Core concepts

The mental model behind watches, drift classification, and coverage enforcement.

Watches

A watch is a monitored external dependency — one URL or MCP endpoint on a schedule. Learn more →

Change records

When a snapshot differs from the previous baseline, DriftGuard creates a change record (also called a drift event) with classified changes. Learn more →

MCP monitoring

MCP watches track tools/list on a schedule — tool removal is always breaking for agents. Full guide: MCP tool catalog drift monitoring →

Metered or payment-gated MCP (HTTP 402): Payment-gated MCP monitoring →

Coverage assert

CI scans your repo for dependency URLs and fails if any are unwatched. Learn more →

Glossary

Contract drift vocabulary — watch, snapshot, drift_status, pre-run check, agentAction. Glossary →

Five-layer map

Detection → status → policy → remediation → agent MCP surface. Five-layer map →

Severity rules

• breaking — requires code or agent changes before safe deploy
• warning — review recommended; may break strict clients
• info — backward compatible; documentation-only