Protocol Concepts

VaultKit is a Newton policy client. Every protected vault action becomes an Intent, every Intent is evaluated by Newton operators, and every approved action is bound to an attestation before the Shield forwards it.

Actors

Actor	Role
Curator	Builds and signs the manager action. This may be an EOA, application signer, or Safe-controlled workflow.
SDK	Encodes calldata, prepares policy inputs, submits tasks, polls for results, and submits the Shield transaction.
Gateway	Receives tasks from the SDK and coordinates offchain policy evaluation.
Operators	Run policy WASM against the intent, params, and `wasmArgs`, then sign allow or deny results.
Aggregator	Collects operator signatures until quorum and commits the result.
Shield	Onchain policy client that validates attestations and forwards approved calls.
Vault protocol	The underlying protocol contract, such as a MetaMorpho or Euler vault.

`Intent`

An Intent is the exact delegated call the curator wants the Shield to execute:

struct Intent {
    address from;
    address to;
    uint256 value;
    bytes data;
    uint256 chainId;
    bytes functionSignature;
}

The attestation binds to all fields. from must match the caller of Shield.execute(...), chainId must match the execution chain, and data must match the exact calldata operators approved.

`Task`

A Task is the offchain evaluation request sent to Newton Gateway. It carries the intent, policy reference, pack-specific wasmArgs, expiration metadata, and the curator’s signature over the intent.

`TaskResponse`

A TaskResponse is the operator quorum result for a task. Operators sign the result they evaluated; they do not rewrite the intent. A denial response becomes a typed SDK error. An approval response can become an attestation for onchain execution.

`Attestation`

An Attestation is the approval object consumed by the Shield in standard mode:

struct Attestation {
    bytes32 taskId;
    bytes32 policyId;
    address policyClient;
    uint32 expiration;
    Intent intent;
    bytes intentSignature;
}

The aggregated BLS signature data is recorded through the AVS task manager. The Shield validates the task id, policy id, client address, intent signature, chain, expiration, and replay status before forwarding the call.

Policy and Params

A Newton policy pins a policy template and a PolicyConfig. The config includes policyParams, a typed byte blob produced by the selected policy pack. Updating params changes future policy evaluations; it does not rewrite old attestations.

`wasmArgs`

wasmArgs are per-call inputs for the policy WASM. They are not global configuration. They usually include the vault, network, asset, market id, external-data query fields, and freshness snapshots required for the policy to make a decision.

Fail-Closed Behavior

If Newton operators deny the task, quorum is not reached, the attestation expires, or the Shield validation fails, the vault action is not forwarded. This fail-closed property is the core operating assumption for VaultKit.

Overview

Policy Packs

SDK

Resources

Actors

`Intent`

`Task`

`TaskResponse`

`Attestation`

Policy and Params

`wasmArgs`

Fail-Closed Behavior

​Actors

​Intent

​Task

​TaskResponse

​Attestation

​Policy and Params

​wasmArgs

​Fail-Closed Behavior

Actors

`Intent`

`Task`

`TaskResponse`

`Attestation`

Policy and Params

`wasmArgs`

Fail-Closed Behavior