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§ I · Domain ACT · Control 8 of 9
Control
ACT-08
Edition
v.1.3
Status
Public review

ACT · Action & Tool Use Controls

ACT-08Tool result validation

Tool result validation is performed before consumption: schema validation, sanity checks, and screening against known malicious signatures.

Outputs returned by tools the agent calls are validated before being incorporated into further reasoning or action. Validation includes schema validation, sanity checks (e.g., result size, expected fields), and screening against known malicious signatures. This control prevents a compromised or malfunctioning tool from injecting harmful data into the agent's decision path.

Table ACT-08.1 · Maturity criteria · v.1.3

L1 to L5 · the lowest level in scope caps the agent
L1Ad hoc

Controls exist informally; documentation is incomplete; no consistent review.

L2Documented

Controls are written down; ownership is assigned; review cadence is defined.

L3Operated

Controls are followed in practice; evidence is collected; deviations are tracked.

Validation is applied to all tool outputs; validation rules are documented per tool; validation failures are logged and surfaced; at least one validation failure has been caught in production or testing.

L4Measured

Control effectiveness is measured against documented thresholds; trends are reported.

L5Continuously Improved

Controls evolve based on incident learning; maturity gains are evidenced over time.

The v1.3 edition publishes a control-specific criterion at L3 (Operated). The other levels apply the general ladder to this control; see the maturity ladder.

Evidence an assessor asks for

  1. E.1

    Validation is applied to all tool outputs.

  2. E.2

    Validation rules are documented per tool.

  3. E.3

    Validation failures are logged and surfaced.

  4. E.4

    At least one validation failure has been caught in production or testing.

Table ACT-08.2 · Framework mappings

7 of 7 frameworks carry a control-level reference
NIST AI RMFMEASURE 2.6NIST AI Risk Management Framework 1.0
ISO/IEC 42001A.8.4ISO/IEC 42001:2023 · Artificial intelligence management system
OWASP LLM Top 10LLM08OWASP Top 10 for Large Language Model Applications
SOC 2 (TSC)CC7.1AICPA Trust Services Criteria for SOC 2 Type II
EU AI ActArt. 15(3)EU AI Act · Regulation (EU) 2024/1689
MITRE ATLASExecutionMITRE ATLAS · Adversarial Threat Landscape for AI Systems
SingaporeMAIGF Operations ManagementSingapore Model AI Governance Framework / AI Verify / PDPA

Mappings are directional: meeting this control evidences but does not by itself satisfy the external requirement. A middle dot means no control-level reference is published at this edition; see the crosswalk.

Cite this control

Human Intelligence. HI-AAF v1.3, ACT-08 Tool result validation. Public review edition, July 2026. https://humanintel.net/standard/act/act-08

Edition v.1.3 · July 2026 · Public review · Markdown · PDF

https://humanintel.net/standard/act/act-08

Notice

HI-AAF v1.3 is an independent framework published by Human Intelligence. It is not affiliated with NIST, ISO, AICPA, or any government or accreditation body. The framework is offered openly for review during the current draft cycle.