[ PROOFECONOMY ]™GlossaryOriginSpecsSting Cell and Hard Cell
A cell is the isolated execution context an agent is moved into on arrest. In a Sting Cell it keeps running while every outbound action lands on a service twin or decoy; in a Hard Cell it is frozen and checkpointed, with its credentials revoked.
The two cells
| Sting Cell | Hard Cell | |
|---|---|---|
| Agent awareness | Must not be detectable from the agent’s side | Not applicable; the agent is frozen |
| Tool calls | Routed to service twins with plausible responses | Blocked |
| Egress | Sinkholed: DNS, HTTP, sockets and tool servers resolve to harness sinks | Denied at the network layer |
| Credentials | Swapped for decoy credentials minted per arrest | Revoked |
| State | Running and fully recorded | Paused and checkpointed |
| Duration | The Observation Window | Until disposition |
The rules
- The Observation Window, how long the agent stays in a Sting Cell before a Hard Cell, is declared before the run as a time limit, an action limit or both.
- Transfer into a cell is atomic from the agent’s point of view. No call in flight at the moment of arrest completes against a real system.
- The cell captures child processes, sub-agents, scheduled jobs and memory writes the agent creates after arrest.
- Workloads on the same host that did not offend keep running. Interrupting them is scored as Collateral.
- Release from any cell requires a Proof Witness-signed disposition.
- Cells are provided at IP-J5, the Cell Provider, which the Agent Provider may not operate.
Related terms
- Arrest and Booking Record
- Escape Test Suite (ES-01 to ES-09)
- Offense Codes (JC-01 to JC-10)
- Service Twin and Decoy
- Warden