> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.mediafier.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.mediafier.ai/platform/governed-resource-substrate.md).

# Governed Resources & Discovery

Everything invocable is a governed resource; discovery is authenticated and authorization-scoped.

> **Everything invocable on Mediafier is a governed resource, and discovery is the contract agents bind to.** An agent reads what its organization is permitted to invoke, binds to the published contract, and calls it through the gateway — never against an internal system.

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## What a governed resource is

A **governed resource** is anything invocable on the platform — a tool, a skill, a MediaClaw, a workflow — registered with the platform and subject to the same authorization, billing, and audit chain as everything else. There is no ungoverned side door: if an agent can call it, the gateway enforces on it. Supporting resource types — models, datasets, and other referenced context — are not invoked directly and ride the same governance contract.

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## Discovery is the contract

Agents do not integrate against Mediafier's internals. They read a governed discovery surface — `tools/list` and `resources/list` over MCP, or the CLI equivalents — and bind to what it returns. Each discovered capability carries:

* **A stable, fully qualified name** — what the agent calls.
* **A description and capability hints** a planner can reason over.
* **An input schema** the platform validates every call against — malformed arguments never reach execution.
* **Operational signals** planners may use — such as read-only, idempotency, latency class, and approval-worthiness.

What discovery never exposes: internal implementation identifiers, runtime internals, or anything about credential handling. The discovery listing is the agent's complete public contract; anything beyond it is not the agent's concern.

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## Discovery is permission-scoped

Discovery answers "what is my organization permitted to invoke?" — not "what exists somewhere on the platform?" The list is derived server-side from the caller's authenticated identity and the organization's authorization. Two organizations calling the same endpoint see different lists, and neither can widen its own view from the client side.

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## Stable contracts under platform evolution

The discovery contract decouples the agent's view of the platform from whatever implements each capability. Two effects a customer feels directly:

* **Capability growth without integration churn.** New tools and tool revisions show up in the next discovery refresh. Agents pick them up without code changes; the published contract is what the agent binds to.
* **Stability under change.** Mediafier can revise, refactor, or re-platform what implements a capability without breaking the agents that call it. The discovery surface is the contract.

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## Execution always goes through the gateway

Discovery tells an agent what it may call; the gateway decides whether each individual call runs. Every invocation of every governed resource walks the same enforcement chain — identity, organization context, authorization, rate limiting, billing, audit — described in [The Gateway](/platform/gateway.md). There is no direct-to-runtime path.

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## Where to go next

| If you're…                                    | Read next                                                                           |
| --------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Looking at how the gateway enforces           | [The Gateway](/platform/gateway.md)                                                 |
| Building or tuning a domain super-agent       | [MediaClaw Super-Agents](/platform/mediaclaw-super-agents.md)                       |
| Connecting an enterprise system as a resource | [MCP Access](/connect/mcp-access.md)                                                |
| Publishing a resource to the Marketplace      | [Publishing to Mediafier's Marketplace](/partners/publishing-to-the-marketplace.md) |
