Governance and Maturity Checklist

Use this checklist to gauge where an agent — or your whole agent estate — sits.

Foundational

Basic Instrumentation

• User Message and Agent Response hooks instrumented on every production agent

  • Every agent has input and output boundary hooks
  • Hooks are firing consistently and reliably
  • Basic policy evaluation is working

• Guardian Agent exists as a distinct, testable service

  • Guardian Agent is deployed and accessible
  • Policy evaluation logic is centralized
  • Service has monitoring and health checks

• Basic trace events reach a central log

  • Session start/end events are captured
  • Tool calls are logged
  • Trace data is stored and queryable

Foundational Capabilities

At this level, you can:

• Monitor basic agent interactions
• Enforce simple input/output policies
• Detect obvious security issues
• Audit agent activity at a basic level

Foundational Gaps

Typical gaps at this level:

• No tool-level controls
• No memory or knowledge protection
• No structured security event mapping
• No component inventory
• No formal governance processes

Managed

Extended Instrumentation

• Tool Call Request/Result hooks instrumented with parameter-level (not just tool-name) policy

  • Tool calls are evaluated before execution
  • Parameters are inspected, not just tool names
  • Tool results are screened before agent consumption

• Memory and Knowledge hooks instrumented

  • Memory write operations are gated
  • Memory read operations are screened
  • Knowledge retrieval is inspected
  • Both read and write paths are protected

Security Integration

• Trace events mapped to OCSF and flowing into the enterprise SIEM

  • Security-relevant events are converted to OCSF format
  • Events are forwarded to existing SIEM infrastructure
  • Security team can query and analyze agent events

• Static AgBOM exists for every production agent

  • Initial component inventory is complete
  • AgBOM is captured in CycloneDX or SPDX format
  • Component lists are reviewed and approved

Governance Processes

• Verdict logs reviewed on a fixed cadence
  • Guardian Agent decisions are reviewed regularly
  • False positive/negative rates are tracked
  • Policies are tuned based on review findings

Managed Capabilities

At this level, you can:

• Control tool usage with parameter-level precision
• Protect memory and knowledge from poisoning
• Integrate agent security with existing security operations
• Inventory and track agent components
• Review and tune security policies systematically

Managed Gaps

Typical gaps at this level:

• No protocol-level controls (MCP, A2A)
• Static rather than dynamic inventory
• No enterprise-specific classifiers
• No explicit compliance mapping
• No red-team testing program

Optimized

Protocol-Level Controls

• MCP and A2A protocol-level hooks instrumented for every agent that uses them
  • MCP outbound connections are gated
  • MCP inbound traffic is screened
  • A2A task delegation is authenticated
  • A2A messages are authorized

Dynamic Inventory

• AgBOM is dynamic — regenerates automatically on capability discovery
  • New tool connections trigger AgBOM updates
  • MCP server connections are detected and recorded
  • Model switches are captured in inventory
  • AgBOM stays current without manual intervention

Enterprise Integration

• Tier 3 enterprise classifiers (PII/PHI, cost, jurisdiction) plugged into the Guardian Agent
  • Organizational data classification is integrated
  • Cost monitoring and alerting is active
  • Jurisdiction-specific rules are enforced
  • Industry-specific requirements are addressed

Compliance Mapping

• Explicit compliance crosswalk maintained (EU AI Act Article 14, NIST AI RMF)
  • ACS controls are mapped to regulatory requirements
  • Compliance evidence is systematically collected
  • Legal and risk teams understand the technical implementation
  • Audit-ready documentation is maintained

Security Testing

• Red-team testing against the full ASI01–ASI10 catalog is part of the release process
  • New agents are tested against all ASI scenarios
  • Red-team findings are addressed before deployment
  • Testing is repeated regularly, not just at release
  • Test results inform policy improvements

Community Engagement

• Learnings fed back to the open ACS/AOS specification
  • Implementation issues are reported to the community
  • Feature requests are submitted based on production experience
  • Best practices are shared with other adopters
  • Contributions are made to the open-source project

Optimized Capabilities

At this level, you can:

• Control protocol-level agent interactions
• Maintain real-time component inventories
• Enforce organization-specific security requirements
• Demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements
• Validate security controls through adversarial testing
• Influence the evolution of the ACS/AOS standards

Optimized Characteristics

At this level, your implementation:

• Is comprehensive — covers all ACS capabilities
• Is integrated — works seamlessly with existing security infrastructure
• Is dynamic — adapts automatically to changes
• Is validated — tested through adversarial scenarios
• Is compliant — mapped to regulatory requirements
• Is contributory — improves the broader ecosystem

Maturity Assessment

Scoring Your Maturity

Use this scoring system to assess your overall maturity:

Maximum Score: 35 points

Maturity Levels

• 0-5 points: Initial — Basic experimentation, no production deployment
• 6-15 points: Foundational — Production deployment with basic controls
• 16-25 points: Managed — Comprehensive controls with security integration
• 26-35 points: Optimized — Full ACS implementation with compliance validation

Improvement Path

Identify gaps at your current level and prioritize:

1. Complete all items at your current level before moving up
2. Focus on high-impact items first — security-critical controls
3. Address dependencies — some items require others to be complete
4. Plan for governance — processes are as important as technology

Implementation Timeline

From Initial to Foundational (1-3 months)

• Deploy Guardian Agent service
• Instrument input/output hooks on critical agents
• Set up basic trace collection
• Establish initial governance processes

From Foundational to Managed (3-6 months)

• Extend instrumentation to tool calls
• Add memory and knowledge hooks
• Integrate with SIEM and security operations
• Create initial AgBOM for all agents
• Establish regular policy review cadence

From Managed to Optimized (6-12 months)

• Add protocol-level controls (MCP, A2A)
• Implement dynamic AgBOM updates
• Integrate enterprise classifiers
• Map controls to compliance requirements
• Establish red-team testing program
• Engage with ACS/AOS community

Continuous Improvement

Regular Assessments

Schedule maturity assessments:

• Quarterly for Foundational implementations
• Bi-annually for Managed implementations
• Annually for Optimized implementations

Assessment Focus Areas

Each assessment should review:

• Technology coverage — are all required hooks instrumented?
• Policy effectiveness — are controls working as intended?
• Integration quality — is security integration effective?
• Governance processes — are reviews and testing happening?
• Compliance status — are regulatory requirements met?

Improvement Planning

Use assessment results to:

• Identify gaps — missing capabilities or processes
• Prioritize improvements — focus on highest-impact items
• Plan next steps — create roadmap for advancement
• Track progress — measure improvement over time

Key Takeaways

1. Three maturity levels — Foundational, Managed, Optimized
2. Clear criteria — specific, measurable items at each level
3. Progressive advancement — complete each level before moving up
4. Balanced focus — technology, process, and compliance
5. Continuous improvement — regular assessments and planning
6. Community engagement — contribute back at higher maturity levels

Next Steps

• Ecosystem & Roadmap — understand how ACS is evolving and where it’s headed
• Limitations & Critique — understand the current constraints and considerations