Platform Engine

Your Agents. Our Governance.
Zero Changes Required.

Axis is a governance-first orchestration platform that wraps your existing AI agents with mandatory compliance, immutable audit trails, and full operational telemetry, without requiring you to modify a single line of agent code.

The Problem

The Trust Tax on Enterprise AI

Organizations are deploying AI agents across critical workflows: document processing, compliance checks, data analysis, customer interactions. But every agent deployment creates the same set of questions:

What did the agent actually do? Did it have the right prompt and what was the immediate output?

Was sensitive data protected? Did PII get scanned before the agent touched it?

Can we prove it to a regulator? Not with logs. With cryptographically verifiable evidence.

What happens when an agent fails? Does the transaction disappear, or is it safely preserved for review?

Today, answering these questions requires building custom compliance tooling around every agent. That is the trust tax, and it consumes 40-60% of enterprise AI budgets.

Axis eliminates the trust tax by making governance automatic, mandatory, and provable.

How It Works

Three Mandatory Interceptors

Your agents do not change. Your application sends requests to Axis instead of directly to agents. Every request and response passes through three governance interceptors, no exceptions.

01

PII Scanning

Before any agent sees your data, Axis scans for personally identifiable information. Social Security numbers, names, email addresses, phone numbers, and mailing addresses are detected and scrubbed. If PII cannot be safely handled, the request is parked for human review rather than proceeding with exposed data.

02

Immutable Audit Trail

Every step of every orchestration is recorded: which agent ran, what data it received (hashed), what it returned (hashed), how long it took, what model it used, how many tokens it consumed. When the orchestration completes, the entire audit record is sealed and anchored to IPFS, making it tamper-proof and regulator-ready.

03

LLM Telemetry

Every LLM call is tracked: token counts, model versions, prompt hashes, costs, latency. This is verified telemetry captured by Axis's governance layer; not estimates, not sampling.

Integration

Bring Your Own Agents

Axis is designed to work with the agents you already have or the ones you are building. You are not locked into our agent ecosystem. You bring the intelligence; we provide the governance.

Register agents using industry-standard protocols. Axis wraps each one with the same mandatory governance layer regardless of provider, framework, or hosting model.

Protocol Description Integration
MCP JSON-RPC 2.0 agents Native support
A2A Google's agent interop protocol Native via Agent Cards
Skan AOW Semantic agent discovery Discovery & matching
REST/HTTP Standard HTTP APIs Supported

Agent Discovery: MCP, A2A, and Skan AOW

Axis does not just call agents. It discovers them, using the protocols the industry is converging on. These three protocols work together:

Skan AOW Discover

The discovery layer. A standardized vocabulary for intents, skills, policies, and outcomes. When a pipeline specifies a capability without naming a specific agent, Axis queries AOW-compatible registries for agents that match.

A2A Describe

Rich metadata via Agent Cards at /.well-known/agent.json: provider, version, documentation, skills, and input/output modes. When an A2A agent registers, the health check fetches the Agent Card. This metadata enriches the Agent Registry automatically.

MCP Invoke

The primary protocol for tool invocation. Your MCP agents expose tools via JSON-RPC 2.0. Axis calls them directly. MCP provides sparse metadata, so Axis supplements it from the Agent Registry when needed.

An agent discovered at runtime via AOW passes through the exact same governance interceptors as a pre-registered internal agent. Governance is inescapable by design.

Axis architecture diagram showing the happy path flow: your application submits a document to the Axis governance layer (PII scanning, pipeline execution, audit sealing), which routes to your agents and returns a result with a compliance receipt

Figure 1: Axis Happy Path - From Document Submission to Compliance Receipt

Governance Tiers

Choose Your Level of Visibility

Not all agents provide the same level of instrumentation. Axis accounts for this with three governance tiers that determine how much telemetry Axis can verify.

Tier 1

Opaque

Default for External Agents

Axis captures envelope telemetry only: timing, payload hashes, success or failure. Your agent operates as a black box. Axis records what went in and what came out, but does not see inside the agent's processing.

Tier 2

Cooperative

Self-Reported Telemetry

Your agent includes a self-reported telemetry block in its response: token counts, model version, cost. Axis captures this alongside its own envelope data. The telemetry is trusted but not independently verified.

Tier 3

Verified

Full Proxy Telemetry

Your agent's LLM calls route through Axis's LLM proxy. Axis captures the actual token counts, model versions, prompt hashes, and costs directly. No self-reporting needed. The highest confidence in telemetry accuracy.

You choose the tier at registration time. You can upgrade tiers as your integration matures.

Getting Started

From Registration to Production

Here is what a typical agent integration looks like, end to end.

01

Register Your Agent

Provide your agent's endpoint, protocol, capabilities, a sample request, and expected response. Axis generates a secure API key and your agent starts in DRAFT status.

POST /api/v2/agents
{
  "agentId": "acme-document-classifier",
  "agentName": "Acme Document Classifier",
  "protocol": "mcp",
  "endpoint": "https://agents.acme.com/classifier/mcp",
  "healthEndpoint": "https://agents.acme.com/classifier/health",
  "governanceTier": "TIER_2",
  "capabilities": ["document.classify", "document.extract"],
  "sampleRequest": { "document": "Rate filing for homeowners..." },
  "expectedResponse": { "type": "RATE_FILING", "confidence": 0.95 },
  "outputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": ["type", "confidence"] }
}
02

Axis Validates Your Agent

Axis automatically runs the onboarding pipeline. Your agent progresses through a formal lifecycle:

Health Check MCP: tools/list, A2A: Agent Card, REST: HTTP 200
Test Invocation Sample request returns matching response
Team Review Novus team reviews and activates
03

Define Your Pipeline

Create an orchestration manifest that includes your agents alongside internal engines. Configure routing, budgets, and parking rules.

pipeline-manifest.yaml
pipeline_id: document-processing
routing_mode: FIXED
steps:
  - step_name: classify
    agent: acme-document-classifier
    required: true
  - step_name: extract_rules
    agent: internal://rule-extractor
    required: true
    input_from: steps.classify.output
  - step_name: validate
    agent: internal://drools-validator
    required: true
    input_from: steps.extract_rules.output
budget:
  max_steps: 10
  max_tokens: 500000
  max_duration_ms: 120000
parking_rules:
  park_on_agent_failure: true
  park_on_human_review: true
04

Submit Orchestrations

Send documents to Axis. The governance layer handles everything behind the scenes.

POST /api/v2/orchestrations
X-Tenant-ID: acme-corp
Authorization: Bearer <api-key>
{
  "documentContent": "Rate filing for homeowners insurance...",
  "documentType": "policy",
  "externalId": "DOC-2026-001"
}

Behind the Scenes

PII Scan - Axis scans the document before any agent sees it
Classify - Your agent processes through the governance wrapper
Extract Rules - Output flows to the next step via dot-path resolution
Validate - Drools business rules evaluate the extracted data
Audit Seal - Complete audit record sealed and anchored to IPFS
Response - Your application receives the result with a compliance receipt
05

Monitor in the Glass Box Dashboard

Full visibility into every orchestration, in real time.

  • Pipeline View - See each step, its agent, timing, and result
  • Parked Transactions - Review transactions that need human attention
  • Agent Registry - Monitor your agents health, status, and failure counts
  • Telemetry - Token usage, costs, and performance metrics per agent
  • Audit Export - One-click export of complete audit trails
Glass Box

Human in the Loop, Not an Afterthought

The Glass Box Dashboard is not a monitoring add-on. It is the control surface where governance becomes visible and human judgment enters the pipeline.

At multiple points in every orchestration, the pipeline can stop and ask a human. Not because it failed, because it was designed to. PII flagged in a document that cannot be auto-scrubbed? The transaction parks and an analyst reviews the finding. Two business rules contradict each other? The transaction parks with a formal proof of the collision. A budget threshold is about to be exceeded? The transaction parks before spending another token.

Every parked transaction preserves its complete state: which step it reached, what data it had processed, and exactly why it stopped. When your analyst resolves the issue, the pipeline resumes from where it left off. Nothing is lost, nothing is reprocessed, nothing is hidden.

This is what separates a Glass Box from a dashboard. A dashboard shows you what happened. A Glass Box lets you participate in what is happening, at the exact moment your judgment matters.

Glass Box Dashboard showing Axis governing a Koda ontology ingestion pipeline with step-by-step visibility

The Glass Box running a governed Koda ingestion: each pipeline step is visible in real time, from document intake through PII scanning, concept extraction, axiom generation, and collision detection.

Resilience

What Happens When Things Go Wrong

Axis does not silently fail. When something goes wrong, the transaction is preserved, not lost.

Agent Failure

If your agent returns an error, times out, or produces unexpected output, the transaction is parked with its full state saved. Axis counts consecutive failures per agent. After 3 consecutive failures, the agent is auto-deactivated. The parked transaction remains visible in the dashboard for human review.

Logical Collisions

If Axis's ontology engine detects a logical contradiction in the data, for example two business rules that cannot both be true - the transaction is parked with a formal proof of the contradiction. A human analyst resolves it.

Budget Exceeded

If an orchestration exceeds its configured budget (tokens, time, cost, or step count) it stops immediately and parks. No runaway orchestrations. No surprise bills.

Transaction Retention

Parked transactions have a configurable retention window (default: 30 days). Seven days before expiration, notifications are sent to assigned analysts. After expiration, transactions are automatically archived.

The Proof

Compliance Receipt

Every API response includes a compliance receipt, structured proof that all governance steps ran. PII scanning, audit trail sealing, and telemetry capture are confirmed with every single response.

"This is not a status message. It is auditable evidence that your compliance team can present to regulators."

compliance_receipt.json
{
  "compliance_receipt": {
    "governance_coverage": "full",
    "pii_scan": {
      "executed": true,
      "findings": "CLEAN"
    },
    "audit_trail": {
      "executed": true,
      "ipfs_cid": "Qm...",
      "sealed_at": "2026-02-17T00:14:02.651Z"
    },
    "telemetry": {
      "total_tokens": 510456,
      "per_step_governance": [
        {
          "step": "classify",
          "agent": "acme-document-classifier",
          "governance_tier": "TIER_2",
          "telemetry_source": "SELF_REPORTED",
          "tokens": 12500,
          "duration_ms": 3200
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}
Enterprise

Multi-Tenant by Design

Multiple business units, clients, or product lines can share a single Axis deployment with complete data isolation.

Isolated Data

Transactions, agents, and audit trails scoped per tenant

Tenant-Specific Rules

Drools business rule packs loaded per tenant

Configurable Retention

Per-tenant transaction retention windows

Header-Based Routing

X-Tenant-ID header on every request

Developer Experience

CLI, SDK, and REST API

axis-cli
# Submit a document
axis orchestrate submit \
  --document filing.pdf \
  --manifest golden-loop

# Check status
axis orchestrate status ORQ-2026-001

# List active agents
axis agent list --status ACTIVE

# Export audit trail
axis audit export ORQ-2026-001 \
  --format json
axis-sdk-python
from axis_sdk import AxisClient

client = AxisClient(
    base_url="https://axis.novus-forge.com",
    api_key="nva_...",
    tenant_id="acme-corp"
)

# Submit orchestration
result = client.orchestrate(
    document="Rate filing...",
    manifest="golden-loop"
)

# Access compliance receipt
receipt = result.compliance_receipt
print(receipt.audit_trail.ipfs_cid)
REST API v2
POST
/orchestrations Submit document
GET
/orchestrations/{id} Get status and result
POST
/agents Register new agent
GET
/agents/{id} Get agent details
POST
/agents/{id}/health Trigger health check
POST
/agents/{id}/activate Activate agent
Production Proven

Real Results from a Real Filing

Axis is not a whiteboard architecture. Here are actual metrics from processing a California HO3 homeowners filing through the Golden Loop pipeline.

541 Concepts Extracted
550 Axioms Generated
1 Collision Detected
37 Coverage Gaps
510K Tokens Tracked
100% Audit Coverage
01 Document Intake
02 Document Triage
03 Ontology Mapping
04 Rules Validation
05 PII Compliance
06 Audit Sealing

The same architecture powers any domain. Insurance is the proof point. Read the full use case

See the Full Use Case

541 concepts, 550 axioms, 1 collision caught. Real metrics from a real filing

Insurance Filing Analysis

See Axis in Action

Request a demo to see how Axis brings mandatory governance to your AI agent workflows. No changes to your agents required.