Glossary
AI agent governance
The controls that decide what an AI agent may change, who must approve it and what evidence is kept.
Read the termGlossary · Term 14 of 39
Guardian agent
Guardian agent is an analyst term, used by Gartner, for software that inspects the actions AI agents propose and allows, blocks or holds them for a person. elan1 Govern does this job for writes to systems of record, with rules, gates and named approvers, never a model, deciding each allow.
In one sentence: Gartner's term for software that inspects agent actions and allows, blocks or holds them for a person.
01In more detail
What it means in practice
The term describes a job rather than a product: something that sits between an AI agent and what it acts on, inspects each proposed action and decides whether it proceeds. Gartner uses it as a market category name; this glossary uses it only in that descriptive sense.
elan1 Govern does that job for writes to systems of record. A model never makes the allow: rules, gates and a named person do, and every outcome is recorded. Naming the category is not a claim that elan1 has been assessed in it.
02Where this shows up in elan1
elan1 Govern does this job at the write: it checks each write intent and allows it, refuses it or holds it for a named approver.
Defined in the elan1 glossary · Last reviewed 10 Oct 2026. Definitions change only with a dated note.
// SEE IT
See the term in a governed action.
The walkthrough follows one write from intent to proof record, using the words in this glossary.