---
title: "Delegation chain"
description: "The sequence of agents a task passes through from the person or system that started it."
canonical: https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/delegation-chain
author: "Jorge García Aibar"
license: "CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)"
doi: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22956197
version: "0.5.0"
updated: 2026-09-25
---

# Delegation chain

The sequence of agents a task passes through from the person or system that started it. It is governed so that each hop authenticates as itself, scope narrows or stays equal but never widens, the purpose travels with the task, depth and fan-out are bounded, and one trace spans every hop.

- Developed in: [ch. 23, Accountability across hops](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/governing-agents#accountability-across-hops)
- Chapters: [ch. 23, AI Agents](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/governing-agents)
- Contrast with: [Delegation (OAuth token exchange)](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/delegation-oauth-token-exchange)
- In the glossary chapter: https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/glossary#t-delegation-chain

## Sources

Defined by this Body of Knowledge: the section it is developed in is the source.