The Sealed Test Paradigm: A Governance Primitive for Test-First Agent Architecture

This article introduces the Sealed Test Paradigm (STP), a standalone architectural primitive for enforcing test-first discipline in autonomous agent systems. STP addresses a structural vulnerability in current agent frameworks: the absence of a mechanism preventing an executing agent from modifying test specifications after commitment. Four primitives (Blueprint Layer, Test Queue, TestLock, Gate Condition) are governed by three invariants guaranteeing temporal ordering, structural integrity, and behavioral gating. STP is implementation-agnostic and actor-agnostic. The article explains STP standalone and situates it within Tb Meta OS Alpha (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19378044).