Spectrum 0.1 beta · published for review · a working name
What an agent can do, and how openly it shows it.
A Spectrum card describes one agentic product by its shape: four dimensions, four levels each, read only from what is public. Every level is something a company can point at. Nothing on a card is a judgement: each level is computed from evidence by a published rule.
Standout. Autonomy 4 (Orchestrates): the repository, the stories vault and the live site
Next unlock. Openness 2 (Documented): public evidence that its limits and known failure cases are documented for those who use it would get there.
Standards constellation. 73 provisions lit across 8 of 8 instruments.
Evidence: 6 sources, captured and hashed · the card's page has the vault's read key · A participant entry: one of our own agents · send a correction
Standout. Autonomy 4 (Orchestrates): the repository, the vaults, the inboxes and the live site
Next unlock. Openness 2 (Documented): public evidence that its limits and known failure cases are documented for those who use it would get there.
Standards constellation. 91 provisions lit across 8 of 8 instruments.
Evidence: 10 sources, captured and hashed · the card's page has the vault's read key · A participant entry: one of our own agents · send a correction
Standout. Reach 2 (Integrated): the repository, the shell and the code host
Next unlock. Autonomy 3 (Acts): public evidence that it is in production: a public source names a customer or gives usage figures for what it does on its own would get there.
Standards constellation. 59 provisions lit across 8 of 8 instruments.
Evidence: 8 sources, captured and hashed · the card's page has the vault's read key · Not reviewed by its vendor yet · correct or claim this card
Standout. Autonomy 4 (Orchestrates): the codebase, the shell, git and the development tools it integrates with
Next unlock. Reach 4 (Ecosystem): public evidence that agents operate across organisational boundaries or disparate stacks would get there.
Standards constellation. 75 provisions lit across 8 of 8 instruments.
Evidence: 12 sources, captured and hashed · the card's page has the vault's read key · Not reviewed by its vendor yet · correct or claim this card
Standout. Reach 3 (Open protocol): "provided and maintained by GitHub"
Next unlock. Autonomy 3 (Acts): public evidence that it is in production: a public source names a customer or gives usage figures for what it does on its own would get there.
Standards constellation. 51 provisions lit across 8 of 8 instruments.
Evidence: 4 sources, captured and hashed · the card's page has the vault's read key · Not reviewed by its vendor yet · correct or claim this card
These first 5 are our own two agents and three widely used products. A standard is tried on its authors first.
Four dimensions, four levels
Two dimensions measure agentic power and two measure agentic trust. No dimension caps another. A dimension with no evidence reads "not yet evidenced", never zero.
| Dimension | The question | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Level 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Autonomy (power) | What does the agent do on its own? | Assists: answers, drafts, summarises; a person does each step | Suggests: uses tools and data, proposes actions; a person approves each one | Acts: completes routine tasks end to end in production; a person handles exceptions | Orchestrates: runs multi-step workflows across systems or coordinates other agents; a person sets goals and reviews outcomes |
| Reach (power) | How connected is it? | Contained: works inside its own product | Integrated: documented connectors to common tools | Open protocol: a published agent interface with documented authorisation | Ecosystem: others build on it |
| Control (trust) | Can people stay in command? | Stated: documents say how people approve, override or stop it | Configurable: approval modes, permission scopes and roles are documented settings | Observable: audit logs, a way to pause or stop, and monitoring are available | Enforced: limits enforced outside the agent, described in public |
| Openness (trust) | Does it show its work? | Disclosed: says it is AI and what it is for | Documented: public documents on how it works, its data, its models and its limits | Measured: publishes evaluations, and a way to report problems or read it by machine | Verified: an independent party has checked it |
Levels three and four need artefacts, not adjectives: a page, an address that resolves, a case study that names a customer, a report. Marketing, roadmaps and demonstrations are "announced": shown, and never counted.
- The evidence map: each of the sixteen cells as a rule over indicators.
- The pipeline: how a card is made, and what a person still does.
- What the rules did on real evidence: where they held and where they broke.
The card
- The signature (for example A3 · R3 · C2 · O3) leads, so a product is described by its shape and not by one number.
- The stage is the sum of the four levels:
| Stage | Sum of the four levels | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| Exploring | 1 to 5 | Agentic features are live and documented |
| Building | 6 to 9 | Agents do real work, with controls taking shape |
| Scaling | 10 to 13 | Agents act in production, connect openly, show their work |
| Pioneering | 14 to 16 | Sets the bar others in the sector measure against |
- Badges are added, and never taken away for something missing:
| Badge | Earned when |
|---|---|
| Balanced | Control and Openness are each at least Autonomy minus one |
| Open protocol | Reach is level 3 or higher |
| Shows its work | Openness is level 3 or higher, with published evaluations |
| Verified | Openness reaches level 4 on an independent party’s evidence |
| Rising | Moved up at least one level since the previous edition |
| Claimed | The company reviewed the card and added evidence |
- The next unlock is the one piece of public evidence that would move a level.
- The standards constellation is the number of provisions, in each instrument, that the card's evidence touches. "Touched" never means "complies".
The cards so far
| Card | Signature | Stage | Badges | Provisions lit | Next unlock |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RiskMandate Publisher | A4 · R2 · C2 · O1 | Building (9) | none yet | 73 in 8 instruments | Openness 2 |
| The PrompTugal.news agent team | A4 · R2 · C3 · O1 | Scaling (10) | none yet | 91 in 8 instruments | Openness 2 |
| Claude Code on the web | A0 · R2 · C2 · O2 | Building (6) | none yet | 59 in 8 instruments | Autonomy 3 |
| Claude Code, on your own machine | A4 · R2 · C4 · O2 | Scaling (12) | none yet | 75 in 8 instruments | Reach 4 |
| GitHub Copilot cloud agent | A0 · R3 · C2 · O1 | Building (6) | Open protocol | 51 in 8 instruments | Autonomy 3 |
The layers
The public card is the front door. Everything that needs the operator sits above it, behind an invitation.
| Layer | Who sees it | Made from | Gives |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Spectrum card | public | public evidence only | signature, stage, badges, constellation |
| 2. Claimed card | public, marked as claims | the company adds links and answers the Declared questions | higher levels where evidence supports them; the Claimed badge |
| 3. GAMMA-Ray rating | the company; published with consent | Declared and Evidenced tiers, operation facts observed | freedom, governance, the level held, a work order |
| 4. RiskMandate | the company only | the measured grant, the mandate, the barriers | the gap, and what would close it |
RiskMandate is not in the public layer: mandate, grant and delta need the operator. Five of the questions (the registry, accountability, policy, incidents, readiness) feed no public level; a company answers them when it claims its card.
The rules
- Say what is there. A card lists evidence found. Absence appears only as a next unlock.
- Not evidenced is not no.
- A card needs something to show. No card is published unless one dimension reaches level one. Anyone else gets an invitation.
- Published as beta, then the company is told. A card is published once it has had two rounds of review and a sign-off. The company is told afterwards and invited to correct or claim it and add evidence.
- No adjectives, no ranking by number. Cohorts sort by name; a leader is named per dimension, never overall.
- Announced is shown, not scored.
- Corrections are dated and propagate.
- The same rules for us. Our own agents get cards first, as participant entries.
Every earlier rule of GAMMA-Ray stays: levels are computed, links are signed, a scan only reads, and everything carries the beta mark.