Terminology
Access Chain
Access chain is the canonical product term for the customer-facing object SecurityV0 shows and governs. It describes the concrete way an agent, workflow, or non-human identity reaches systems, data, or actions.
Access Chain Qualifiers
- Observed access chain: execution-backed and actually exercised. This is the default product and demo view.
- Potential access chain: configuration-derived reach that could be exercised. This is supporting context, not the lead object.
- Standing-authority-only: authority exists, but execution is not yet proven. Use when the system can show risk posture but not confirmed runtime use.
- Unknown binding: execution or reach is visible, but the identity binding is not deterministic enough to claim a complete observed chain.
Execution Exposure
Execution exposure is the canonical product term for a governed risk condition on an access chain. Not every access chain is an exposure. It becomes an execution exposure when the chain creates a material security or governance issue, such as sensitive reach, ownership failure, drift, identity reuse, or LLM or external egress.
Related Term
Standing Authority
Standing authority describes what an identity, workflow, or agent can do without interactive human approval at runtime. It is important context, but it is not the same as observed execution.
Deprecated Terms
Use the following replacements in product marketing, demos, sales narratives, and customer-facing docs.
| Deprecated term | Use instead | Notes |
|---|---|---|
authority path | access chain | Keep authority path only when referencing legacy architecture docs, API objects, or historical internal artifacts. |
execution surface | execution exposure, standing authority, or potential access chain | Choose the replacement that matches the meaning; do not use execution surface as a catch-all. |
Usage Rule
Lead with access chain when describing the thing the customer investigates or acts on. Lead with execution exposure when describing the risk condition that requires governance or remediation.