Agent Marketplace CBA side, mock catalogue
Illustrative reference model

This is a CBA side illustration standing in for the catalogue the bank already runs, such as ServiceNow or Backstage. It is deliberately thin. What is being demonstrated is the handoff, not the catalogue.

TC-06, TC-01 Agent registration and discovery

The catalogue says an agent exists. It never says the agent is trusted.

This is where an agent is registered, owned, described and found. Registering one here produces an Agent Identity Manifest and hands it to the Trust Controller, which then takes its own decision about identity. Two owners, two decisions, one contract between them.

Register an agent Registration requests
10Catalogue entries
6Governed agents
4Ordinary applications
2Manufactured outside CBA
8Identity issued
2Recognised by federation

The boundary

Two control decisions that are routinely confused for one

A catalogue that grants identity has quietly become the trust authority, and a trust controller that owns registration has quietly become the service registry. Keeping them apart is what makes either of them governable, and the manifest is what lets them stay apart while still working together.

Owned here, by the catalogue

The marketplace owns the agent as a catalogue object

  • Whether an agent should exist at all, and who is accountable for it
  • Registration, ownership, business purpose, version and discovery
  • Evidence pointers: the repository, the software bill of materials, the risk assessment
  • Retiring the catalogue entry when the agent is decommissioned

A registration this catalogue refuses never becomes a manifest, so the Trust Controller is never asked.

Owned elsewhere, by the Trust Controller

The Trust Controller owns the agent identity

  • Whether an identity is approved, and the capability envelope it may hold
  • Key material, lifecycle state and the change history of both
  • Publication of the entity statement, and withdrawal of it on suspension
  • The decision to refuse, which leaves the catalogue entry standing

An identity refusal does not remove the catalogue entry. The agent still exists as a registered thing, it simply holds no identity.

The Agent Identity Manifest is the only thing that crosses between them. Agent registration approval and identity approval are separate control decisions, taken by different owners, and neither one implies the other.

The catalogue

Every agent and application in the estate

Read from the estate model, not typed in here. The registration columns are the catalogue's own records. The identity column is held by the Trust Controller and shown here as the last outcome this catalogue received.

Agent Owner Version Catalogue state Identity state
Accounts Payable Orchestrator Agent Runs accounts payable for business banking customers: reads supplier invoices and settles them inside a payment authority the customer approved once. Business Banking, Accounts Payable Commonwealth Bank of Australia 2.3.0 registered issued held by the Trust Controller
Invoice Settlement Sub Agent Agent Sub agent of ag-ap-orchestrator Settles a single supplier invoice for the accounts payable orchestrator, one attested instance per invoice. Business Banking, Accounts Payable Commonwealth Bank of Australia 2.3.0 registered issued held by the Trust Controller
Retail Servicing Agent Agent Answers retail customer servicing questions in the CommBank app from account information, and cannot move money. Retail Banking, Customer Servicing Commonwealth Bank of Australia 1.8.4 registered issued held by the Trust Controller
Operations Reconciliation Agent Agent Reconciles supplier invoices against settled payments for group operations staff. Group Operations, Reconciliation Commonwealth Bank of Australia 1.2.1 registered issued held by the Trust Controller
Ledgerline Payables Assistant Agent Built by Ledgerline Software A payables assistant built by Ledgerline Software, for business banking customers who keep their books in Ledgerline. Business Banking, Partner Integrations Commonwealth Bank of Australia 3.0.2 registered recognised by federation held by the Trust Controller
Meridian Settlement Agent Agent Built by Meridian Payments Bureau Settles supplier invoices for business banking customers through Meridian Payments Bureau, under the bank's accreditation. Business Banking, Payments Partnerships Commonwealth Bank of Australia 5.4.0 registered recognised by federation held by the Trust Controller
CommBank App Application The retail banking application customers sign in to for everyday banking and home lending. Retail Banking, Digital Commonwealth Bank of Australia 11.4.2 registered issued held by the Trust Controller
CommBiz Portal Application The business banking portal a customer approves payment authority in, and the channel the accounts payable agents are delegated from. Business Banking, Channels Commonwealth Bank of Australia 8.2.0 registered issued held by the Trust Controller
ASB FastNet Application The New Zealand retail banking application, on a separately run platform under the same group anchor. ASB Digital ASB Bank Limited 6.9.1 registered issued held by the Trust Controller
CommSec Trading Application The share trading platform, whose identity requirements never matched retail banking. CommSec Platforms Commonwealth Securities Limited 4.1.7 registered issued held by the Trust Controller