Four KYE Autonomy Tiers™. One runtime-control floor at each step.
EC-Council ADG names three autonomy tiers (HITL / HOTL / HOOTL). KYE Autonomy Tiers™ compresses those into a sharper four-tier ladder so the runtime-control floor at each step is unambiguous: A0 Human-only · A1 Assist · A2 Scoped delegation · A3 Autonomous with Authority Finality™. Each tier names the KAC™ controls and the evidence schemas that MUST be operating for an action to be admissible at that tier. The canonical set lives at public/examples/autonomy-tiers/canonical-tiers.json.
A0 → A1 → A2 → A3 — sequenced, not parallel.
Each rung declares the runtime-control floor that must be operating for an action to be admissible at that tier. Authorised actions climb; refused or de-escalated actions slide back down.
Which controls must be operating at which tier.
| Control | A0 | A1 | A2 | A3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KAC™-1 Entity Registry | — | required | required | required |
| KAC™-2 Delegation Envelope™ | — | — | required | required |
| KAC™-3 Chain of Authority Map | — | — | — | required |
| KAC™-4 Tool & MCP Authority Register | — | — | required | required |
| KAC™-5 Action Admissibility™ Gate | — | — | required | required |
| KAC™-6 Runtime Policy Resolution | — | — | required | required |
| KAC™-7 Evidence Capture at T=0 | — | — | required | required |
| KAC™-8 Replay Proof | — | — | required | required |
| KAC™-9 Authority Finality™ Record | — | — | — | required (A3 floor) |
| KAC™-10 Revocation and Expiry Control | — | — | required | required |
| KAC™-11 Human Oversight and Escalation | — | — | required | required |
| KAC™-12 KYE Seal™ — Assurance Record | — | — | required | required |
HITL / HOTL / HOOTL ↔ A0 / A1 / A2 / A3
- HITL ↔ A1 / lower-A2. Human-in-the-loop on every decision. KYE™ optional at A1; KYE™ required from A2 upward.
- HOTL ↔ upper-A2. Human-on-the-loop — approver on-call for critical-point reviews. KAC™-11 is the runtime gate that lifts the right action at the right moment.
- HOOTL ↔ A3. Human-out-of-the-loop except for declared exceptions. Authority Finality™ (KAC™-9) is the A3 floor — the action's chain is provably terminal before the supervisor learns it happened.
Pick the tier. The control floor follows.
An agent deployment declares its tier; the runtime refuses to admit any action that requires a control the tier does not have. Honest by construction.