AFFIXIO
Non-human identity
Non-human identity verification
Non-human identities proliferate faster than human IAM. AffixIO focuses on verifiable eligibility outcomes those workloads can present at sensitive boundaries, instead of relying on static long-lived secrets alone.
Definition
Non-human identity verification confirms that an agent, service, or device may act under policy, as a signed allow or deny at the boundary.
Field note. Shared machine credentials hide which agent or automation triggered a spend. Issue per-session proofs with expiry.
Eligibility beside workload identity
Workload identity systems establish who the process is. AffixIO issues policy eligibility proofs for what it may do next. They can coexist. AffixIO is a different layer.
Prefer JIT proofs over standing secrets for consequential actions: payments, data export, privileged tool calls.
Operating NHI at scale
Inventory NHI. Classify by blast radius. Gate high-risk actions on signed allow or deny. Retain Merkle refs for security review.
Compare agent auth versus API keys when making the case to platform teams.
Verifier placement for non-human identity gates
Map non-human identity gates to a single verify endpoint even if multiple protocols feed the same checkout or tool surface. One permission layer reduces drift between AP2, UCP, and direct REST integrations.
Review deny rates weekly during pilot. Spikes often trace to policy drift or clock skew on expiry, not fraud.
Verifier gap
Secrets outpace governance
Service accounts, bots, and agents multiply. Many still authenticate with long-lived keys that are hard to scope and harder to audit per action.
Static secret sprawl
Keys embedded in configs outlive the workloads that needed them.
Weak per-action evidence
Authentication success is not the same as policy eligibility for this action.
Human IAM mismatch
Tools built for people do not map cleanly to machine-speed actors.
Coexistence confusion
Teams ask whether AffixIO replaces SPIFFE or cloud workload identity.
Issuer split
Non-human identities need gates, not shared service accounts
Service accounts and API keys blur which machine actor took each action. AffixIO verifies non-human identity proofs at the tool-call boundary with Merkle evidence on the record.
Inventory NHI
Agents, services, devices, bots.
Classify risk
Which actions need a binary gate.
Issue JIT eligibility
Short-lived, scoped proofs.
Verify at boundaries
Allow or deny before the action.
Readiness review
Readiness checks for non-human identity gates
- List NHI with production secrets today.
- Map high-risk actions to AffixIO verify.
- Set TTLs appropriate to task length.
- Keep verifier free of standing PII tables.
- Document coexistence with SPIFFE or cloud identity.
Risk FAQ
Questions on non-human identity gates
Is this the same as SPIFFE?
Different layer. AffixIO issues policy eligibility proofs; workload identity systems can coexist.
Do we eliminate all API keys?
Reduce them for consequential actions. Some infrastructure secrets may remain.
Devices too?
Yes. Device eligibility at physical or API gates fits the same model.
How do we audit NHI actions?
Merkle-anchored allow or deny references per gated action.
Next reads
Pages that support non-human identity gates
AI agents
More AI agent briefs
Gate non-human identity at your boundary
Issue and verify machine identity proofs in sandbox, then attach to tool calls and payment hooks.