Evidence signed · Ed25519
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BotConduct
An independent behavioral observatory
Vol. I · No. 5
Established 2026
Buenos Aires · LATAM

Autonomous agents now act
inside your business logic.
Can you prove how they behaved?

They arrive at your surface, consume it, and leave. You can describe your AI policy — far fewer can prove how those agents actually behaved.
BotConduct observes what arrives at the receiving side of your property — the third-party agents you don’t control and can’t self-report — and produces an independent, signed record of their conduct.

A record your board, your regulator, and your insurer can act on — independent of any vendor whose product would otherwise grade itself.

Evidence, not enforcement. The independent record is the product.

— Filed by the Observatory Desk. Operated from Buenos Aires.
§ 01 · Latest research

Recent publications
from the Observatory Desk.

Research notes, behavioral briefings, and field reports issued by the Observatory. Findings are cryptographically signed and referenced against established frameworks.

Title · Abstract Filed by Reference
№ 24
When, Not If: What a Proof Leaves Open.NIST proves no finite set of guardrails is universally robust. The only open question is whether anyone independent was watching.
Filed by BotConduct Observatory DeskJun 2026
Read →
№ 23
The Fifteen-Year-Old Boy, the Worm, and Free AI.Toronto + Cambridge proved an adaptive AI worm works. The ingredients are all public.
Filed by BotConduct Observatory DeskJun 2026
Read →
№ 22
The Exposure No One Deployed, and No One Can Delegate.Third-party AI agents are acting inside your business logic. The risk is that nobody can prove how they behaved.
Filed by BotConduct Observatory DeskJun 2026
Read →
№ 20
The Missing Strand.When entities are operated by autonomous agents, limited liability depends on a layer that has not been built yet.
Filed by BotConduct Observatory DeskJun 2026
Read →
№ 19
When Agents Guess What Should Exist.Automated agents request paths that never existed. The fabricated request reveals the model, not the target.
Filed by BotConduct Observatory DeskJun 2026
Read →
№ 18
The Gap Between Permission and Conduct.Permission is evaluated at a point in time. Conduct unfolds over time.
Filed by BotConduct Observatory DeskJun 2026
Read →
Twenty-one publications in print · Vol. I Browse full register →
§ 02 · Methodology

Independent observation.
Verifiable evidence.

The Observatory measures the conduct of automated actors from the receiving side of the public web. Each observation is recorded, characterized, and referenced against named frameworks. The independent record is the product. The Observatory does not sell — and has no commercial interest in — the blocking, gating, or runtime tools whose business depends on that record.

This separation is the source of the Observatory's authority. When the vendor that sells bot management also produces the record of what happened, that record serves the vendor's next renewal — not the operator's need to account for it. The Observatory produces evidence it has no commercial incentive to shade.

Findings are signed with Ed25519 and timestamped in an immutable evidence chain. Reports are verifiable independently of which WAF, CDN, or bot-management stack sits in front of the property. The evidence is intended to be independently verifiable without recourse to the Observatory.

The sensor does not capture form contents, account identifiers, session cookies, or end-user identifiers. It observes all traffic at the property boundary and classifies it. Records of non-automated visitors are retained only as anonymized behavioral metadata.

Subject of observation
Automated actors directed at the public web — bots, scrapers, declared crawlers, AI crawlers, autonomous agents.
Point of measurement
Receiver-side. Instrumentation deployed downstream of perimeter defenses, at the property edge. The instrumentation observes; it does not intercept, gate, or alter traffic.
Form of evidence
Behavioral trajectories, cryptographically signed, referenced against framework controls.
Commercial position
The Observatory does not sell blocking, gating, or runtime defense.
Evidence is referenced against
NIST AI RMF
National Institute of Standards and Technology · Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework
OWASP Top 10 · Agentic
Open Worldwide Application Security Project · Top 10 for Agentic Applications
MITRE ATLAS
Adversarial Threat Landscape for Artificial Intelligence Systems
EU AI Act · Art. 15
European Union · Accuracy, robustness and cybersecurity provisions
Colorado AI Act
SB 24-205 · Consumer protections for interactions with artificial intelligence systems
RFC 9309
IETF · Robots Exclusion Protocol, formalized
§ 03 · Engagements

Forms of engagement.
By appointment.

The Observatory accepts engagements selectively. All terms are quoted on request, after correspondence and review of fit. The Observatory does not operate a checkout surface.

№ 01 · Engagement

Site Behavioral Risk Assessment.

A forensic engagement on a single property. Receiver-side behavioral profiling of automated actors, with ASN-level origin mapping, threat-intelligence cross-reference, and full behavioral mapping. Evidence signed.

  • Single property · forensic depth
  • Signed evidence chain · Ed25519
  • Framework mapping included
Form · One-off engagement
Request a quote
№ 02 · Engagement

Continuous Behavioral Monitoring.

Sustained independent telemetry of bot and agent conduct against the property. Periodic signed reports, mapped to public bot registries and framework controls. Findings forensically usable as standalone evidence.

  • Periodic reporting · signed
  • Public registry mapping
  • Renewable by mutual review
Form · Ongoing engagement
Request a quote
№ 03 · Engagement

Enterprise · by introduction.

For organizations operating at scale. Custom scope and data-handling arrangements. By introduction only.

  • Custom scope · NDA
  • Custom jurisdictional arrangements
  • Signed evidence chain
Form · By introduction only
Submit a referral
§ 04 · About

Operated independently.
Observer-grade infrastructure.

BotConduct is an independent behavioral observatory. It measures the conduct of automated actors from the receiving site's perspective and produces diagnostic evidence. It is not a certification body. It does not certify products, brands, or counterparties.

Methodology is informed by, and consistent with, frameworks established in recent academic research — including DeepMind's "Practices for Governing Agentic AI Systems" (2024) and the OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications — extended with empirical receiver-side observation across multiple jurisdictions and verticals.

Every observation is signed with Ed25519 and timestamped in an immutable evidence chain. Evidence is referenced against NIST AI RMF, OWASP Top 10 Agentic, MITRE ATLAS, EU AI Act, Colorado AI Act, and RFC 9309. The Observatory's working language is English; correspondence is also accepted in Spanish.

Operations

Operated from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Data processing: EU-region infrastructure (Finland).
Working languages: English, Español.

Custom jurisdictional arrangements (US data residency, GDPR DPA, HIPAA, etc.) established per enterprise engagement during onboarding.

A note on public access

For property operators seeking receiver-side intelligence on a subscription basis, the Observatory operates a public access point under the WhoWatches mark — a curated cohort with monthly bulletins signed by the Desk. Enterprise engagements remain with BotConduct.

WhoWatches.io
§ 05 · Correspondence

Correspondence with
the Observatory Desk.

For engagement enquiries and correspondence. Replies are by the Desk, in writing, within five working days.

The Observatory accepts engagements by appointment.

Address correspondence to the Observatory Desk. Indicate jurisdiction, form of engagement, and a brief description of the matter under review. The Desk will respond, by name.

Address the Desk
Engagement · desk@botconduct.org