Open Architecture Framework

An Open Architecture for Governed AI Systems

Structured Authority-Centered Architecture (SACA)

SACA is a vendor-neutral architectural framework for designing, governing, and operating AI systems with explicit authority, predictable execution, and transparent decision making.

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workflow.saca.yaml

# SACA Workflow Definition
workflow: document-analysis
version: "1.0.0"

authority:
  scope: read:documents
  grants:
    - retrieval-agent: read:storage
    - analysis-agent: read:documents
    - summary-agent: write:output

steps:
  - id: fetch
    agent: retrieval-agent
    authority: read:storage

  - id: analyze
    agent: analysis-agent
    depends_on: [fetch]
    deterministic: true

  - id: summarize
    agent: summary-agent
    depends_on: [analyze]
    output: typed:SummaryResult

Motivation

Why SACA?

Modern AI frameworks provide powerful orchestration capabilities, but governance, authority management, execution semantics, and observability are often left to individual implementations. As systems grow in complexity, these concerns become architectural problems rather than implementation details.

SACA (Structured Authority-Centered Architecture) defines a vendor-neutral architectural model for governed AI systems. Instead of prescribing a specific runtime or framework, SACA establishes the architectural rules that enable AI systems to execute predictably, enforce explicit authority, remain observable, and evolve consistently across different implementations.

Whether implemented using LangGraph, AutoGen, CrewAI, Semantic Kernel, custom software, or future technologies, SACA provides the architectural foundation for building governed AI systems.

Existing AI FrameworksLangGraph · AutoGen · CrewAI

Execution & Orchestrationruntime · scheduling · tools

SACAvendor-neutral spec

Architecture & Governanceauthority · execution · trace

SACA complements existing frameworks — it does not replace them

Specification

Core Principles

Six architectural invariants that govern every SACA-compliant system.

01Explicit Authority

Every execution must be authorized through declared authority rather than implicit trust or hidden application logic. Authority grants are versioned, auditable, and revocable at runtime.

02Deterministic Execution

Execution behavior should be predictable, reproducible, and governed by explicit architectural rules instead of runtime assumptions. Given identical inputs and authority states, a SACA-compliant system produces consistent outcomes.

03Separation of Authority and Capability

Authority determines what may be executed. Capabilities determine what can be executed. These concerns remain architecturally independent, enabling each to evolve without coupling to the other.

04Observable by Design

Every execution should produce sufficient information to understand decisions, trace execution flow, and support auditing. Observability is a first-class architectural requirement, not an implementation afterthought.

05Composable Architecture

SACA components should be modular and reusable, allowing systems to grow in scope and complexity without changing their governance model. Composition is achieved through typed interfaces and explicit contracts.

06Vendor Neutral

SACA defines architectural standards rather than implementation technology. It is designed to work across frameworks, programming languages, cloud providers, and future AI platforms.

Runtime Model

How SACA Works

SACA defines a vendor-neutral execution architecture in which every execution request is resolved through explicit authority, validated against declared capabilities, executed deterministically, and recorded through a complete execution trace. This architectural model can be implemented by many different runtimes while preserving consistent governance semantics.

Start Building

Documentation

The SACA Handbook provides a complete architectural specification, including the Executive Primer, Reference Architecture, Developer Handbook, Implementation Specification, Practical Examples, Governance Strategy, and supporting engineering figures.

Read the Documentation

GitHub

The official SACA GitHub organization contains the handbook source, reference implementation, engineering figures, example projects, and supporting resources.

View Repository

Versioning

Roadmap

SACA is being developed as an open architectural standard for governed AI systems. The roadmap focuses on specification maturity, reference implementations, and community adoption rather than traditional software release cycles.

In Progress

Phase 1

Foundation