KYE™ Entity Types
This document lists the entity types KYE Protocol™ recognizes. Type names are stable identifiers used in entity records, policy inputs, and dictionaries.
This document defines names only. The lifecycle, validation rules, and attestation requirements for each type are part of the normative specification, which is published separately.
Hierarchy
Every KYE™ entity resolves into one canonical containment tree (v3-final, locked 2026-05-14). The tree is parent-required at every node. Model, Tool, External App, and Audit Stream are first-class Workspace-level entities in v3 — they are not subtypes of Principal.
Tenant (kye:tenant:…) — billing + isolation root
├── Legal Entity (kye:lglent:…) — registered company / regulator-facing legal person
├── Billing Account (kye:bill:…) — Stripe customer + payment method + tax id
├── Domains (kye:dom:…) — verified DNS domains, branded URLs
├── Policies (kye:pol:…) — active Operating Model™, rule bundles, attestations
└── Workspaces (kye:wsp:…) — environment / dataspace (prod, sandbox, region-specific)
├── Projects (kye:prj:…) — units of work; scoped budgets + quotas
├── Teams (kye:team:…) — RBAC + ownership group
├── Resources (kye:res:…) — D1 tables, R2 buckets, queues, connectors
├── Principals (kye:prin:…) — the acting parties (Human / System / Agent)
├── Models (kye:model:…) — inference artefacts; versioned
├── Tools (kye:tool:…) — named callables; declared side-effects
├── External Apps (kye:extapp:…) — 3rd-party integrations; partner connectors
└── Audit Streams (kye:audstream:…) — append-only event destinations (SIEM, S3, Kafka)
Each entity carries a state field governed by a registered state machine (see public/vocabulary/state-machines.md). Every entity also carries a state_machine_id identifying which machine governs it. Relationships between entities are explicit typed edges (see public/vocabulary/relationships.md).
Tenant-level siblings (5)
| Sibling |
Stable type |
ID class |
Required parent |
Purpose |
| Legal Entity |
legal_entity |
lglent |
tenant_id |
registered legal person; regulator-facing record (company number, country, jurisdiction). One Tenant MAY hold multiple Legal Entities (group structure, foreign subsidiaries). |
| Billing Account |
billing_account |
bill |
tenant_id |
Stripe customer id, default payment method, billing email, tax id, currency. One Tenant MAY hold multiple Billing Accounts (split billing per business unit). |
| Domains |
domain |
dom |
tenant_id |
verified DNS domains the Tenant owns (acme.com, acme-uk.com). Used for branded sender, federation routing, SSO. |
| Policies |
policy_bundle |
pol |
tenant_id |
active Operating Model™, rule bundles, attestation policies, sub-processor list. One Tenant MAY hold multiple Policy Bundles (one per regime: PRA / DORA / EU AI Act). |
| Workspaces |
workspace |
wsp |
tenant_id |
environment / dataspace. One Tenant MAY hold many Workspaces (prod / sandbox / eu-west-1 / consumer-bank / corporate-bank). |
Workspace-level siblings (8)
| Sibling |
Stable type |
ID class |
Required parent |
Purpose |
| Projects |
project |
prj |
workspace_id |
unit of work; scoped budget + quota; one Operating Model fragment per Project |
| Teams |
team |
team |
workspace_id |
RBAC + ownership group; who-owns-what; bounded delegation surface; approval routing |
| Resources |
resource |
res |
workspace_id |
D1 tables, R2 buckets, queues, connectors that live inside the workspace. Resources are leaves — they don't contain other entities |
| Principals |
principal |
prin |
workspace_id; team_id optional |
the acting party — referenced as actor_entity_id / principal_entity_id in every Decision Map™ row |
| Models |
model |
model |
workspace_id |
an inference artefact (LLM, vision model, embedding model); carries provider, family, version, weights_hash. First-class in v3. |
| Tools |
tool |
tool |
workspace_id |
a named callable (function, MCP tool, API endpoint); carries function_signature, declared_capabilities[], side_effects[]. First-class in v3. |
| External Apps |
external_app |
extapp |
workspace_id |
a 3rd-party integration or partner connector acting on behalf of the tenant; carries partner_org_id, connector_kind, oauth_subject. First-class in v3. |
| Audit Streams |
audit_stream |
audstream |
workspace_id |
an append-only event-log destination the Workspace writes to (SIEM, S3, Splunk, Kafka topic); governed by an authority grant, not an IAM binding. New in v3. |
Principal subtypes (v3: 4 subtypes)
In v3, principal_class has exactly four values — human, system,
agent, and external_app (the schema enum on
kye.entity.principal.v1, "reduced from six to four"). The v2 values
model and tool are deprecated — promoted to standalone entity
classes (kye:model:…, kye:tool:…). external_app is retained as a
principal_class (a 3rd-party integration acting on behalf of the tenant)
and ALSO exists as a standalone entity class (kye:extapp:…, see the
table above). See constitution/DEVIATIONS.md for the migration window.
Every Principal MUST resolve to exactly one subtype via its principal_class field:
| Subclass |
Examples |
Subclass-specific fields |
human |
person, employee, contractor, operator, approver, auditor, regulator, customer, patient, support_user |
full_name, email_hash, idp_subject, role |
system |
workload, service_account, api_client, serverless_function, container, vm, cluster, runtime, queue_consumer, webhook_endpoint, connector |
service_principal_id, runs_in_workspace, owning_team_id |
agent |
ai_agent, agent_runtime |
model_entity_id (→ kye:model:…), tool_entity_ids[] (→ kye:tool:…), operating_loop_kind |
external_app |
3rd-party integration / partner connector acting on behalf of the tenant |
partner_org_id, connector_kind, oauth_subject |
Note that in v3 an agent Principal references its Model via a
kye:model:… entity ID and its Tools via kye:tool:… entity IDs —
it does not embed them as subtypes.
The hierarchy is enforced at schema time (kye.entity.{tenant, legal_entity, billing_account, domain, policy_bundle, workspace, project, team, resource, principal, model, tool, external_app, audit_stream}.v1) and at runtime by the PDP. KYE Onboarding Agent™ auto-creates a default Workspace + Team + admin Principal for every newly-granted Tenant so existing API keys, decisions, and audit rows always resolve to a valid parent chain.
Human entities
| Type |
Description |
person |
A natural person |
employee |
A person employed by a legal entity |
contractor |
A person engaged under a service contract |
operator |
A person operating a system or workflow |
approver |
A person empowered to approve actions |
auditor |
A person performing audit review |
regulator |
A regulatory authority representative |
customer |
A consumer of a product or service |
patient |
A patient in a healthcare context |
support_user |
A support-context user |
Organizational entities
| Type |
Description |
business |
A commercial organization |
legal_entity |
A registered legal entity |
subsidiary |
A subsidiary of a parent company |
parent_company |
A parent company |
department |
A department within an organization |
team |
A team within an organization |
public_authority |
A public-sector authority |
processor |
A data processor |
subprocessor |
A sub-processor |
supplier |
A supplier or vendor |
relying_party |
A relying party in an identity exchange |
Technical entities
| Type |
Description |
workload |
A running computational unit |
service_account |
A non-human service identity |
api_client |
An API client |
serverless_function |
A serverless function |
container |
A container instance |
vm |
A virtual machine |
cluster |
A compute cluster |
runtime |
A runtime environment |
connector |
An integration connector |
webhook_endpoint |
A webhook receiver |
queue_consumer |
A message-queue consumer |
AI entities
| Type |
Description |
ai_agent |
An AI agent |
agent_runtime |
An AI agent runtime |
model |
A model |
model_version |
A specific model version |
prompt_template |
A prompt template |
memory_store |
An agent memory store |
vector_index |
A vector index |
tool |
A tool or plugin |
guardrail |
A guardrail component |
evaluator |
An evaluator component |
workflow |
A multi-step workflow |
Credential entities
| Type |
Description |
key |
A cryptographic key |
api_key |
An API key |
jwt |
A JWT-formatted credential |
certificate |
An X.509 certificate |
x509_svid |
A SPIFFE X.509 SVID |
jwt_svid |
A SPIFFE JWT SVID |
verifiable_credential |
A W3C verifiable credential |
delegation_credential |
A delegation credential |
scope_credential |
A scope credential |
approval_credential |
An approval credential |
Data and resource entities
| Type |
Description |
dataset |
A dataset |
database |
A database |
table |
A database table |
file |
A file |
document |
A document |
record |
A record |
payment_instruction |
A payment instruction |
clinical_record |
A clinical record |
cardholder_object |
A cardholder data object (regulated) |
evidence_pack |
A compliance evidence pack |
policy_bundle |
A policy bundle |
Naming rules
- Type names are lowercase ASCII with underscores.
- Type names are stable identifiers and must not be reused for unrelated semantics.
- Adding a new type requires a vocabulary proposal. Mechanism details are out of scope for this document.
