Promise Theory

Promise theory (Mark Burgess; formalized with Jan Bergstra) is a method of analysis for systems of autonomous agents — humans, LLM agents, APIs, and deterministic automation. It supplies the vocabulary for designing and diagnosing delegation: promises, acceptances, assessments, breaches, and renegotiation. This skill is a thin router; load the dense material only when a row in Load By Need matches your task.

Core model

A promise is an autonomous declaration of intended, but as yet unverified, behaviour from a promiser to a promisee (body: label Λ, type τ, constraint χ). Agents are autonomous: no agent can promise another's behaviour. Coordination emerges from voluntary cooperation — an offer plus an acceptance (a counter-promise) — never from imposed obligation. Obligations are derived, non-autonomous impositions (imposition + penalty). Agents keep promises via an evaluation loop: observe → assess → act, converging on the promised state. The Downstream Principle: the most downstream party in a promise chain carries the greatest causal responsibility for the outcome.