> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.usance.xyz/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.usance.xyz/use-it/mandates.md).

# Mandates

A **mandate** lets an agent act on your account inside limits you sign. Its defining property is that it can only ever **narrow** what the protocol already allows, never widen it. It is the foundation the [Sentinels](/use-it/sentinels.md) are built on.

## Start from a template

Each template grants the narrowest set of actions that achieves its purpose, and you adjust the limits before signing. For example:

* **Maintain a safety buffer.** The agent repays debt on your behalf as the account nears its maintenance limit. It can only reduce your risk.
* **Repay automatically.** The agent repays from its own balance. It can never draw new debt or move your collateral.
* **Top up collateral.** The agent adds collateral it funds itself. Your balance is never charged.

## Which actions are delegable

| Action                         | Delegable? |
| ------------------------------ | ---------- |
| Repay your debt                | **Yes**    |
| Add collateral                 | **Yes**    |
| Borrow against your collateral | No         |
| Trade your exposure            | No         |
| Open / close a hedge           | No         |

The refusals are deliberate. **Withdrawal of collateral is not in the mandate vocabulary at all**, so no agent can move your collateral out even under a mandate granting everything. Trade, hedge and close are refused because no external-venue path is wired yet, and granting them would authorise an act with nowhere to go. Borrowing is refused until every bound is enforced end to end.

## Limits

When you create a mandate you set, and see before your wallet opens: the authorised agent, a debt ceiling and how much has been drawn against it, a notional ceiling and slippage cap (for actions that become available later), and an expiry. The mandate detail page reads these **from the chain**, with expiry folded into the status, so "what can this agent do to me right now" is always current. That matters most at the moment you are trying to revoke.

## Revocation is terminal

Pausing suspends an agent without losing anything. **Revoking is permanent.** The registry has no un-revoke function on any path. Re-authorising an agent means signing a new mandate with a new nonce. Both are single transactions from your wallet.


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