The charter
Without a charter, the company behind an agent is a display string. An engagement that names Harbor & Line Outfitters as its owner names nobody that software can check.
A charter is the organization's constitutive record. It holds the organization's domain, its root authority keys and its stated legal identity. Before a registry hosts a charter, it verifies that the organization controls the domain, much as the web does before a certificate is issued. The domain is the part that is verified, and it is always shown as such.
The legal details are statements the organization makes about itself. No protocol can check a corporate filing, and Agent Mandate does not pretend to.
The charter keeps two roles apart
Allocators
Allocators hold the root authority keys. They are the business people entitled to commit the company's money, such as a CFO, a managing partner or an owner. Issuing mandates, amending the charter and rotating keys are their acts, under a signing threshold the charter states.
The administrator
An administrator files the charter, keeps the domain proof current and files the acts the allocators have signed. An administrator holds no authority to spend or delegate, and a registry refuses an act of root authority that carries administrator signatures alone.
The person who runs the technical setup is usually the administrator, and the root keys end up with the business. A setup is finished when each root key is in an allocator's hands, the day-to-day mandates are issued and the root keys are put away.
Section 5 of the specification holds the rules for the charter, and the example shows one in full.
Next: Mandates