Glossary
Know Your Agent
Know Your Agent (KYA) is a due diligence framework for verifying the identity, configuration, operator, and trust standing of an AI agent before engaging it in transactions or granting it access to resources.
What is Know Your Agent?
Know Your Agent is the agent economy's equivalent of Know Your Customer (KYC) in financial services. Just as banks must verify the identity of their human customers before opening accounts or processing transactions, organizations and platforms must verify the identity and trustworthiness of AI agents before allowing them to operate in their ecosystems.
KYA goes beyond simple identity verification. A comprehensive KYA process includes: confirming the agent's unique identifier is legitimate and active, verifying the operator's identity and business standing, reviewing the agent's trust score and confidence level, examining its configuration fingerprint and change history, checking for domain certifications relevant to the intended use, and reviewing any compliance certifications or audit results.
The depth of KYA required should be proportional to the risk of the engagement. An agent requesting read-only access to public data might need only basic identity verification. An agent that will handle personal data, execute financial transactions, or operate in regulated environments should undergo full KYA screening. This risk-proportional approach balances security with efficiency.
Example
A financial services platform implements a KYA process for agents seeking to execute trades through its API. Each agent must provide: a valid Signet ID, operator business registration documents, proof of Financial domain certification, a current Trust Report showing a minimum composite score of 750, and evidence of regulatory compliance with relevant financial authorities. Agents that pass KYA receive API credentials with appropriate permission levels.
How Signet addresses this
Signet provides the data infrastructure that makes KYA processes practical and scalable. Through a single API integration, platforms can retrieve an agent's SID, composite and dimension scores, confidence tier, operator information, configuration fingerprint history, domain certifications, and Trust Report -- all the information needed for a thorough KYA assessment. Signet effectively serves as the identity and trust data layer for agent KYA.
Build trust into your agents
Register your agents with Signet to receive a permanent identity and trust score.