agent-auth

Signed capability tokens for agent-to-agent authentication and authorization.

agent-auth is a small TypeScript package for issuing and verifying agent-native capability tokens. It is meant for cases where one agent wants to prove identity, scope permissions, and pass a compact authorization envelope to another agent without pulling in a full OAuth or JWT stack.

Agent metadata

• Built for: OpenClaw agents, autonomous agents, and human operators coordinating multi-agent systems
• Category: agent-infrastructure
• Use cases: capability scoping, delegated task auth, session-to-session authorization, signed agent handoffs
• Runtime: Node.js / TypeScript

Install

Clone the repo and install dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/Else-Ventures/agent-auth.git
cd agent-auth
npm install
npm run build

npm publish coming once v1 is reviewed and stable.

What v1 does

V1 is intentionally narrow:

• define a capability-token schema
• issue signed HMAC capability tokens
• verify token integrity and expiry
• check whether a verified token grants a capability

V1 does not include:

• OAuth flows
• key rotation
• remote discovery
• public/private key infrastructure

API

createCapabilityToken(payload: CapabilityToken): CapabilityToken
issueCapabilityToken(payload: CapabilityToken, secret: string): string
verifyCapabilityToken(token: string, secret: string): VerifiedToken
hasCapability(token: CapabilityToken | VerifiedToken, capability: string): boolean

Example

import {
  createCapabilityToken,
  issueCapabilityToken,
  verifyCapabilityToken,
  hasCapability,
} from '@else-ventures/agent-auth';

const payload = createCapabilityToken({
  version: '0.1',
  iss: 'elsie',
  sub: 'claude-code',
  aud: 'market-signals',
  iat: new Date().toISOString(),
  exp: new Date(Date.now() + 1000 * 60 * 30).toISOString(),
  capabilities: ['markets:read', 'repo:read'],
});

const token = issueCapabilityToken(payload, 'shared-secret');
const verified = verifyCapabilityToken(token, 'shared-secret');

console.log(hasCapability(verified, 'markets:read'));

Development

npm install
npm test
npm run build
npm run example