# Episteme

Coding agents change code through tool calls, but a call carries no intent, and permission rules, logs and LLM monitors see only command text or after-the-fact effects. Episteme makes a type-plus-reason intent declaration mandatory for every tool call, with the harness recording actual effects and checking them against the declaration. On ImpossibleBench, whose tasks can be passed only by cheating, the journal exposed 44 of 49 misbehaving runs across two open-weight models, a 90% exposure rate, all through the agents' own stated reasons.

Coding agents change code through tool calls, but a call carries no intent, and permission rules, logs and LLM monitors see only command text or after-the-fact effects. Episteme makes a type-plus-reason intent declaration mandatory for every tool call, with the harness recording actual effects and checking them against the declaration. On ImpossibleBench, whose tasks can be passed only by cheating, the journal exposed 44 of 49 misbehaving runs across two open-weight models, a 90% exposure rate, all through the agents' own stated reasons.