Agent Identity Workshop #3 and Interop Day. Computer History Museum, Mountain View. November 5 and 6, 2026.
Give agents permission, not your password
An AI agent that holds your password looks like you to every service it touches. We work on the other way: the agent shows its own signed ID, and the service checks each action against a permission you gave. This week we are asking anyone who builds a verifier to test it against ours, and to let us test ours against yours.
Test your verifier against ours
The ATX conformance suite has 41 test credentials. Each file holds the credential, the settings a verifier needs to judge it, and the published answer. Two reference verifiers, one in Go and one in Python, agree with the answer on all 41. The kit needs Go 1.22 or later, or Go 1.23 or later on macOS 26. It uploads nothing: the report stays on your machine.
Install the kit at one commit. This needs the network once.
See it score a stand-in that accepts everything.
Expect 9 agree and 32 accepted that must fail. That is what a verifier that never says no looks like.
Point it at your verifier.
The kit runs your command once per fixture, with
{file}replaced by the fixture's path. Exit 0 for ACCEPT and 1 for REJECT, or print one JSON object with averdictfield. A verifier that runs as a service can use--verifier-urlinstead. The kit exits 0 only when all 41 agree.
atx-conformance on GitHub, opens in a new tab The fixtures, both reference verifiers, and how to have your implementation listed.
Or hand us your credential
Bring a test credential, never a live one. Our two verifiers read ATX in the suite's fixture form. For any other format we say so, and write down its fields for the comparison.
The bank demo at our table
A mock bank runs one AI agent two ways: with the customer's password, and with a permission the bank checks on every payment. The scenarios are scripted and the bank is a mock. Ask for a run at the table.
1. A hidden line in a bill
- With your password
- The agent signs in as you and pays the fake invoice. The bank sees you, so it can't tell.
- With your permission
- The agent shows its own ID. The bank checks the payment against your permission and refuses it: the account isn't one of your payees.
2. Stop one agent
- With your password
- Changing the password signs out every agent, and you.
- With your permission
- Withdrawing one agent's permission stops that agent. The other agents and you keep working.
3. Who paid?
- With your password
- The bank's log shows a sign-in with your password, then the payment. No agent is named.
- With your permission
- The bank's record names the agent, the permission it used, and carries a signature.
4. Cut the network
- With your password
- The password path never needed an outside service.
- With your permission
- With every outside connection blocked, the bank makes the same four decisions. It checks keys and limits it holds itself.
What isn't done yet
- Proof of possession: a copy of an agent's credential is accepted as that agent. AAP specifies the fix; the reference implementation doesn't have it yet.
- Grant revocation: AAP's revocation list is specified but not implemented. Today a grant is dropped by restarting the broker.
- The demo's credentials come from a test issuer whose signing key is published, so they prove nothing outside the demo.
- The conformance kit has no tagged release yet, so the commands on this page pin a commit.
- AIP and AAP are individual drafts at the IETF. No working group has adopted either.
The specifications
- ATX: Agent Trust eXtension, opens in a new tab The agent's signed credential: which agent and build it is, and which authority vouches for it.
- AAP: Agent Authorization Protocol, opens in a new tab The permission a person gives an agent, and how a service checks each action against it.IETF individual draft, opens in a new tab
- AIP: Agent Identity Protocol, opens in a new tab How an agent gets an identifier and the keys that prove it.IETF individual draft, opens in a new tab
- ATP: Agent Trust Protocol, opens in a new tab Who may issue and cosign agent credentials, and how revocation lists reach verifiers.
specs.opena2a.org, opens in a new tab Every OpenA2A specification in one place.
Friday at AIW #3
We plan to propose these sessions in the 9:00 opening circle. The agenda is set there, so check the wall for times and rooms.
- Where should AAP and AIP align with WIMSE AIMS and the AUDIT drafts, and where should they not?
- The AI agent channel: what a site needs to admit an agent on its own terms, with a live mock bank, and how it differs from Web Bot Auth.
Questions, or want to test together after this week: info@opena2a.org