SPIFFE
Agent Identity for the Internet of Agents
The CNCF standard for cryptographic workload identity. No passwords, no API keys -- just a URI and a short-lived cryptographic token that proves "I am this agent, from this organization."
What is SPIFFE?
SPIFFE (Secure Production Identity Framework for Everyone) gives every workload -- container, service, or AI agent -- a cryptographic identity. Instead of sharing secrets like API keys or passwords, a SPIFFE-enabled agent carries a short-lived, signed token (called an SVID) that other agents can verify independently.
Think of it like a passport for software. A human passport has your name, nationality, and an expiry date. A SPIFFE SVID has the agent's URI, its trust domain, and a one-hour expiry -- signed by the organization's certificate authority.
The SPIFFE ID format
Every SPIFFE identity is a URI with this structure:
spiffe://trust-domain/path
For AI agents on MeetLoyd, this becomes:
spiffe://meetloyd.com/tenant/{tenantId}/agent/{agentId}
Identity hierarchy
Root CA + JWKS at /.well-known/spiffe/trust-bundle
Organization boundary + governance policies
JWT-SVID: ES256 signed, 1h TTL, stateless
Why agents need identity
Without identity, agents are anonymous. Anonymous agents can't be audited, can't be authorized, and can't be held accountable. This is the fundamental problem with most AI deployments today -- the AI is a black box with no verifiable identity.
- Authorization -- "Is this agent allowed to access this CRM data?" requires knowing which agent is asking.
- Federation -- Cross-org collaboration via SLIM requires cryptographic proof that "this agent is from Acme Corp."
- Audit -- SOX-grade audit trails require non-repudiable identity on every action.
- Token exchange -- OAuth 2.0 token exchange (RFC 8693) lets agents delegate permissions to sub-agents, but only if both have verifiable identities.
SVID: The agent's passport
An SVID (SPIFFE Verifiable Identity Document) is a JWT signed by the trust domain's certificate authority. It contains the agent's SPIFFE ID, the issuer, and an expiry timestamp. SVIDs are:
- Short-lived -- 1 hour default, 24 hour max. Compromised credentials auto-expire.
- Stateless -- No database lookup required. Verify the signature against the public trust bundle.
- Rotatable -- New SVIDs issued automatically. No downtime, no key distribution.
How MeetLoyd implements SPIFFE
MeetLoyd has completed all four phases (P0-P4) of the AGNTCY/Cisco IETF agent identity specification:
- P0: Client ID Metadata + JWKS -- Every agent gets IETF-compliant client metadata, EC P-256 key pairs, and a published JWKS endpoint.
- P1: Verifiable Credentials -- W3C VC 2.0 badges issued as JWT envelopes. Platform signing key. 180-day badge expiry. Agents carry proof of capabilities.
- P2: JWT-SVIDs + Trust Bundle -- ES256-signed SVIDs issued per-agent. Public trust bundle at
/.well-known/spiffe/trust-bundle. 1h default TTL. Stateless verification. - P3: OAuth Token Exchange -- RFC 8693 token exchange with delegation policy via OpenFGA. Agents can delegate permissions to sub-agents within same tenant.
- P4: TBAC (Tool-Based Access Control) -- Triple-check authorization: token verification, badge validation, policy evaluation. Default deny in enforce mode.
Every SPIFFE ID is auto-assigned at agent deploy time. No manual configuration required.