The example management agent 350 determines whether the retrieved instructions are valid (block 740). The example management agent 350 may determine whether the retrieved instructions are valid by, for example, computing a checksum of the retrieved instructions stored in the instruction cache 620 and comparing the computed checksum against the checksum provided by the repository 134 (and/or the management endpoint 340). However, any other approach to validating retrieved instructions may additionally or alternatively be used. For example, validating the instructions may involve verifying that any pre-requisites of the instructions have already been installed and/or are otherwise available for execution of the instructions, performing a virus scan on the instructions, etc.