Agent Identity

Definition

Agent identity identifies and authenticates the software actor making an action. Governance connects that identity to an owner, purpose, environment, and task-specific authority.

Choose an identity granularity that supports attribution. A reusable agent name, its deployed workload and one task run are useful identifiers for different purposes. Record their relationship so an investigator can distinguish a configuration problem from one compromised runtime instance.

What it covers

Human identity

Who requested or approved the work.

Agent/workload identity

Which running software actor made the call.

Task/delegation context

What work was authorized, with which permissions and limits.

Credential

The proof presented for authentication; its lifecycle must be managed.

Keep the requesting person, acting agent and delegated task visible together. The workload credential establishes the actor; the task context describes whose work it is doing. Neither a display name nor a task description substitutes for credential verification.

In practice

Practical design patterns by Min.

• Assign an identifiable workload rather than reusing a human’s unrestricted login.
• Bind tool access to the current task and resource, not only to a friendly display name.
• Record delegation and support expiry, rotation, and revocation.
• Separate authentication evidence from the authorization decision.

Create an ownership record before enabling integrations. Link the agent identifier to its maintainer, environment, deployment version and supported purpose.

Use short-lived managed credentials where feasible and verify them at the receiving service. Log identifiers and validation outcomes, never reusable secrets or raw tokens.

Research notes

Source-grounded details and editorial applications. Follow each link for the original document.

Working example

Why the controls matter

A procurement agent may act for an employee while authenticating as a software workload. The purchase record should identify both parties and the task authorization so reviewers do not mistake the automated action for a direct human purchase.

Common pitfalls

• Confusing a profile name with a verifiable identity.
• Assuming an authenticated agent is authorized for every resource.
• Losing the requester or delegation chain in tool-call logs.

One shared service account weakens attribution and selective isolation. If several deployments must share a platform identity, retain separately verified deployment and run context and document the resulting limitation.

Questions for operational review

Use these questions to decide what evidence your team needs. They are editorial prompts, not a compliance checklist.

• Can an action be tied to one deployment and task?
• Who maintains its credential lifecycle?
• Can this agent be isolated without stopping every agent?