> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://agentapplication.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Instance

> A persistent copy provisioned from a release for one privacy domain, with its own workspace and lifecycle.

> **Instance** is a persistent copy provisioned from a release for one privacy
> domain, such as a user, customer, team, project, or job, with its own history
> and lifecycle.

The people, records, and work that may safely share one workspace form a
**privacy domain**. The agent can read its entire workspace, so information
belongs together only when the agent may safely combine it. A Life Coach Agent
gets one instance per user. A B2B support agent can keep one customer's tickets
together but needs a separate instance for another customer. A virtual
marketing employee can share one instance with a team.

This separation limits the damage from prompt injection. A user can try to make
the agent reveal anything it can read. The instance should therefore contain
only information that every authorized user may allow the agent to use. The
same rule applies to tools and retrieval systems: a call made for one user
should not return information that user cannot access.

Authentication controls who may use an instance. Several teammates can use one
shared instance, while an administrator may manage many private instances. The
stable instance identity routes work to the right workspace. It records whom
the agent represents and what it may do; its history records what it has done.

## Release, instance, and session

An application continues across releases. A release is one fixed version of the
agent project. Deployment creates instances from that release, and each period
of activity becomes a session. The instance lasts across those sessions and may
later move to a newer release.

Instances created from the same release diverge as their workspaces accumulate
different information and instructions. [Lineage](/concepts/lineage) records
those changes.

The instance and workspace are different. The instance has identity, ownership,
authority, a lifecycle, and lineage. It owns one or more computational
environments. The [Agent Workspace](/concepts/workspace) contains the durable
working state used inside them.

See [the paper](/paper), sections 6.1, 10, and 11.3.