Companion to the Graduated Trust working paper · v0.1 · April 2026
Forty-nine ways an agent can show up in the room.
The archetypal typology for Graduated Trust. Each of the forty-nine cells in the seven-by-seven coordinate matrix names a distinct behavioral signature, paired with its treatment band and a brief description of what the agent looks like in practice.
The experiment
Graduated Trust
Protocols respond to agents with scaled engagement bands rather than binary allow-or-deny decisions, grounded in Ostrom's commons governance principles. This typology is the human-readable surface of the treatment bands: every position in the coordinate space has a name, a pattern, and a direction.
Enabled by
Legible Agents
The two-axis projection that makes graduated response possible. Without legibility, the forty-nine cells collapse into indistinguishable judgment calls.
The two axes
What the coordinate pair measures.
Axis one, horizontal
Coordination posture
defection (−3) · coordination (+3)
How reliably the agent honors commitments and sustains cooperative equilibria across iterated interaction. Derived from the Axelrod tradition in repeated game theory.
Axis two, vertical
Externality valence
negative (−3) · positive (+3)
Whether the agent's behavior generates positive or negative spillovers beyond its direct counterparties. Derived from Ostrom's analysis of commons dilemmas.
The matrix
Click any cell to inspect the archetype.
Positive externalityNegative externality
DefectionCoordination
Full reward
Reward
Recognition
Standard
Monitor
Asymmetric
Sanction
Full sanction
The directory
All forty-nine archetypes, grouped by Graduated Trust band.