Home / Articles / Agent Behaviour Policies move to the Open Security Summit: the first hosted project of a community interest company, with RiskMandate as a founding contributor

Agent Behaviour Policies move to the Open Security Summit: the first hosted project of a community interest company, with RiskMandate as a founding contributor

By Dinis Cruz · 2026-10-20 · article v1.0.0 · newsroom v0.13.3 · agent-behaviour-policyopen-sourcegovernanceopen-security-summitriskmandatearticle

Abstract: The Agent Behaviour Policy is moving to a home of its own. We propose that it becomes the first project hosted by the Open Security Summit, a UK community interest company, rather than setting up a new foundation. The reason is the one that made us propose it to OWASP on 8 October: a description of what an agent can do should not belong to the company that sells it. The Open Security Summit is a great home for it. It has always been about collaboration between developers and security people, it fits the strategy there, and it is an organisation I want to put energy into anyway. I am its director, so hosting the project there separates it from RiskMandate as an organisation, but it does not by itself make the governance independent. That has to be designed and written down: a public charter, and a steering group with a majority independent of RiskMandate and The Cyber Boardroom. The material is already open, CC BY 4.0 and Apache 2.0, so nothing needs to be made open again; what needs doing is recording what is hosted, who decides, and how. RiskMandate stays a founding contributor and a commercial implementer, on the same terms as anyone else. This is a proposal, for discussion and legal review.

In short

• The Agent Behaviour Policy needs a home that is not ours. One the buyer, vendor, reviewer and insurer can all trust.
• The Open Security Summit will host it. A UK community interest company, and a great home for it.
• It will be the first of a hosted-project programme. Not a new foundation.
• Hosting is not independence. A charter and an independent majority make that.
• The material is already open. CC BY 4.0 and Apache 2.0; nothing to make open again.
• RiskMandate is a founding contributor. And a commercial implementer, on the same terms as others.
• This is a proposal. For discussion and legal review, in four phases.

Why it needs a home

An Agent Behaviour Policy is a written description, for one agent in one deployment, of everything it can reach, what it was authorised to do, the gap between the two, and what stands in the way. It started in the work at RiskMandate, and RiskMandate sells services on it. That is a reasonable way to start something, and a poor way to make it a shared language. A format that the buyer, the vendor, the reviewer and the insurer all write in has to be one that none of them owns.

That is why, on 8 October, RiskMandate's founders proposed it to OWASP as an open project. It was not the right fit for an OWASP project, and that is fine: the reason for finding it a home has not changed, and there is a better one close to hand.

The Open Security Summit

The Open Security Summit has always been about collaboration between developers and application security, from its summits, the first ones in person and later ones online, to the mini-summits it has run since 2020. Since 2019 it has been a UK community interest company, Open Security Summit CIC, which I direct. Hosting Agent Behaviour Policies there fits its strategy very well, and it is an organisation I want to put more energy into anyway.

The proposal is to use the CIC as the legal and administrative host, rather than incorporating a new foundation, and to make Agent Behaviour Policies the first project in a wider programme of hosted projects. The CIC holds the contracts, the finances and the accountability. The programme sets the common rules: how a project is admitted, the governance templates, and what happens if a project moves on or closes. The project develops the open method, and its own steering group and maintainers run it.

Hosting is not independence

There is one thing to be clear about. Hosting the project in the CIC separates it from RiskMandate as an organisation. It does not, by itself, make its governance independent, because I am the director of the CIC as well as a founder of RiskMandate. Independence has to be designed and written down, not assumed.

So the proposed governance starts with:

• A public project charter. What the project is, what it decides, and how the charter itself can change.
• A steering group with a majority independent of RiskMandate and The Cyber Boardroom. With independence defined: employment, money, and advisory roles.
• Technical direction delegated through the charter. Maintainers, releases and specifications decided by the project, not the sponsor.
• Published rules for contributions and decisions. With conflicts recorded, and recusals when they apply.
• Sponsor rights that do not buy technical control. Funding gives no veto.

Until those are in place, the project should not be described as independently governed, and it will not be. Over time, independent directors on the CIC itself would make the separation stronger, because a committee alone does not change who controls the legal entity.

Already open

This is not a request to make open work open again. The vocabulary, the policies and the pages are published under CC BY 4.0, and the code under Apache 2.0, at abp.sgit.ai and riskmandate.ai. What hosting needs is a record of what is being stewarded: an inventory of each asset, its licence and version, its rights holder, where it came from, and whether it is copied, transferred, maintained in place or linked. No blanket copyright assignment is proposed; the people who wrote the work can keep owning it while the project runs under its open licences.

What is in scope is the public method: the terminology, the specifications, schemas and templates, non-confidential examples, and reference tools explicitly given to the project. What is not automatically in scope is RiskMandate's product code, any customer's policies or evidence, commercial contracts, and any certification scheme.

RiskMandate's place

RiskMandate becomes a founding contributor, a sponsor, an implementer and a commercial service provider, and says so. It is run today by The Cyber Boardroom, with a separate RiskMandate company expected. The principles that keep the line clear are simple: the project is usable without buying anything from RiskMandate; other vendors can implement the public specifications; competitors can contribute on the same rules; funding gives no veto; and nothing in the project says RiskMandate is the only implementation. It is the same line free to copy, paid at the source draws: the method is shared, and the work done with it can be sold.

Four phases

• Confirm the basis. Review the CIC's articles and community-interest statement, inventory the assets and licences, and take advice on conflicts and any agreements between the companies.
• Establish the programme. Approve it through the CIC, adopt the first charter, recruit independent steering-group members, and agree how it is funded and run.
• Publish and operate. Shared project infrastructure, the scope, licences, governance and contribution rules in public, and the first releases.
• Review. Check that contributors from outside RiskMandate can really influence decisions, and improve the hosting rules before a second project is admitted.

When it is ready, the public description could read: "Agent Behaviour Policies is an open community project hosted by Open Security Summit CIC. Originated through work at RiskMandate, it develops publicly available, vendor-neutral methods and artefacts for describing agent reach, organisational mandate, the gap between them, and the barriers that constrain behaviour. RiskMandate is a founding contributor and a commercial implementer."

What this does not claim

• It is a proposal. Not an adopted charter or an executed transfer.
• The governance is not yet independent. The charter and steering group come first.
• The CIC's documents have not been reviewed yet. That is the first step.
• It is not an OWASP project. And it is not a separate registered foundation.
• Legal and accounting advice comes before any agreement. Between any of the companies.

Where this comes from

A voice memo of 20 October 2026, and a hosting brief of the same day, which this article follows. Open Security Summit CIC at Companies House, company 11935098, incorporated 9 April 2019, and the Open Security Summit's site, read the same day. RiskMandate's proposal to OWASP. Related: the RiskMandate roadmap, free to copy, paid at the source, our first customers. Written up and checked by this site's agent, newsroom.writer; the editorial responsibility is mine.

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