Open Standards for Verifiable AI Agent Identity
Passport Alliance governs APIS v2.1, the Agent Passport Issuance Standard for agent identity, scoped delegation, trust anchors, public proof records, and registry-ready agent profiles.
The Core Questions
When you interact with an autonomous agent, you need answers to fundamental questions:
Who is the agent?
Verifiable identity proving the agent is who it claims to be, issued by a trusted authority.
Who authorized it?
Clear delegation chain showing the principal (human or organization) that authorized the agent's actions.
What can it do?
Explicit scope defining the boundaries of the agent's authority and permitted actions.
Can we revoke it?
Revocable credentials enabling immediate termination of agent authority when needed.
Three Pillars of Trust
APIS v2.1 establishes a foundation for agent identity, authorization, trust signaling, public verification, and revocation.
Identity
Realm-scoped DIDs and Agent Passports that bind an agent key to an issuer, principal, mandate, trust tier, and public verification context.
Authorization
Principal-signed mandates that define what an agent is permitted to do, on whose behalf, and under what constraints.
Accountability
Signed agent actions, proof artifacts, and revocation by nonce increment for trust enforcement.
How It Works
A trust chain from Realm Issuers to principals, mandates, delegates, profiles, and public verification records.
Realm Issuer
Issues credentials and trust metadata
Principal
Owns authority and scope
Delegate
Acts under passport and mandate
Why Now?
Enterprise and public-sector risk demands standardized agent identity
Autonomous agents are proliferating
Organizations are deploying AI agents for increasingly sensitive operations, from financial transactions to data access.
Regulatory pressure is increasing
Compliance frameworks increasingly require demonstrable control and auditability of automated systems.
No existing standard addresses this
Current identity standards were designed for humans and services, not autonomous delegated agents. APIS v2.1 fills this gap with explicit credential, mandate, and verification semantics.
Built for the Ecosystem
Three roles working together within the APIS framework
Issuers
Trusted authorities that issue verifiable credentials to principals and agents.
Learn about issuing →Developers
Build agent systems that implement APIS for identity and authorization.
Start building →Verifiers
Systems that validate credentials and enforce authorization policies.
Understand the standard →Ready to get started?
Join the effort to establish identity and authorization standards for AI agents.