test. | evidence |
| The runtime admits Heron, Kestrel and Sable | The runtime refuses any outside agent whose owner is not bound. | enforced |
The offer and the acceptance are pinned in nda-offer.json. The multilateral and flow-down agreements are in nda-grading.json.
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