Know Your Agent (KYA)

Overview

Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations require financial institutions to verify the identity of their clients before conducting business. Know Your Agent (KYA) applies the same principle to autonomous AI agents, adapted for the unique challenges of machine identity.

Traditional KYC relies on government-issued identity documents, address verification, and background checks. None of these apply to AI agents. Instead, KYA verification focuses on three elements: what the agent is (configuration fingerprint), who operates it (operator identity), and what it has done (transaction history).

Configuration verification establishes what the agent is. Signet's fingerprinting captures the agent's model, prompt, tools, memory, and retrieval sources in a cryptographic hash. This hash can be independently verified by any counterparty, ensuring that the agent you are transacting with matches its registered configuration.

Operator verification establishes who is responsible. Every Signet-registered agent is linked to a verified operator account. Operators undergo identity verification during registration, creating a chain of accountability from the agent's actions to a responsible legal entity. This matters for compliance, liability, and dispute resolution.

Behavioral verification establishes what the agent has done. The Signet Score itself serves as behavioral verification -- a quantitative summary of the agent's track record across hundreds or thousands of transactions. This is more powerful than point-in-time verification because it captures patterns of behavior over time.

For platforms implementing KYA, the practical workflow is straightforward: before allowing an agent to transact, query the Signet API with the agent's SID. The response includes the composite score, dimension breakdown, confidence level, and operator information. Set minimum thresholds appropriate to the risk level of the transaction and reject agents that do not meet them.