Agent Identity Protocol: Agentic Authentication and Authorized Policy Enforcement
draft-aip-agent-identity-protocol-00
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| Document | Type | Active Internet-Draft (individual) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authors | James Cao , Carlos Eduardo Arango Gutierrez | ||
| Last updated | 2026-03-16 | ||
| RFC stream | (None) | ||
| Intended RFC status | (None) | ||
| Formats | |||
| Stream | Stream state | (No stream defined) | |
| Consensus boilerplate | Unknown | ||
| RFC Editor Note | (None) | ||
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| Send notices to | (None) |
draft-aip-agent-identity-protocol-00
Network Working Group J. Cao
Internet-Draft Montcao
Intended status: Standards Track C. Arango Gutierrez
Expires: 17 September 2026 NVIDIA
16 March 2026
Agent Identity Protocol: Agentic Authentication and Authorized Policy
Enforcement
draft-aip-agent-identity-protocol-00
Abstract
This document defines the Agent Identity Protocol (AIP), an open
standard for verifiable identity and policy enforcement for
artificial intelligence (AI) agents.
Agent Identity Protocol (AIP) addresses the problem of AI agents
operating with unbounded permissions -- running as users, inheriting
full API key access, and executing tool calls with no verifiable
identity boundary between human and non-human actors.
The protocol is structured as two cooperating layers. Layer 1
(Identity) gives every agent a unique identifier and a key pair
registered with an AIP Registry; the agent signs every outbound
action with that key. Layer 2 (Enforcement) interposes a proxy
between the AI client and every tool server that verifies the
signature, evaluates a declarative policy, and produces an allow,
deny, or hold decision before any tool is reached.
Status of This Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute
working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-
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Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
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material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
This Internet-Draft will expire on 17 September 2026.
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Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2026 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/
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Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Terminology and Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3. Problem Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.1. The Identity Gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2. The Enforcement Gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.3. Scope of This Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4. Protocol Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.1. Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.2. Call Lifecycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.3. Relationship to Existing Standards . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5. Layer 1: Agent Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5.1. Agent Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5.2. Agent Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5.3. AIP Registry API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5.4. Key Rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.5. Agent Revocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.6. The AIP Token (Agent Attestation Token) . . . . . . . . . 12
5.6.1. Token Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.6.2. Canonical Serialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.6.3. Example Token (before base64url encoding for
transport) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.7. Token Verification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
6. Layer 2: Enforcement Proxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.1. Proxy Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.2. AgentPolicy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
6.2.1. Schema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
6.2.2. Tool Allowlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
6.2.3. Tool Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
6.2.4. DLP Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
6.2.5. HITL Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
6.3. Intercept Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
6.4. Decision Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
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6.5. Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
6.6. Data Loss Prevention (DLP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
6.7. Audit Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
7. Wire Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
7.1. AIP-Token Header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
7.2. Error Response Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
7.3. Audit Log Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
8. Deployment Topologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
8.1. Localhost Proxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
8.2. Kubernetes Sidecar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
8.3. Enterprise Federation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
9. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
9.1. Cryptographic Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
9.2. Prompt Injection Resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
9.3. Transport Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
9.4. Private Key Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
9.5. Registry Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
9.6. Nonce Cache Sizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
9.7. Revocation Latency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
9.8. Denial-of-Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
10. Privacy Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
10.1. Agent Record Visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
10.2. Audit Log Sensitivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
10.3. DLP Redaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
10.4. Registry Data Retention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
11. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
11.1. HTTP Header Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
11.2. Media Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
12. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
12.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
12.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Appendix A. Example AgentPolicy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Appendix B. Example AIP Token . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Appendix C. Error Code Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
1. Introduction
AI agents are being deployed at scale with the same credentials as
the humans who operate them. When an agent calls a tool -- writing a
file, querying a database, sending a request to an external API --
there is nothing in the request that distinguishes it from a direct
human action. The downstream service has no way to know it is
talking to an agent, which agent, who authorized it, or what it is
permitted to do.
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This creates compounding problems as agents become more capable and
more numerous. An agent that is compromised, misbehaves, or is
manipulated into acting outside its intended scope has no technical
boundary stopping it from using every credential it has been given.
Audit logs attribute actions to human accounts rather than to agents,
making incident investigation difficult. Multi-agent systems can
accumulate permissions across delegation steps without any explicit
record of what was authorized.
AIP closes this gap with two layers:
Layer 1 -- Agent Identity. At provisioning time, the agent is
registered with an AIP Registry. The registry assigns the agent a
unique identifier (the Agent ID) and records the agent's public key
alongside the identity of the accountable principal. From that point
forward, the agent signs every outbound tool call with its private
key. Any party that can reach the registry can verify who the agent
is.
Layer 2 -- Enforcement Proxy. An AIP Proxy sits between the AI
client and every tool server. It intercepts every tool call,
verifies the agent's signature against the registry, evaluates the
call against a simple declarative policy (the AgentPolicy), and
either forwards the call, blocks it, or holds it for human approval.
The tool server is never reached until all checks pass. Every
decision is written to an append-only audit log.
The two layers are independent. Layer 1 can be used without Layer 2
to provide signed, attributable agent actions in existing systems.
Layer 2 requires Layer 1 for identity verification but adds no new
requirements on tool servers.
AIP targets the Model Context Protocol (MCP) [MCP] as its primary
tool-call interface but is designed to be applicable to any
structured tool invocation mechanism.
AIP does NOT:
* Define a new transport protocol.
* Replace existing service-level authentication (OAuth 2.0, mTLS).
It adds an agent-identity layer on top of existing mechanisms.
* Provide content moderation or model output filtering.
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2. Terminology and Conventions
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
"OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
capitals, as shown here.
Agent:
An autonomous software process that uses a large language model or
other AI system to reason over tasks and invoke external tools on
behalf of a principal.
Agent ID:
A unique, stable identifier assigned to an agent by an AIP
Registry at registration time. The Agent ID is a UUID v4
[RFC4122] prefixed with the registry hostname, e.g.,
"reg.example.com/01933f4a-9b2c-7d8e-af01-3b5c6d7e8f9a".
Agent Record:
The data structure stored in the AIP Registry that holds an
agent's Agent ID, public key, principal identifier, and metadata.
Defined in Section 5.2.
AIP Proxy (or "Enforcement Proxy"):
A transparent forward proxy that intercepts tool calls between an
AI client and tool servers. It verifies the AIP Token and
evaluates the AgentPolicy before forwarding or blocking the call.
AIP Registry:
A server that stores Agent Records and exposes an HTTP API for
registration, key lookup, and revocation.
AIP Token:
A signed JSON object attached to every tool call by the agent. It
carries the agent's Agent ID, the tool being called, a nonce, a
timestamp, and an key signature. Defined in Section 5.6.
AgentPolicy:
A YAML configuration file that declares which tools an agent is
permitted to call, argument constraints, DLP rules, and HITL
requirements. Defined in Section 6.2.
DLP:
Data Loss Prevention; scanning of tool call arguments and
responses for sensitive data patterns.
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HITL:
Human-in-the-Loop; a control mode in which the proxy holds a tool
call and waits for explicit approval from an operator before
forwarding it.
IoA:
Internet of Agents; the network of autonomous AI agents that act
across organizational and infrastructure boundaries.
MCP:
Model Context Protocol [MCP]; a structured protocol for tool-call
communication between AI clients and tool servers.
Principal:
The human operator or organization accountable for an agent.
Tool Call:
A structured invocation of an external capability initiated by an
agent, typically carrying a tool name and arguments.
Tool Server:
A service that exposes tools callable by agents.
3. Problem Statement
3.1. The Identity Gap
When an AI agent calls a tool, it presents credentials that belong to
a human account. The tool server cannot tell whether the actor is a
human or an agent, which agent it is, or what limits apply to it.
This creates four concrete problems:
(a) Security -- A compromised or manipulated agent can invoke any
tool the human account can reach. There is no agent-specific
authorization boundary.
(b) Auditability -- Logs record actions against a human account.
After an incident, investigators cannot determine which actions
were taken by a human versus an agent.
(c) Compliance -- Regulations increasingly require traceability of
automated decision-making. Without agent-level identity,
organizations cannot satisfy these requirements.
(d) Accountability -- Billing, rate limits, and quotas are scoped
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to human accounts. Agent usage cannot be isolated or
attributed.
3.2. The Enforcement Gap
Even where agent behavior policies exist, they are expressed as text
in model system prompts. System prompts are not tamper-evident and
can be bypassed by adversarial inputs to the model. There is no
infrastructure-layer enforcement point that acts independently of the
model.
3.3. Scope of This Specification
AIP closes both gaps. Layer 1 gives every agent a distinct,
verifiable identity independent of the human principal's credentials.
Layer 2 enforces agent-specific policy at the tool-call boundary,
outside the model's trust domain, in a way that cannot be overridden
by model outputs.
4. Protocol Overview
4.1. Architecture
AIP introduces two components into the agent-to-tool-server path: an
AIP Registry (Layer 1) and an AIP Proxy (Layer 2).
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+-----------------------------------------+
| AI Client (Agent) |
+-----------------+-----------------------+
| tools/call + AIP Token
v
+-----------------------------------------+
| AIP Proxy (Layer 2) |
| +-----------+ +--------------------+ |
| | Verify | | Policy Engine | |
| | Token | | (AgentPolicy) | |
| +-----+-----+ +---------+----------+ |
| | | |
| +-----v------------------v----------+ |
| | Audit Logger | |
| +-----------------------------------+ |
+-----+-------------------+---------------+
| |
ALLOW | DENY | HOLD
v v
+-----------+ +------------------+
| Tool | | Error / HITL |
| Server | | Queue |
+-----------+ +------------------+
^
| key lookup
|
+---------+
| AIP |
| Registry|
| (Lay. 1)|
+---------+
Figure 1: AIP Architecture
4.2. Call Lifecycle
The lifecycle of a single tool call under AIP is as follows:
1. Registration (once, at deploy time). The principal registers the
agent with an AIP Registry. The registry assigns an Agent ID and
stores the agent's public key. The agent stores its private key
securely.
2. Token construction (per call). Before each tool call the agent
constructs an AIP Token (Section 5.6): a small JSON object
containing the Agent ID, tool name, argument hash, nonce,
timestamp, and a key signature over the token.
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3. Proxy intercept. The AIP Proxy receives the tool call request
before it reaches the tool server.
4. Token verification (Layer 1). The proxy retrieves the agent's
public key from the registry (or local cache) and verifies the
signature. It also checks the nonce for replay and the timestamp
for freshness.
5. Policy evaluation (Layer 2). The proxy checks the call against
the AgentPolicy: is the tool on the allowlist? Do the arguments
pass validation? Does the call trigger a HITL hold? Does the
response contain sensitive data that must be redacted?
6. Decision. The proxy produces one of three outcomes: ALLOW --
forward the call to the tool server; DENY -- return an error to
the agent, tool server not reached; HOLD -- queue the call for
human approval.
7. Audit. Every decision is written to the audit log regardless of
outcome.
4.3. Relationship to Existing Standards
* OAuth 2.0 [RFC6749] / OIDC [OIDC]: AIP does not replace service-
level authentication. The agent still presents its OAuth token or
API key to the tool server. AIP provides a separate agent
identity layer that the proxy can verify independently.
* SPIFFE/SVID [SPIFFE]: In Kubernetes deployments, the AIP Proxy MAY
use a SPIFFE SVID to authenticate to tool servers over mTLS,
layering workload identity on top of AIP agent identity.
* JSON-RPC 2.0 [JSON-RPC]: Tool call and error messages use the
JSON-RPC 2.0 wire format, compatible with MCP and similar
protocols.
5. Layer 1: Agent Identity
5.1. Agent Registration
An agent is provisioned by its principal submitting a registration
request to an AIP Registry. The request MUST include:
(a) The agent's public key, base64url-encoded [RFC4648];
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(b) The principal identifier -- a string that uniquely
identifies the accountable human or organization (e.g., an email
address, an organization slug, or an OAuth subject claim); (TO
BE WORKED ON FURTHER)
(c) A human-readable agent name (RECOMMENDED);
(d) An optional free-text description.
The registration request MUST be authenticated. Authentication MAY
be via OAuth 2.0 bearer token, mTLS client certificate, or a pre-
shared registration secret, at the registry operator's discretion.
On successful registration, the registry:
(a) Assigns a UUID v4 [RFC4122] as the agent's local identifier;
(b) Constructs the Agent ID as "<registry-host>/<uuid>"; (c)
Stores the Agent Record (Section 5.2); (d) Returns the Agent ID
to the principal.
The principal MUST store the Agent ID and configure the agent with
both the Agent ID and its private key before deployment.
5.2. Agent Record
The Agent Record is the data structure the AIP Registry stores for
each registered agent. It MUST contain:
agentId (string):
The Agent ID assigned at registration, in the form "<registry-
host>/<uuid-v4>". Example:
"reg.agentidentityprotocol.io/01933f4a-9b2c-7d8e-af01"
publicKey (string):
The agent's current public key, base64url-encoded.
principalId (string):
Identifier of the accountable principal.
name (string):
Human-readable agent name. Informational only; not authenticated.
description (string, optional):
Free-text description of the agent's purpose.
createdAt (string):
ISO 8601 UTC timestamp of registration.
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keyHistory (array):
Append-only list of all public keys ever bound to this Agent ID.
Each entry contains "publicKey", "activeFrom", and "revokedAt"
(null if still active).
status (string):
One of "active" or "revoked".
Example Agent Record (JSON):
{
"agentId": "reg.agentidentityprotocol.io/01933f4a-9b2c-7d8e-af01",
"publicKey": "MCowBQYDK2VwAyEAz8vG...",
"principalId": "acme-corp",
"name": "ResearchAssistant-v1",
"description": "Internal document retrieval agent",
"createdAt": "2026-01-15T09:00:00Z",
"keyHistory": [
{
"publicKey": "MCowBQYDK2VwAyEAz8vG...",
"activeFrom": "2026-01-15T09:00:00Z",
"revokedAt": null
}
],
"status": "active"
}
5.3. AIP Registry API
The AIP Registry MUST expose the following HTTP endpoints over TLS
1.3 (Section 9.4):
POST /v1/agents Register a new agent
GET /v1/agents/{agentId} Retrieve an Agent Record
PUT /v1/agents/{agentId}/key Rotate the agent's public key
DELETE /v1/agents/{agentId} Revoke an agent
GET /v1/revocations/stream SSE stream for revocation events
The GET /v1/agents/{agentId} endpoint is the only endpoint that MUST
be reachable by AIP Proxies at call-verification time. All other
endpoints are used during provisioning and key management.
Responses from GET /v1/agents/{agentId} MUST include the full Agent
Record. Proxies SHOULD cache this response for at least 30 seconds.
The cache MUST be invalidated on receipt of a revocation event from
the SSE stream.
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5.4. Key Rotation
A principal rotates an agent's key by submitting a PUT request to
/v1/agents/{agentId}/key, authenticated with the current private key.
The request body MUST contain the new public key.
The registry MUST:
(a) Set "revokedAt" on the current keyHistory entry to the
current timestamp;
(b)
Append a new keyHistory entry with the new public key;
(c) Update the "publicKey" field on the Agent Record; (d) Emit a
rotation event on the revocations SSE stream so that proxies can
invalidate their cached Agent Records immediately.
The Agent ID does NOT change on key rotation.
5.5. Agent Revocation
A principal revokes an agent by sending a DELETE request to /v1/
agents/{agentId}. The registry MUST set the agent's status to
"revoked" and emit a revocation event on the SSE stream.
Proxies MUST reject AIP Tokens from revoked agents with error AIP-
E012. Revoked Agent Records MUST be retained in the registry for
audit log verification but MUST NOT be returned as "active".
5.6. The AIP Token (Agent Attestation Token)
The AIP Token is a compact signed JSON object that the agent
constructs and attaches to every outbound tool call. It is the
mechanism by which the agent asserts its identity to the proxy.
5.6.1. Token Fields
aipVersion (string, REQUIRED):
Protocol version. MUST be "1" for this specification.
agentId (string, REQUIRED):
The agent's Agent ID as registered with the AIP Registry.
tool (string, REQUIRED):
The name of the tool being called, exactly as declared in the tool
server's manifest.
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argumentsHash (string, REQUIRED):
Lowercase hex-encoded SHA-256 hash of the canonical JSON
serialization of the tool call arguments. This binds the token to
the specific arguments being passed.
nonce (string, REQUIRED):
A 128-bit cryptographically random value, hex-encoded. MUST be
unique per token. MUST be generated by a CSPRNG.
timestamp (string, REQUIRED):
ISO 8601 UTC timestamp of token construction.
signature (string, REQUIRED):
Base64url-encoded signature over the canonical serialization of
the token (Section 5.6.2).
5.6.2. Canonical Serialization
To produce the bytes that are signed:
(a) Construct a JSON object containing all token fields except
"signature";
(b) Serialize with no insignificant whitespace;
(c) Sort object keys lexicographically; (d) Encode as UTF-8.
The signature field is then set to the base64url encoding of the
signature over these bytes.
5.6.3. Example Token (before base64url encoding for transport)
{
"aipVersion": "1",
"agentId": "reg.agentidentityprotocol.io/01933f4a-9b2c-7d8e-af01",
"tool": "read_file",
"argumentsHash": "e3b0c44298fc1c149afb4c8996fb924...",
"nonce": "a3f8b2c1d4e5f607a8b9c0d1e2f3a4b5",
"timestamp": "2026-02-24T14:30:00Z",
"signature": "TUlJQ0lqQU5CZ2txaGtpRzl3MEJB..."
}
5.7. Token Verification
The AIP Proxy MUST perform the following checks in order. A failure
at any step MUST produce a DENY decision with the corresponding error
code (Section 7.2) and an audit log entry.
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Step 1 -- Presence check.
Confirm the AIP Token is present in the request. On failure: AIP-
E010.
Step 2 -- Agent Record lookup.
Resolve the Agent ID from the token against the AIP Registry (or
local cache). Confirm the Agent Record status is "active". On
failure: AIP-E011 (unresolvable) or AIP-E012 (revoked).
Step 3 -- Signature verification.
Compute the canonical serialization (Section 5.6.2) and verify the
key signature against the public key in the Agent Record. This
operation MUST be performed in constant time. On failure: AIP-
E013.
Step 4 -- Nonce replay check.
Check the nonce against the proxy's local nonce cache (minimum
TTL: 600 seconds). If the nonce has been seen before, reject. On
failure: AIP-E004.
Step 5 -- Timestamp freshness.
Reject the token if its timestamp is more than 300 seconds in the
past or 30 seconds in the future relative to the proxy clock. On
failure: AIP-E005.
If all five steps pass, the token is verified and the call proceeds
to policy evaluation (Section 6.3).
6. Layer 2: Enforcement Proxy
6.1. Proxy Architecture
The AIP Proxy is a forward proxy interposed between the AI client and
one or more tool servers. It is transparent: it presents itself to
the AI client as the tool server endpoint, and to the tool server as
an authorized caller.
The proxy operates in one of two modes, set per agent in the
AgentPolicy:
enforce: Policy violations result in DENY responses. The tool
server is never reached for blocked calls. This is the
default and RECOMMENDED mode.
monitor: Policy violations are logged but calls are forwarded
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regardless. Used for baselining and policy development
before switching to enforce mode.
The proxy MUST maintain locally:
o The AgentPolicy for each agent it serves;
o A bounded nonce cache (TTL >= 600 seconds, LRU eviction);
o A revocation cache (refresh interval <= 60 seconds);
o An append-only audit log.
6.2. AgentPolicy
The AgentPolicy is a YAML file that declares the enforcement rules
for a specific agent. One AgentPolicy file corresponds to one Agent
ID. A AgentPolicy file can apply to multiple Agent IDs.
6.2.1. Schema
<CODE BEGINS>
agentId: <Agent ID>
mode: <enforce | monitor>
tools:
allowed:
- <tool-name>
rules:
- tool: <tool-name>
action: <allow | ask | block>
args:
<arg-name>:
pattern: <PCRE regex>
maxLength: <integer>
dlp:
- name: <pattern name>
regex: <PCRE regex>
action: <redact | block>
scope: <request | response | both>
hitl:
approvers:
- <email or identifier of approver>
timeout_seconds: <integer, default 300> # seconds to wait for approval
on_timeout: <deny | allow> # action if no response received
<CODE ENDS>
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6.2.2. Tool Allowlist
The tools.allowed list defines every tool the agent is permitted to
call. Any call to a tool not on this list MUST be denied with
AIP-E001 when the proxy is in enforce mode.
6.2.3. Tool Rules
Each entry in tools.rules applies additional handling to a named
tool:
allow: The tool is on the allowlist and is forwarded after
argument validation. This is the default when no rule is
specified.
ask: The call is held for HITL approval before forwarding,
regardless of any other policy check.
block: The call is unconditionally denied. This overrides the
allowlist and cannot be circumvented. Use this for tools
that must never be reachable by the agent under any
circumstances.
Argument rules (args) apply PCRE regex pattern matching and a maximum
length check to named arguments before the call is forwarded. A
violation produces AIP-E002.
6.2.4. DLP Rules
Each DLP rule specifies a regex pattern, an action, and a scope:
redact / request: Matching content in arguments is replaced with
"[REDACTED:<name>]" and the call proceeds.
redact / response: Matching content in the tool response is
replaced with "[REDACTED:<name>]" before the
response is returned to the agent.
block / both: If a match is found anywhere in the request
or response, the call or response is rejected
with AIP-E008.
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6.2.5. HITL Configuration
The hitl block identifies who may approve held calls, how long the
proxy waits, and what to do on timeout. The default on_timeout is
"deny". Setting on_timeout to "allow" SHOULD only be used for non-
sensitive, low-impact tools.
6.3. Intercept Flow
The following is the normative sequence for every tool call received
by the proxy.
1. Receive the tool call from the AI client.
2. Run token verification (Section 5.7).
Any failure -> DENY with the corresponding AIP-Exxx code.
3. Check tools.allowed.
Tool not present and mode == enforce -> DENY AIP-E001.
4. Check tools.rules for this tool.
action == block -> DENY AIP-E003.
action == ask -> go to step 7 (HITL).
5. Validate arguments against any matching tools.rules.args.
Violation -> DENY AIP-E002.
6. Run DLP scan on request arguments.
block match -> DENY AIP-E008.
redact match -> replace content, continue.
7. If action == ask: submit to HITL queue (Section 6.5).
Approved -> continue to step 8.
Denied -> DENY AIP-E015.
Timed out -> resolve per on_timeout.
8. ALLOW: forward the call to the tool server.
9. Receive the tool server response.
10. Run DLP scan on the response.
block match -> return AIP-E008 to agent, suppress response.
redact match -> replace content, continue.
11. Return the (possibly redacted) response to the agent.
12. Write audit log record (Section 6.7).
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6.4. Decision Outcomes
ALLOW: The call passed all checks and was forwarded. The tool
server response was returned to the agent.
DENY: The call was rejected before reaching the tool server.
The proxy returns a JSON-RPC 2.0 error (Section 7.2). The
tool server receives nothing.
HOLD: The call is queued. The proxy returns a pending response
to the agent. The call is resolved when a human approver
responds or the HITL timeout is reached.
6.5. Human-in-the-Loop (HITL)
When a call is held, the proxy MUST notify all addresses listed in
hitl.approvers. The notification MUST include:
* The Agent ID and agent name;
* The tool name and (post-redaction) arguments;
* The policy rule that triggered the hold;
* A unique hold_id.
Notification delivery (email, webhook, Slack, web UI) is out of scope
for this specification.
Approvers submit a decision to the proxy using the HITL API.
Approval and denial endpoints are:
POST /v1/hitl/{hold_id}/approve
POST /v1/hitl/{hold_id}/deny
These endpoints MUST be authenticated. If no response is received
within hitl.timeout_seconds, the proxy resolves the hold according to
hitl.on_timeout and writes the outcome to the audit log.
6.6. Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
The DLP scanner applies the dlp rules from the AgentPolicy to both
the inbound tool call arguments and the outbound tool server
response. Rules are evaluated in the order they are listed. The
first matching rule wins.
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Implementations SHOULD provide a standard rule library covering
common sensitive data types:
* Cloud provider credentials (AWS, GCP, Azure key patterns);
* Private key material (PEM headers);
* Common PII patterns (email, phone, SSN formats);
* Generic high-entropy secrets (long alphanumeric tokens).
6.7. Audit Logging
The proxy MUST write one log record per tool call outcome. Records
MUST be appended to an append-only log and MUST NOT be modified after
writing.
Log records SHOULD be hash-chained: each record includes the SHA-256
hash of the previous record, enabling tamper detection.
See Section 7.3 for the normative record format.
Log records MUST be retained for a minimum of 90 days.
7. Wire Formats
7.1. AIP-Token Header
For HTTP-based tool transports, the AIP Token is conveyed in the
request header:
AIP-Token: <base64url-encoded UTF-8 JSON token>
base64url encoding is defined in [RFC4648] Section 5 (no padding).
For MCP stdio transports, the AIP Token is conveyed as a "_aip" field
at the top level of the JSON-RPC request object:
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{
"jsonrpc": "2.0",
"method": "tools/call",
"id": 1,
"params": {
"name": "read_file",
"arguments": { "path": "/data/report.txt" }
},
"_aip": {
"aipVersion": "1",
"agentId": "reg.agentidentityprotocol.io/01933f4a...",
"tool": "read_file",
"argumentsHash": "e3b0c44298...",
"nonce": "a3f8b2c1d4e5f607...",
"timestamp": "2026-02-24T14:30:00Z",
"signature": "TUlJQ0lq..."
}
}
7.2. Error Response Format
Error responses MUST conform to JSON-RPC 2.0 [JSON-RPC]. AIP error
codes are in the range -32001 to -32099:
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Code ID Meaning
------ -------- -----------------------------------------------
-32001 AIP-E001 Tool not in allowlist
-32002 AIP-E002 Argument validation failed
-32003 AIP-E003 Tool unconditionally blocked
-32004 AIP-E004 Nonce replay detected
-32005 AIP-E005 Timestamp out of range
-32008 AIP-E008 DLP violation
-32010 AIP-E010 AIP Token missing
-32011 AIP-E011 Agent ID not found in registry
-32012 AIP-E012 Agent revoked
-32013 AIP-E013 Signature verification failed
-32015 AIP-E015 HITL approval denied
-32016 AIP-E016 HITL timed out
-32099 AIP-E099 Internal proxy error
Example error response:
{
"jsonrpc": "2.0",
"id": 1,
"error": {
"code": -32001,
"message": "AIP-E001: tool not in allowlist",
"data": {
"aipCode": "AIP-E001",
"agentId": "reg.agentidentityprotocol.io/01933f4a...",
"tool": "exec_command"
}
}
}
7.3. Audit Log Record
Each record is a single JSON object on one line (JSONL [JSONL]):
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{
"v": 1,
"ts": "<ISO 8601 UTC>",
"eventId": "<UUID v4>",
"prevHash": "<SHA-256 hex of previous record, or null>",
"decision": "<ALLOW | DENY | HOLD>",
"errorCode": "<AIP-Exxx or null>",
"agentId": "<Agent ID>",
"principalId": "<principal identifier>",
"tool": "<tool name>",
"argumentsHash": "<SHA-256 hex>",
"policyName": "<AgentPolicy agentId value>",
"verificationStep": "<1-5 or null if passed>",
"dlp": [
{ "rule": "<rule name>", "scope": "<request|response>",
"action": "<redacted|blocked>" }
],
"holdId": "<UUID or null>",
"proxyVersion": "<semver>"
}
8. Deployment Topologies
8.1. Localhost Proxy
The localhost proxy is the simplest deployment: a single binary
running on the developer's machine alongside the AI client. It binds
to 127.0.0.1:8787 (configurable), supports HTTP and MCP stdio
interception, and uses a local SQLite database for the nonce cache,
revocation cache, and audit log. Policy is loaded from a YAML file
at ~/.aip/policy.yaml.
This mode is suitable for individual developers and is the
recommended starting point for adopting AIP. A Go proxy
implementation is available at the working group's GitHub repository.
8.2. Kubernetes Sidecar
For production deployments, the AIP Proxy runs as a sidecar container
in the same pod as the agent container. Outbound tool-server traffic
is redirected through the proxy on port 15001 via iptables REDIRECT
rules. Policy is loaded from a Kubernetes ConfigMap or Secret.
Storage uses Redis for the distributed nonce cache and a
PersistentVolumeClaim for the audit log. A Prometheus metrics
endpoint is exposed at /metrics.
Exported metrics include: aip_calls_total, aip_denials_total,
aip_holds_total, and aip_verification_latency_seconds.
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8.3. Enterprise Federation
In enterprise environments the AIP Proxy integrates with existing
identity infrastructure:
* OIDC mapping: The registry maintains a table mapping Agent IDs to
OIDC subject claims. When a tool server requires an OIDC token,
the proxy can present one on the agent's behalf after AIP
verification passes, without the agent holding OIDC credentials
directly.
* SPIFFE/mTLS: The proxy is issued a SPIFFE SVID and uses it to
establish mTLS connections to tool servers, providing transport-
layer mutual authentication in addition to AIP application-layer
identity.
* Central policy management: AgentPolicy files are managed via a
policy API with versioning, rollback, and change auditing, rather
than local YAML files.
9. Security Considerations
9.1. Cryptographic Algorithm
AIP is built with the idea of using Ed25519 [RFC8032] for all
signatures. Ed25519 was chosen because it is fast (sign and verify
in under 1ms), produces short keys and signatures (32 and 64 bytes
respectively), is deterministic (no per-signature randomness
required), and has broad library support across all major languages
and platforms. However other cryptographic algorithms should be
supported.
All Ed25519 operations MUST use a constant-time
implementation to prevent timing side-channels (Section 9.3).
9.2. Prompt Injection Resistance
The principal threat model for AIP at Layer 2 is the prompt injection
attack: malicious content in the agent's context causes it to attempt
tool calls outside its intended scope.
The allowlist in the AgentPolicy prevents the agent from reaching
tools it was not provisioned for, regardless of what the model
produces. The "block" action provides an unconditional deny for
specified tools that cannot be overridden by any model output,
injected prompt, or delegation claim. The proxy operates entirely
outside the model's trust boundary; the model cannot influence the
proxy's decisions.
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AIP does not protect against:
o A compromised agent runtime that routes calls around the proxy;
o Tool servers that accept calls from sources other than the proxy.
9.3. Transport Security
All communication between AIP Proxies and the AIP Registry MUST use
TLS 1.3 [RFC8446]. Server certificates MUST be validated against the
system trust store. Certificate pinning is RECOMMENDED for registry
connections in production deployments.
Proxy-to-tool-server connections MUST use TLS 1.2 [RFC5246] or later.
TLS 1.3 is RECOMMENDED.
9.4. Private Key Storage
Agent private keys MUST be stored in a secure key store. In order of
preference:
1. Hardware Security Module (HSM) or Trusted Platform Module (TPM);
2. OS keychain (macOS Keychain, Windows DPAPI, Linux Secret
Service); 3. Encrypted file with passphrase derived using Argon2id
[RFC9106].
Private keys MUST NOT be stored in environment variables, plaintext
configuration files, or source code repositories.
9.5. Registry Trust
A proxy MUST be configured with an explicit list of trusted registry
hostnames and the TLS certificate fingerprint (or CA) for each.
Agent Records from registries not on this list MUST be rejected.
9.6. Nonce Cache Sizing
The nonce cache must be large enough to hold all unique nonces
generated within the TTL window (600 seconds). Implementations MUST
use a bounded cache with LRU eviction and MUST NOT silently drop old
nonces without ensuring they are outside the TTL window.
9.7. Revocation Latency
The proxy's revocation cache has a maximum refresh interval of 60
seconds (Section 6.1). In the worst case, a revoked agent can
continue making calls for up to 60 seconds after revocation.
Deployments with stricter requirements SHOULD subscribe to the
registry's SSE revocation stream (Section 5.3) and invalidate the
cache on receipt of a revocation event.
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9.8. Denial-of-Service
The proxy adds a small amount of latency to every tool call (one
cache lookup and one key verification). To prevent the proxy from
becoming an availability bottleneck:
* Agent Record lookups MUST be served from the local cache except on
cache miss or invalidation;
* The proxy SHOULD enforce a per-agent call rate limit to prevent a
runaway agent from flooding the registry with cache-miss lookups.
10. Privacy Considerations
10.1. Agent Record Visibility
Agent Records are visible to any party that can query the registry.
Principals SHOULD use non-identifying agent names for agents that
handle sensitive workloads.
10.2. Audit Log Sensitivity
Audit logs contain Agent IDs, tool names, and argument hashes. While
argument values are not logged in plaintext, the combination of Agent
ID and tool name may itself be sensitive in some contexts. Audit
logs MUST be access-controlled appropriately.
10.3. DLP Redaction
When DLP redaction is applied to a response, the proxy modifies the
data the agent receives. Operators MUST ensure that redaction does
not cause the agent to produce incorrect or harmful downstream
actions due to missing context.
10.4. Registry Data Retention
Registry operators MUST publish a data retention policy. Agent
Records for revoked agents SHOULD be pseudonymized after the minimum
retention period required for audit log verification.
11. IANA Considerations
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11.1. HTTP Header Field
This document defines the "AIP-Token" HTTP header field.
Registration is requested in the "Permanent Message Header Field
Names" registry per [RFC3864]. The header field name is "AIP-Token",
applicable protocol is "http", status is "standard", the author/
change controller is the IETF, and the specification document is this
document (Section 7.1).
11.2. Media Type
The media type "application/aip+json" is requested for AIP Tokens
serialized as standalone JSON documents. The type name is
"application", the subtype name is "aip+json", the required parameter
is "version" (value "1"), encoding considerations are UTF-8, and
security considerations are described in Section 9.
12. References
12.1. Normative References
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
[RFC8174] Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.
[RFC8032] Josefsson, S. and I. Liusvaara, "Edwards-Curve Digital
Signature Algorithm (EdDSA)", RFC 8032,
DOI 10.17487/RFC8032, January 2017,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8032>.
[RFC8446] Rescorla, E., "The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol
Version 1.3", RFC 8446, DOI 10.17487/RFC8446, August 2018,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8446>.
[RFC5246] Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla, "The Transport Layer Security
(TLS) Protocol Version 1.2", RFC 5246,
DOI 10.17487/RFC5246, August 2008,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5246>.
[RFC4648] Josefsson, S., "The Base16, Base32, and Base64 Data
Encodings", RFC 4648, DOI 10.17487/RFC4648, October 2006,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4648>.
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[RFC4122] Leach, P., Mealling, M., and R. Salz, "A Universally
Unique IDentifier (UUID) URN Namespace", RFC 4122,
DOI 10.17487/RFC4122, July 2005,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4122>.
[RFC6749] Hardt, D., Ed., "The OAuth 2.0 Authorization Framework",
RFC 6749, DOI 10.17487/RFC6749, October 2012,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6749>.
[RFC9106] Biryukov, A., Dinu, D., Khovratovich, D., and S.
Josefsson, "Argon2 Memory-Hard Function for Password
Hashing and Proof-of-Work Applications", RFC 9106,
DOI 10.17487/RFC9106, September 2021,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9106>.
[JSON-RPC] JSON-RPC Working Group, "JSON-RPC 2.0 Specification",
January 2013.
[RFC3864] Klyne, G., Nottingham, M., and J. Mogul, "Registration
Procedures for Message Header Fields", BCP 90, RFC 3864,
DOI 10.17487/RFC3864, September 2004,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3864>.
12.2. Informative References
[MCP] Anthropic, "Model Context Protocol", November 2024.
[OIDC] Sakimura, N. et al., "OpenID Connect Core 1.0", November
2014.
[SPIFFE] CNCF SPIFFE Project, "SPIFFE: Secure Production Identity
Framework for Everyone", 2024.
[JSONL] Granger, N., "JSON Lines", 2014.
Appendix A. Example AgentPolicy
A complete AgentPolicy for a research assistant agent.
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<CODE BEGINS>
agentId: reg.agentidentityprotocol.io/01933f4a-9b2c-7d8e-af01
mode: enforce
tools:
- allowed:
- read_file
- list_directory
- web_search
- git_status
- write_file
- create_issue
- rules:
- tool: write_file
action: ask
- tool: exec_command
action: block
- tool: delete_file
action: block
- tool: create_issue
action: ask
dlp:
- name: aws-access-key
regex: "AKIA[A-Z0-9]{16}"
action: block
scope: both
- name: private-key-pem
regex: "-----BEGIN [A-Z ]* PRIVATE KEY-----"
action: block
scope: both
- name: generic-token
regex: "[a-zA-Z0-9_\\-]{40,}"
action: redact
scope: response
hitl:
- approvers:
- ops@acme.example
- timeout_seconds: 300 # wait 5 minutes
- on_timeout: deny
<CODE ENDS>
Appendix B. Example AIP Token
An AIP Token for a read_file call, shown before base64url encoding
for transport in the AIP-Token header.
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{
"aipVersion": "1",
"agentId": "reg.agentidentityprotocol.io/01933f4a-9b2c-7d8e-af01",
"tool": "read_file",
"argumentsHash": "e3b0c44298fc1c149afb4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855",
"nonce": "a3f8b2c1d4e5f607a8b9c0d1e2f3a4b5",
"timestamp": "2026-02-24T14:30:00Z",
"signature": "TUlJQ0lqQU5CZ2txaGtpRzl3MEJBUUVGQUFOQ0E..."
}
Appendix C. Error Code Reference
AIP-E001 Tool not in allowlist
The requested tool is not listed in tools.allowed and the
proxy is in enforce mode.
AIP-E002 Argument validation failed
A tool argument failed a pattern or maxLength check defined
in tools.rules.args.
AIP-E003 Tool unconditionally blocked
The tool has action: block in tools.rules.
AIP-E004 Nonce replay
The nonce in the AIP Token was already seen within the
600-second cache window.
AIP-E005 Timestamp out of range
The token timestamp is more than 300 seconds old or more
than 30 seconds in the future.
AIP-E008 DLP violation
A DLP rule with action: block matched content in the
request or response.
AIP-E010 AIP Token missing
The tool call arrived with no AIP-Token header or _aip
field.
AIP-E011 Agent ID not found
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The agentId in the token could not be resolved at the
registry.
AIP-E012 Agent revoked
The Agent Record for this agentId has status: revoked.
AIP-E013 Signature verification failed
The key signature did not verify against the public key in
the Agent Record.
AIP-E015 HITL approval denied
A human approver explicitly denied the held call.
AIP-E016 HITL timed out
The HITL hold expired and on_timeout is set to deny.
AIP-E099 Internal proxy error
An unexpected error occurred in the proxy. See proxy logs
for details.
Authors' Addresses
James Cao
Montcao
Email: james@montcao.com
URI: https://agentidentityprotocol.io
Carlos Eduardo Arango Gutierrez
NVIDIA
Email: eduardoa@nvidia.com
URI: https://agentidentityprotocol.io
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