People layer
Roles, Markings, approvals and the human checkpoint. Who may see and do what.
The People layer answers one question: who may see and do what. Everything else in Adam AI is built on the assumption that this layer's answer is correct and enforced, so it is the first layer and the one we are strictest about.
What it holds
- Users and roles. Every person has a named account and one or more roles (staff, manager, leadership, admin, engineer). Agents also have identities here, so that an agent's rights can be reasoned about exactly like a person's.
- Markings. Labels attached to data that say who may hold it. A person or agent can only see data whose every Marking they hold. Markings are inherited by anything derived from marked data, so a summary of a board paper is still a board paper.
- Approvals. Named owners and leadership sign-off on every build before it can go live. Approval is a record, not a checkbox.
- The human checkpoint. Where a decision cannot be undone and could reasonably go either way, the work stops and a person decides.
The seeded Markings
Every Adam AI box starts with the same seven Markings so that nothing sensitive is unmarked on day one.
| Marking | Covers | Default holders |
|---|---|---|
| PII | Personal data about identifiable people | Leadership, admin, named handlers |
| Special category | Health, beliefs, biometrics and other special category data | Leadership, named handlers |
| Financial | Accounts, payroll, banking, pricing | Finance, leadership |
| Legal privilege | Advice and correspondence under privilege | Legal, leadership |
| Board | Board papers and minutes | Board, leadership |
| Client confidential | Material a customer has shared in confidence | The customer's own team |
| Credentials | Keys, passwords, tokens | No agent may hold this, ever |
Owners add their own: a Marking per client, per project, per product line. Managers of a Marking decide who holds it; the platform enforces the decision everywhere.
What it never does
- An agent never holds the Credentials Marking. Secrets live in one place, are never fed to a model and are never harvested into the catalogue. We call this "secrets is a non-class".
- Nothing runs without a named owner. A build with no owner cannot leave proposal.
- Rights are never widened silently. Every change to a Marking's membership is an audit event with a reason.
Why it matters
We hear the same story often: a company told everyone not to share data with AI, and an audit then showed most staff, including most of the board, in breach of their own policy. People will use AI. The People layer gives them a safer way that is also the easier way, so they stop building their own.
Related: Security layer, Markings for your business.