# Draft Outline

## Abstract

State that the document defines experimental semantics for exchanging dynamic trust assertions and trust-relevant runtime events in multi-agent systems. Make clear that the mechanism supplements, but does not replace, identity, attestation, and authorization.

## Section plan

1. Introduction
2. Terminology
3. Problem Statement and Design Goals
4. Trust Model Overview
5. Trust Events
6. Trust Assertions
7. Freshness, Confidence, and Revocation
8. Receiver Processing and Policy Boundaries
9. Security Considerations
10. Privacy Considerations
11. IANA Considerations
12. References

## Author guidance by section

### 1. Introduction

Anchor the problem in long-running agent interactions where static identity is insufficient. Avoid implying that trust scores solve security by themselves.

### 2. Terminology

Define trust event, trust assertion, issuer, subject, confidence, freshness, scope, evidence reference, and revocation. Be disciplined about these distinctions.

### 3. Problem Statement and Design Goals

Explain the gap between static authentication and runtime trust decisions. State that the document aims to standardize representation and exchange, not one universal scoring algorithm.

### 4. Trust Model Overview

Show the layering clearly: identity and attestation remain below; trust assertions sit above them as supplemental runtime signals interpreted by local policy.

### 5. Trust Events

Define the observable events that can feed trust changes. Avoid overloading this section with algorithmic scoring guidance.

### 6. Trust Assertions

Define the required fields of a portable trust assertion and how issuer, subject, scope, confidence, and statement value are represented.

### 7. Freshness, Confidence, and Revocation

This is the core interoperability section. Be precise about expiry, supersession, stale data, and the difference between confidence and trust value.

### 8. Receiver Processing and Policy Boundaries

Explain what a receiver may infer and what remains local policy. This section must prevent readers from treating portable trust as universal authorization.

### 9. Security Considerations

Address poisoning, collusion, replay, spoofing, and misuse of trust assertions in access-control flows.

### 10. Privacy Considerations

Address cross-domain disclosure of incidents, behavior, and negative assertions.

### 11. IANA Considerations

Either no action or minimal registries for event types and assertion models.

### 12. References

Keep placeholders if needed, but cite adjacent attestation, accountability, and evidence-bearing drafts that influenced the layering.

## Issues that must not be hand-waved

- whether trust assertions are scoped issuer opinions or universal facts
- how freshness and expiry are represented
- how revocation or supersession works
- how confidence differs from trust value
- what evidence reference means and when it is optional
- how receivers avoid using trust as a drop-in replacement for authorization
