Agent Identity & Know-Your-Agent (KYA)
Identity control plane — not a spend mandate, not harness egress
Operator recipe for treating Know-Your-Agent as the identity control plane for agents that act across networks. Distinct from /playbooks/agent-payments-spend-policy/ (capped payment capability, not PAN) and from /playbooks/harness-permission-outside-agent/ (host grants connectors/egress). Ant International, Mastercard, and Visa initiated collaboration on a KYA interoperability framework (PR Newswire / APAC, 2026-09-10) so card, wallet, agent-platform, and marketplace ecosystems can recognize agents from shared principles while each network keeps its own verification and decisioning. That collaboration is in progress — not a finished shared standard or live cert. Existing protocols named in the announcement: Visa Trusted Agent Protocol, Mastercard Verifiable Intent, Ant International Agentic Mobile Protocol. Pair identity with LangChain Connections: agent-owned vs caller/user-owned credentials. The announcement cites McKinsey’s projection that AI agents could orchestrate US$3–5 trillion of global consumer commerce by 2030 (https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-automation-curve-in-agentic-commerce) — a source citation, not an Institute metric. Primaries: https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/ant-international-mastercard-and-visa-initiate-collaboration-on-know-your-agent-interoperability-to-scale-agentic-commerce-302874102.html ; https://www.langchain.com/blog/connections-managed-credentials-and-per-caller-identity-for-managed-deep-agents. Related catalog: LangChain Managed Deep Agents, Nevermined, Stripe Link.
Core Workflows (6)
Each workflow represents a critical business function. Click any workflow to see detailed automation architecture.
Keep identity distinct from spend and egress
Led by: Identity OperatorKYA answers who the agent is and which operator/principal it is attributed to. Spend policy answers how much it may pay (cap, clock, revoke). Harness permission answers which connectors and network egress the host grants. Do not collapse those three planes. A payment capability is not an identity document; an egress allowlist is not KYA. See /playbooks/agent-payments-spend-policy/ and /playbooks/harness-permission-outside-agent/.
Inventory the three named protocols
Led by: Identity OperatorThe collaboration announcement names protocols already rolled out: Visa Trusted Agent Protocol, Mastercard Verifiable Intent, and Ant International Agentic Mobile Protocol. Record which rail your agent actually hits today. Do not invent a fourth “IZHC KYA cert.” Do not quote executives. The work now is exploring common principles across those protocols, not replacing them.
Treat Ant / Mastercard / Visa KYA as in progress
Led by: Identity OperatorAs of the 2026-09-10 announcement, the three organizations have begun collaboration on a KYA interoperability framework: shared principles, while each network preserves its own verification and decisioning. BuildFin.ai (MAS-convened) and the SAFR framework are named as the Singapore collaboration venue. There is no public technical spec, governance body, or rollout date in the announcement. Do not block launch on a finished shared cert that does not exist. Do not treat unsigned press as a live standard.
Design for the three announced themes
Led by: Identity OperatorThe announcement centers KYA collaboration on: (1) cross-network operator traceability — each agent linked to a validated operator, cardholder, or business/organization; (2) shared certification requirements — security and behavioral assessment so the agent operates as expected; (3) continuous transaction monitoring — identity plus transaction signals for ongoing assessment. Use these as operator design themes. Implement what your current rail actually supports; do not invent a shared certification API.
Pair KYA with Connections ownership
Led by: Connections OperatorLangChain Connections (Managed Deep Agents) stores named credentials in the LangSmith workspace. Owner is independent of credential type: agent-owned (shared by every caller; service-account path) vs caller/user-owned (resolved per person at runtime; on-behalf-of path). Ownership is fixed at create (`mda connections create`) and does not change later. `connections.get()` pauses for an OAuth grant when the caller has none. Match the identity you want on the ticket/charge (bot vs person) to the connection owner. See /resources/tools/langchain-managed-deep-agents/.
Do not ship a fake KYA badge
Led by: Identity OperatorUntil networks publish interoperable verification you can actually present, keep your own operator attribution, Connections ownership, and rail-specific protocol. The McKinsey US$3–5T-by-2030 figure in the announcement is a cited projection of agent-orchestrated consumer commerce — not an Institute TAM and not a reason to skip identity. Revoke Connections and spend mandates on a separate clock from identity records.