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AgentOps Fundamentals

Agent Identity 101: Why Agents Need to Be Principals

November 23, 2025•5 min read
In traditional software security, we have two main types of principals: Users (humans with passwords) and Services (machines with API keys). The rise of AI agents introduces a third, distinct category that most security models aren't ready for: the Autonomous Agent.

The Problem: Agents Are Not Just "Scripts"

When you run a standard script, it does exactly what you wrote it to do. If it deletes a database, it's because you wrote a line of code to delete it.

AI agents are different. They are non-deterministic. You give them a goal ("Clean up old records"), and they decide how to achieve it. This autonomy creates a massive security gap. If an agent decides to delete the wrong table to "clean up," who is responsible? The user who triggered it? The developer who wrote the prompt?

Most teams today run agents using the User's Identity (passing the user's OAuth token to the agent) or a Service Identity (giving the agent a God-mode admin key). Both are dangerous.

The Security Gap

If an agent shares your user identity, it has access to everything you have access to. If it gets prompt-injected, the attacker can do anything you can do.

The Solution: Agent-as-Principal

The "Agent-as-Principal" model treats the agent as a distinct entity with its own identity, separate from the user who triggered it and the code that defines it.

In a mature AgentOps platform (like AgentControlLayer), an agent identity consists of:

  • Cryptographic Identity (SPIFFE)A verifiable ID that proves "I am the CustomerSupportAgent v1.2 running in Tenant A."
  • Least-Privilege PermissionsExplicit grants: "Can read OrderHistory, can write TicketStatus, CANNOT delete Users."
  • Attributable Audit LogsLogs that say: "Action performed by CustomerSupportAgent (triggered by User Alice)."

Implementing Agent Identity

To implement this in your own systems, follow these three steps:

  1. Define Agent Configs as Code: Don't just instantiate an LLM client. Create a config object that defines the agent's name, version, and allowed tools.
  2. Wrap Tool Execution: Create a middleware layer that checks permissions before every tool call.if (agent.permissions.includes('db:write')) execute().
  3. Pass Context, Not Keys: Instead of giving the agent raw API keys, give it a scoped token that your backend validates.

Conclusion

As agents move from "chatbots" to "action-takers," identity becomes the cornerstone of security. Without it, you can't safely deploy agents that do real work.

Ready to manage agent identities out of the box? Check out AgentControlLayer, the enterprise AgentOps platform.