Covenant is an open operating layer for long-running autonomous software agents. It gives agents the infrastructure they need to work safely over time: scoped permissions, durable memory, isolated execution, identity, communication, provenance, and settlement. Instead of leaving each app to build its own ad-hoc agent security model, Covenant moves these controls into a local Rust-based system layer with signed capabilities, append-only audit trails, and verifiable task records. The goal is simple: agents should be able to act autonomously without getting broad, unchecked access to the system. Covenant makes every permission explicit, every runtime boundary enforceable, and every task traceable from intent to code changes to validation evidence.