KYAF.
The Know-Your-Agent Foundation
AI agents now read, write, decide, and transact across organisations. The systems built to verify human actors — identity, signatures, mandates, audit trails — were not made for them.
Know-Your-Agent is the field of inquiry that follows: how AI agents and agentic systems can be made legible to the counterparties, regulators, and institutions whose work depends on knowing who is acting, under whose authority, and within what limits.
The Foundation
KYAF is a research and discovery organisation. Independent. Non-commercial.
We work alongside delegators, domain experts, and standards-body peers to surface the practical questions that Know-Your-Agent will need to answer — across industries, jurisdictions, and regulatory regimes.
The work is evidence-grounded. We distinguish what is documented from what is plausible from what is speculative, and we say so.
What KYAF is not
Not a vendor.KYAF does not sell agent-identity infrastructure, compliance tooling, or assurance services.
Not a standards body.The protocol layer is being convened by others. KYAF contributes to that work rather than duplicating it.
Not a regulator.Rule-making belongs to the bodies that make rules.
A premise of openness
KYAF publishes its findings openly — including findings that suggest a problem is not yet ripe for action. The questions Know-Your-Agent raises are too consequential for one organisation, sector, or jurisdiction to resolve alone.