How PACT works
PACT sits between an agent's intent and a consequential application mutation. Its job is to turn broad intent into narrowly scoped, short-lived transactional authority.
Intent arrives
A human or WebMCP agent states the desired outcome. No mutation authority is granted yet.
PACT compiles an exact plan
Semantic effects, canonical base version and negative invariants become a deterministic transaction payload.
Safety analysis runs automatically
PACT validates preconditions, forbidden side effects and the state snapshot before asking a person anything.
One human decision
Approval binds a short-lived capability to the exact plan hash. An agent cannot manufacture this trusted gesture.
Commit + verification run automatically
PACT applies the semantic effects, validates canonical postconditions and anchors a receipt into the audit chain.
The user approves intent, not implementation mechanics.
The previous UI made people manually click every state transition. The redesigned protocol experience treats deterministic transitions as machine work.
Humans intervene only when authority is about to be granted or when a failure requires a new decision.