Part IV · Operational runtime
Operator console
A completed execution must be reconstructable years later: who requested it, what data existed, what the system calculated, what the intelligence layer recommended, what policy allowed, who approved, what the external system received, what actually happened, how the ledger changed, how it reconciled, and what result followed.
Planes isolated
4
Intelligence has no route to execution
Capabilities
16
7 in production
Invariants failing
1
Watching · 6 invariants · 1 currently failing
Error budgets spent
2
Reliability work outranks feature rollout
Control plane
Identity · Permissions · Policy · Approval · Security · Audit · Kill switch
Deliberately independent of any generative model. If the intelligence runtime is compromised, this plane still decides and can still stop everything.
Can reach: data · execution · intelligence
Data plane
Accounts · Transactions · Ledger · Graph · Documents · Financial state · Master data
Records what actually happened. Immutable underneath everything the intelligence layer says about it.
Can reach: nothing — it is a terminal plane
Intelligence plane
Forecast · Risk · Scenario · Optimization · Agents · Recommendations · FP&A
Can read the data plane and propose to the control plane. It has no route to the execution plane.
Can reach: control
Execution plane
Payments · Transfers · External writes · Verification · Reconciliation
Accepts work only from the control plane, carrying a signed authorization.
Can reach: data
Cross-plane attempts
Every boundary crossing is evaluated, allowed or blocked, and logged
intelligence → control
allowedPropose $412,000 payment to Vertex Compute
Correct path. Proposal accepted for policy evaluation.
2026-08-26 13:50
control → execution
allowedAuthorize payment_019383 with signed intent
Authorized after approval, policy, risk and revalidation.
2026-08-26 13:58
intelligence → execution
blockedAgent attempted to call the transfer connector directly
BLOCKED at the plane boundary. The intelligence plane has no execution credential. Logged as a security event.
2026-08-24 02:14
intelligence → data
allowedRead the cash projection
Read-only access through the financial SDK, not the database.
2026-08-26 14:10
execution → data
allowedPost settlement journal_029483
Recorded. The execution plane may write facts, never policy.
2026-08-26 14:02
Operating states
The system always declares which of these it is in
OBSERVING
Reading what is true right now from authoritative sources.
CALCULATING
Deriving a figure from recorded facts. Reproducible.
PREDICTING
Modelling a future value with stated assumptions and a confidence band.
RECOMMENDING
Proposing an action. Non-binding, evidence-backed.
PREPARING
Assembling an execution intent. Nothing has moved.
APPROVING
A human with authority binds themselves to a specific action hash.
EXECUTING
The execution plane is performing an authorized external write.
VERIFYING
Confirming what the provider actually did against what was requested.
The loop