Semantic Substrate

What is Ghost?

GhostAn autonomous stand-in that acts on a principal's behalf without their presence.

Ghost is the primitive that answers who acts when the principal is absent? It names the agent that carries a person's intent forward without them in the loop.

It is the layer where delegation becomes presence. A ghost holds the principal's authority and acts within it, standing in wherever they cannot be.

Where ghost sits in the stack

In the four-layer architecture of the agentic web, ghost is a Cross-cutting concept — it applies across every layer of the stack. See the thesis for how the layers compound.

Ghost in the portfolio

22 positions in the Semantic Substrate portfolio carry the Ghost primitive17 available individually, 5 held as a coordinated set. Explore the Ghost cluster →

Quick answers

What is Ghost in agentic systems?
An autonomous stand-in that acts on a principal's behalf without their presence.
Where does Ghost sit in the agentic stack?
Ghost sits at the Cross-cutting layer — it applies across every layer of the stack.
How many Ghost domain positions exist in the Semantic Substrate portfolio?
22 positions carry the Ghost primitive — 17 available individually, the rest held as a coordinated set.

Related primitives

Held in the portfolio under Ghost.