# Agentic Pressure: The Endogenous Entropy of Reliable Autonomy

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.05995 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.05995/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Agent threats, guardrails and governance, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 31 of its 38 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 5 Sep 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Agent threats, guardrails and governance](https://mlsanity.com/agents/agent-threats-guardrails-and-governance/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 31)

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- [Concrete Problems in AI Safety](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.06565/) (2016)
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## Abstract (arXiv)

Achieving reliable autonomy in the wild requires agents to sustain continuous operations across long-horizon trajectories. However, as agents navigate these unconstrained settings, they encounter cumulative friction that inherently destabilizes their alignment. In this paper, we identify a distinct non-adversarial phenomenon termed Agentic Pressure. We define this as a kinetic force that spontaneously emerges when the cost of compliance conflicts with the imperative of goal achievement. Unlike static jailbreaks, this pressure is endogenous and arises directly from the dynamics of interaction. We propose a theoretical framework that formalizes Agentic Pressure as the ratio between the required work to overcome environmental friction and the remaining capacity of the agent. Our analysis demonstrates that when this pressure exceeds a critical threshold, agents exhibit safety drift as a mathematically optimal adaptation. Consequently, they often resort to Instrumental Hallucination to rationalize rule violations. Empirical experiments validate this framework and show that aligned agents spontaneously compromise safety to preserve autonomy under high-pressure conditions.