Empirical Software Engineering
Published February 3, 2026 | Version v1
Preprint Open

The Citadel Protocol: A Reference Architecture for Hardware-Enforced Agentic Governance

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Abstract

As Artificial Intelligence systems transition from chat-based interfaces ("Co-Pilots") to autonomous execution engines ("Agents"), the traditional software-based security perimeter (RBAC, IAM, OAuth) becomes insufficient. The complexity of multi-agent coordination creates an N(N-1)/2 communication overhead, leading to "Policy Drift" where probabilistic models bypass logical constraints.

This paper proposes The Citadel Protocol, a reference architecture that replaces probabilistic governance with deterministic hardware attestation. By binding agent identity to a Hardware Root of Trust (HRoT) and enforcing execution inside a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), we demonstrate a method for eliminating "Mercurial Core" silent data corruption and ensuring non-repudiation in high-value autonomous transactions.

Keywords: Agentic AI, Hardware Root of Trust, TEE, Sovereign Cloud, Attestation, Governance, Citadel Protocol.

License: CC-BY-4.0

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Citadel Protocol-Hardware-Enforced AI - Theo Ezell.pdf

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References

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