Give every AI-agent workload a distinct, cryptographically verifiable identity, then grant that identity only the permissions needed for a specific task. Use short-lived credentials that are automatically rotated, keep secrets out of prompts and agent memory, and record both the agent and the user whose authority it used. Revocation must cover issued tokens or certificates as well as OAuth grants, IAM bindings, brokered secrets and downstream policy stores.
Why an AI agent needs an identity separate from its user
Authentication and authorization answer different questions. Authentication establishes which workload is making a request. Authorization decides whether that workload may perform the requested action. An agent may be acting for a person, another agent or an automated process, but the system still needs to identify the actual runtime that sent the request.
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Without a distinct workload identity, logs may show only a shared service account or an API key. That makes it difficult to determine which agent read a file, changed a record or called an external tool. It also makes revocation coarse: disabling one agent can require disabling every process that shares the credential.
A useful model records two identities on every consequential operation:
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- Workload identity: the particular agent instance, deployment or task that made the call.
- Delegator identity: the human user or parent agent that authorized the work.
Authorization then evaluates the requested action, target resource, audience, scope, purpose, time limit and delegation depth. The agent should not silently inherit all of the user’s permissions, and one agent should not be able to impersonate another without an explicit policy decision.
Choose the right identity boundary
Start by deciding what should be independently attributable and independently stoppable. There is no universal answer; the correct boundary depends on isolation, execution frequency and operational cost.
| Boundary | Use when | Advantages | Trade-offs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per agent instance | Agents run untrusted or materially different tasks, or need separate kill switches. | Strong attribution, narrow revocation and clearer blast-radius limits. | More identities, certificates, policy objects and audit records to manage. |
| Per deployment | Replicated workers have the same code, trust level and permission set. | Simpler provisioning and fewer policy objects. | A compromised replica can act as every other replica in that deployment; incident investigation is less precise. |
| Per delegated task | High-risk operations require a one-time or tightly bounded capability. | Very short lifetime and precise audience, scope and purpose. | Requires an orchestrator or broker that can mint and distribute task credentials reliably. |
The Cloud Native Computing Foundation recommends a unique workload identity for each agent instance and warns against shared identities and broad static service accounts. That guidance is an industry recommendation, not a wire protocol. NIST’s enterprise project likewise treats identity, policy-based access control, delegation and logging as separate design concerns.
Establish a cryptographic workload identity
SPIFFE and SPIRE for cloud-native workloads
SPIFFE defines a portable naming and credential model for software workloads. Its Workload API provides two mandatory credential profiles: X.509-SVID certificates and JWT-SVID tokens. An operator may administratively disable a profile, but implementations are required to support both profiles by the standard. The API can stream updates, including credential revocations and introductions of new certificate-authority certificates.
That makes SPIFFE useful for proving “which workload is this?” across clusters or clouds. SPIFFE supplies workload identity; it does not by itself decide whether an agent may delete a database row or send an email. Those decisions remain in your authorization layer.
SPIFFE’s specifications and terminology are maintained at the SPIFFE Standard overview and the SPIFFE Workload API specification.
Runtime attestation and issuance
Use a workload identity provider that can establish where and how an agent is running before issuing credentials. Depending on the platform, that proof can include workload metadata, a node or cluster identity, an attested image, namespace, service account or execution context. Bind the resulting identity to the runtime rather than placing a private key or bearer token in a prompt, configuration copied into agent memory or a source repository.
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When an agent starts, the provider should issue identity material for that workload and make it available through a protected local API or sidecar. When the workload ends, its credentials should expire or be explicitly revoked. A restarted task should receive a new identity or a new credential instance according to your attribution policy, not reuse an abandoned secret indefinitely.
Separate identity from delegated authorization
After authentication, issue a credential that expresses what the agent may do. OAuth and OpenID Connect are common mechanisms for user-delegated access. The NIST concept paper identifies OAuth/OIDC, OAuth 2.0 and 2.1 extensions, SPIFFE/SPIRE, SCIM and NGAC as relevant standards and practices under consideration for enterprise agent identity and authorization. NIST describes MCP as relying on OAuth/OIDC and describes OAuth as a way to generate, protect and deliver authorization tokens.
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For each delegated credential, constrain as many of these dimensions as the implementation supports:
- Audience: the exact resource server or tool that may accept the token.
- Scope: read, write, approve, administer or another minimum action set.
- Resource: a project, tenant, record set, repository or endpoint rather than an entire account.
- Duration: a short expiry appropriate to the task.
- Delegation depth: whether the agent may create further delegated credentials, and how many levels are allowed.
- Purpose and context: a job, ticket, workflow or user request that can be checked in policy and logs.
Keep the user’s authority visible. A token that proves only the agent’s identity cannot explain whose permission enabled the action; a user token copied into an agent hides the workload that actually used it. Record both relationships and reject requests when the parent delegation is missing, expired or broader than the child credential.
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Long-lived static tokens turn a copied secret into a persistent foothold. Prefer certificates or JWT/OIDC tokens that expire quickly, are automatically renewed while the workload is healthy and are invalidated when the workload or delegation ends. The CNCF recommends credentials tied to agent lifetime, automatic rotation, identity-bound execution context and re-authentication or re-authorization for sensitive actions.
Rotation is not the same as revocation. Rotation replaces a credential before it expires; revocation tells relying systems to stop accepting an otherwise valid credential. Design both paths and test them during a real incident simulation.
Google Cloud’s Agent Identity documentation illustrates one vendor-specific implementation: its agent X.509 certificates are documented as valid for 24 hours and automatically kept current. That 24-hour period describes Google’s service, not a generally correct lifetime for every platform. A payment approval agent may need minutes; a continuously running, low-risk worker may use a longer period if policy and monitoring justify it.
Keep external API keys behind a broker
Some tools still require an API key, client secret or OAuth refresh credential. Do not place those values in a system prompt, task transcript, agent memory, log message or repository. Store them in a secrets manager or credential broker and expose only a controlled operation to the agent.
The broker should authenticate the workload identity, check the delegated policy, restrict the destination and action, and return the minimum usable credential or perform the call itself. For example, an agent may be allowed to request “read calendar events for this user for the next hour” without ever receiving a reusable calendar secret. If the upstream service cannot express such a narrow scope, the broker can enforce the boundary and redact returned data.
Possession of a shared upstream key is not proof that every agent is entitled to every operation that account permits. Treat the key as a dependency that requires its own inventory, rotation schedule, access log and emergency replacement procedure.
Authorize at every sensitive action boundary
A login-time check is insufficient for agents that plan and execute many tool calls. Re-check authorization immediately before operations with material impact, such as sending an external message, changing permissions, moving money, deleting data, deploying code or exporting personal information.
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- Receive the proposed action. Include the workload identity, delegator, resource, operation, audience and purpose.
- Validate the credential. Check signature or certificate chain, expiry, issuer, audience and revocation status as supported by the platform.
- Evaluate policy. Confirm that the agent’s scope, user delegation, resource conditions and delegation depth permit this exact operation.
- Apply contextual controls. Check network location, environment, change window, approval state, rate limits and anomaly signals where relevant.
- Log the decision. Store the requested action, policy result and outcome before or atomically with execution when possible.
- Execute with the narrowest tool. Do not give the agent a general-purpose administrative channel when a single-purpose operation is available.
Use human approval for actions whose consequences cannot be reversed or whose policy cannot reliably express the required business rule. Approval should authorize a specific resource and operation, not silently elevate the agent for the rest of its session.
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At minimum, retain these fields for each tool call and authorization decision:
- Agent identity, credential identifier and runtime or execution context.
- User, service or parent agent that delegated the work.
- Task, ticket, workflow or purpose identifier.
- Requested operation, target resource and token audience.
- Scopes, policy version and decision result.
- Start time, completion time, credential expiry and revocation state.
- Outcome, returned status, data classification and any approval record.
Protect logs from modification by the agent being monitored, synchronize timestamps, and define retention according to your regulatory and incident-response needs. Logging an agent name without the delegator, resource and decision context leaves the central accountability question unanswered.
Plan revocation as a multi-system operation
Revocation has several layers. Disabling an identity provider entry may stop new credentials while already issued tokens remain accepted by a resource server. Expiring a certificate may not remove an OAuth grant or an IAM policy binding. A brokered API key may continue to work until the upstream secret is rotated.
Use a revocation runbook
- Stop issuance. Disable the agent identity or workload attestation rule so the agent cannot obtain fresh credentials.
- Invalidate active credentials. Revoke certificates or tokens where the protocol and resource servers support it; otherwise use short expiry and deny the identity at the enforcement point.
- Remove delegated grants. Revoke OAuth consents, refresh tokens, task leases and parent-child delegation records.
- Delete policy bindings. Remove IAM, database, queue, filesystem and tool-specific grants that name the agent principal.
- Rotate dependent secrets. Replace any API keys or client secrets the agent could access, and invalidate cached copies.
- Block network paths. Deny egress to sensitive tools while the identity and policy changes propagate.
- Confirm at relying services. Test representative requests against every resource class and record when each denial took effect.
- Preserve evidence. Retain identity, delegation and tool-call logs needed to determine what happened before the cutoff.
Google Cloud explicitly warns that deleting an agent does not remove IAM bindings referencing its principal; those inactive grants must be removed manually. That behavior is specific to Google’s service, but the underlying lesson is general: deleting an agent record is not proof that every dependent policy store has been cleaned up.
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Do not promise a universal revocation time. Propagation depends on token caching, disconnected resource servers, policy-cache intervals and the controls available in each service. Measure the actual path in your platform and document the worst case.
Lifecycle management: create, change and retire identities
Provisioning
Assign an immutable identifier, owner, environment, purpose and risk classification when an agent is created. Register the tools and resources it may reach, the delegations it may accept and the team responsible for revocation. Make the default policy deny access until those attributes are present.
Change control
Treat changes to an agent’s model, tools, prompts, runtime image, network location or delegated scope as security-relevant. A new tool can turn a read-only agent into an exfiltration path even when its original identity is unchanged. Re-evaluate policy and, for high-risk changes, issue a new identity or require a new approval.
Retirement
When an agent is decommissioned, disable issuance, expire or revoke credentials, remove grants, rotate reachable external secrets and verify denials at each relying service. Keep the audit identity as a historical record; do not recycle the same identifier for an unrelated future workload.
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NIST notes that SCIM could provide a way to create, update and revoke agent identities across systems, while also noting that SCIM does not itself provide authentication or authorization. Use lifecycle provisioning and access-control protocols together rather than treating a directory entry as a complete security control.
Compare implementation patterns before choosing one
| Pattern | Identity and credential | Delegation and revocation | Best fit | Limitations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Workload identity plus policy engine | Attested runtime receives an X.509-SVID or JWT-SVID; policy evaluates the identity and request context. | Strong attribution; streamed updates can distribute revocations and new CA certificates; policy grants still require cleanup. | Multi-service or multi-cluster environments seeking portability. | Requires operating an identity control plane and integrating every resource server. |
| OAuth/OIDC delegated token | Short-lived token represents a user or service delegation with audience and scopes. | Good consent and scope model; refresh-token, grant and resource-server behavior must be managed separately from agent identity. | User-facing tools and APIs that already support OAuth. | A token can obscure the workload unless agent identity is carried and logged alongside the delegation. |
| Credential broker or vault | Agent authenticates with its workload identity; broker retrieves or uses an external API credential. | Centralized secret rotation, policy checks and audit trail; upstream revocation remains necessary. | Legacy tools that require API keys or client secrets. | The broker becomes a high-value control point and must be highly available and independently protected. |
| Static shared service account | One long-lived key or account is shared by many agents. | Revocation is broad and attribution is weak; compromise persists until manual rotation. | Only as a temporary migration state with compensating controls. | Conflicts with unique identity, least privilege and precise incident response. |
Assess each design against identity granularity, credential lifetime and binding, audience and scope controls, delegation limits, revocation completeness, audit quality, operating burden and portability. A standards-based identity layer can still require vendor-specific adapters at each resource server.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How the standards fit together
NIST’s Accelerating the Adoption of Software and AI Agent Identity and Authorization: Concept Paper (February 2026) describes a planned enterprise project rather than a final agent-specific standard. It focuses on linking user identities to agents for delegation and accountability, policy-based access control, identity lifecycle and logging. Its initial scope covers enterprise use cases and excludes agents from untrusted external sources. Read the NIST concept paper for that scope and the listed approaches.
SPIFFE/SPIRE addresses workload authentication. OAuth/OIDC addresses delegated authorization and token delivery. SCIM addresses identity lifecycle operations but not authentication or authorization. NGAC represents a policy approach for governing access. MCP deployments may use OAuth/OIDC, but an MCP connection does not automatically solve workload identity, least privilege or revocation across every tool.
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The CNCF article “Cloud native agentic standards” recommends distinguishing user and agent identities, using scoped short-lived credentials, binding identity to execution context, auditing delegated actions and re-authorizing sensitive operations. These are practical recommendations, not a single normative protocol.
A practical rollout sequence
- Inventory agents and tools. List every runtime, owner, user-delegation path, external credential and resource it can reach.
- Remove shared credentials. Replace one account used by unrelated agents with unique identities, beginning with high-impact workloads.
- Deploy workload identity. Select an attestation and issuance mechanism, define naming conventions and protect the local credential-delivery channel.
- Introduce narrow delegation. Set audiences, scopes, resources, expiry and delegation depth; default unspecified permissions to deny.
- Put legacy secrets behind a broker. Prevent direct access, log each retrieval or mediated call, and establish rotation owners.
- Add action-boundary checks. Re-authorize destructive, external or irreversible operations immediately before execution.
- Standardize audit events. Include agent, delegator, purpose, resource, decision and outcome in every service’s record.
- Exercise revocation. Disable an identity, revoke grants, rotate a test secret and verify denials in connected and temporarily disconnected services.
- Measure and refine. Track stale grants, credential age, failed policy checks, unauthorized tool attempts and the observed time for denials to reach each resource server.
Common failure modes and fixes
One service account for every agent
Symptom: logs identify only a platform account and revocation would stop unrelated workloads. Fix: issue a unique identity per instance or bounded deployment, then carry the user or parent-agent delegation separately.
Secrets copied into prompts or memory
Symptom: credentials appear in transcripts, traces or model context. Fix: move retrieval and use into a broker or sidecar; return only the minimum result needed for the task.
Valid token, wrong audience
Symptom: a token minted for one API is accepted by another service. Fix: enforce audience validation at every resource server and issue separate credentials for separate services.
Deleting the agent but leaving grants
Symptom: the agent is gone from the registry, yet IAM, OAuth or tool policies still contain its principal. Fix: make grant discovery and cleanup explicit steps in retirement and incident runbooks.
Assuming expiry equals immediate revocation
Symptom: a compromised credential continues working until its natural expiry or cache timeout. Fix: implement deny controls and revocation support where available, keep lifetimes short and test the measured propagation path.
Logging only the human user
Symptom: investigators know who requested a job but not which agent or tool performed it. Fix: log the workload identity, delegator, delegated scope, resource, action and outcome together.
Security boundaries that remain your responsibility
Identity does not make an agent trustworthy by itself. A correctly authenticated workload can still be compromised, mis-prompted or granted an overly broad policy. Limit its network reach, tool set, data visibility and output channels. Validate data received from tools, prevent prompt content from changing authorization policy, and separate planning from privileged execution where a two-stage design is practical.
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What a complete design looks like
An agent starts in an attested runtime and receives a short-lived workload identity. An orchestrator verifies that identity and, after checking a user’s request, mints a narrowly scoped credential for one audience and task. The agent calls tools through policy-enforced interfaces; a broker handles any legacy API secret without revealing it. Every call records the agent, delegator, purpose, resource, decision and result. Sensitive actions trigger a fresh authorization check. When the task ends or the agent is compromised, issuance stops, active credentials and grants are revoked, dependent secrets are rotated and each resource server is tested for denial.
That arrangement is more work than distributing one API key, but it gives you the properties a production system needs: attributable actions, least-privilege delegation, bounded blast radius and a revocation procedure that can be demonstrated rather than assumed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should every agent have a separate identity?
Use a unique identity for each agent instance when isolation, attribution or independent revocation matters. A shared deployment identity is acceptable only for replicas with the same code, trust level and permissions, and it reduces investigative precision.
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No. SPIFFE proves workload identity through X.509-SVID or JWT-SVID credentials. Authorization still requires policy for scopes, resources, audiences, delegation and sensitive actions.
What happens to permissions when an agent is deleted?
Deletion may not remove OAuth grants, IAM bindings or tool policies. Revoke credentials, remove dependent grants, rotate reachable secrets and verify denial at each relying service.
How long should an agent credential last?
Use the shortest lifetime that fits the task and platform reliability, with automatic rotation. The 24-hour certificate period documented by Google Cloud applies to that service and is not a universal setting.
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