OAuth Integration

A unified authentication and authorization stack built on Ory Kratos as the identity provider, seamlessly integrated with the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and existing enterprise platforms. The system supports OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect flows, secure token lifecycle management, and delegated access for both human users and autonomous AI agents.

The Agent Authentication Problem

The architecture addresses a critical gap in the AI agent ecosystem: how to provide agents with secure, scoped, and auditable access to enterprise resources without compromising the organization's security posture. Traditional OAuth flows assume a human in the loop for consent screens, but agent-to-service authentication requires a fundamentally different approach.

Our solution implements a delegated authorization model where human users grant agents specific capability-bounded tokens with configurable expiration, scope restrictions, and revocation policies, essentially a machine-readable power of attorney with strict boundaries.

Security Architecture

The system ensures scalable identity federation, fine-grained permissions, and consistent governance across distributed agentic and human workflows. Key components include:

• Centralized policy engine: Evaluates access requests against organizational rules in real time with sub-millisecond decision latency
• Token introspection service: Enables downstream services to verify agent permissions with support for DPoP (Demonstration of Proof-of-Possession) binding
• Comprehensive audit logging: Captures the full delegation chain from human user to agent to resource access with cryptographic integrity guarantees
• Agent Identity Protocol: Assigns verifiable, certificate-based identities to agents regardless of their framework or origin

Federation and Multi-Tenancy

The implementation supports multi-tenant deployments with tenant-isolated identity stores and configurable federation policies for cross-organization collaboration. For human identity, standard SAML 2.0 and OIDC federation integrates with enterprise IdPs (Azure AD, Okta, Google Workspace). For agent identity, a federation gateway handles protocol translation between JWT, SAML assertions, API keys, and mTLS certificates as needed.

Access tokens are short-lived (5-minute default) JWTs with audience restrictions, and refresh tokens are bound to the requesting device or agent using DPoP. An HSM-backed signing service handles token issuance with automatic key rotation every 24 hours.