Agent Governance Register

Reviewed

AI agent governance policy template

In short: This template is a short policy for AI agents that you can adopt as written or edit. It sets the rules for inventory, ownership, purpose, least privilege, approval, audit evidence, access review and decommissioning. Each clause names the register control it supports, so evidence maps back cleanly.

Download AI agent governance policy (MD)

Purpose and scope

This policy sets the minimum rules for every AI agent that acts on company systems or data. It applies to agents we build, agents we buy and agents supplied by partners.

Clause 1: inventory (GOV-01, GOV-16)

  • Every agent is registered in the agent inventory before it receives access.
  • Security runs discovery at least monthly to find unregistered agents.
  • An unregistered agent is suspended until it is registered or removed.

Clause 2: ownership and purpose (GOV-02, GOV-03)

  • Every agent has one named accountable owner who is a current employee.
  • The owner writes a purpose statement listing tasks, tools and data classes.
  • When an owner leaves, their manager becomes owner until a new owner is named.

Clause 3: access (GOV-04, GOV-05, GOV-10, GOV-18)

  • Agents start with the narrowest access their purpose needs.
  • Agents use short-lived credentials. Static keys need a written exception.
  • Agents may call only tools on their approved list.
  • An agent acting for a person never exceeds that person's permissions.

Clause 4: approval (GOV-06, GOV-07, GOV-08)

  • Every agent action is checked against policy when it happens.
  • Actions listed in the approval matrix wait for a named human approver.
  • No agent may approve its own action, and requesters may not approve their own requests.

Clause 5: changes and testing (GOV-09, GOV-20)

  • Policy and permission changes need a ticket and a reviewer other than the requester.
  • New policies are tested against recorded sessions before enforcement.

Clause 6: audit evidence (GOV-13, GOV-14, GOV-23)

  • Every action is logged with agent, person, tool, decision and time.
  • Logs flow to the SIEM and are kept for the period in the retention schedule.

Clause 7: review and retirement (GOV-11, GOV-12, GOV-15, GOV-19)

  • Owners review agent access every quarter.
  • Agents are decommissioned when their task ends.
  • Security can revoke any agent at once using the kill switch.
  • Agent incidents follow the agent incident runbook.

Clause 8: reporting (GOV-24)

  • The risk committee receives the board one-pager every quarter.

Ownership of this policy

The chief information security officer owns this policy and reviews it every year.

Which controls does it support?

Reviewed by The Register desk