Persona-Execution Separation: An Architecture Pattern for Evolving LLM Agents under Execution Audit

Computer Science > Software Engineering arXiv:2608.27427v1 (cs) [Submitted on 27 Aug 2026] Title:Persona-Execution Separation: An Architecture Pattern for Evolving LLM Agents under Execution Audit Authors:Yisen Xi View a PDF of the paper titled Persona-Execution Separation: An Architecture Pattern for Evolving LLM Agents under Execution Audit, by Yisen Xi View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Large language model (LLM) agents in governed organizations must let the persona (instructions, tone, self-presentation) evolve freely, while keeping execution (stateful, audited work) traceable. A single trust domain does not satisfy both cheaply. We present Persona-Execution Separation (PES): persona and execution reside in different trust domains, connected by a governed contract bridge. The persona is singly-homed and may drift; execution is faceless and audited. Status summaries may return; data bodies remain in the restrictive domain except a graded data-loss-prevention (DLP) exception; identity stays continuous. An approval matrix, DLP, and audit enforce the crossing. PES follows from three goals---free drift, execution traceability, and decoupling. Under LLM representational indistinguishability, any single-domain mechanism that meets all three must re-introduce typed change objects, an external gate, and a stable audit anchor: PES rebuilt at higher coupling cost. A development/pilot case in a regulated digital-employee platform records five decisions over one month, each with a rejected alternative. A mechanism check on the shipped implementation found no execution-side re-validation under persona perturbation (five model configurations) and no persona fingerprint on hard-asserted fields. A probe of a recovered pre-separation build found the governed execution path decoupled from the persona by omission, not by construction; a later wiring change could reverse that isolation, which PES makes an audited architectural rule. The pattern applies when multi-user deployment, execution audit, and expected persona churn hold jointly. Comments: Subjects: Software Engineering (cs.SE); Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI) Cite as: arXiv:2608.27427 [cs.SE] (or arXiv:2608.27427v1 [cs.SE] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.27427 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Yisen Xi [view email] [v1] Thu, 27 Aug 2026 17:50:07 UTC (192 KB) Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)