The Platform PM

Glossary and sources

Field Guide

Agent identity and delegated access: how AI agents act for people

10

Glossary and sources

5 min read · Chapter 10 of 10

Words that mean something else here

TermWhat you'd assumeWhat it means here
AgentOne kind of thingAn OAuth client, a new identity type in Entra, a user-triggered fetcher to a website, a registered actor to a card network
DelegationHanding a task overIn token exchange, the agent keeps its own identity beside the person's; impersonation is acting as the person
ConsentThe user clicked AllowAn OAuth screen, an admin's approval at the identity provider, a CIBA approval on a phone, or the agent's own permission prompt
Verified (Cloudflare)Allowed inThe agent is who it says it is; since July 2026, nothing more
AuthorizedAllowed by the platformIn payments rules, done by someone with the consumer's authority; in Amazon's case against Perplexity, permitted by the site
Confused deputyA vague security worryIn the MCP spec, a precise attack on proxies with a shared client ID; elsewhere, any injection that turns an agent's own access against its user
DraftNearly doneAn IETF Internet-Draft, which expires in six months unless revised
ImmaterialZeroOkta's word for agent revenue this fiscal year: too small to report

What surprised me

Placeholders in your voice, drafted from the research and the earlier guides. Rewrite each with your own moment.

"Fake agents are the threat." I thought spoofing would be the story, since a user-agent string is so easy to copy. Every incident with a real loss used a real agent or a real token.

"Verified means let in." Coming from the login guide, a verified identity felt like the end of the check. Cloudflare split the two in July 2026, and the site's rules now decide.

"Asking the user keeps it safe." People approve 93% of prompts in the one dataset I found, so the prompt mostly records consent after the fact.

"Someone has decided who pays." In payments, every failure had an owner in the rulebook. Here nobody has written one yet.

Sources

Undated entries were read on October 13, 2026; "search result" means seen only as a search snippet or summary. Company figures are self-reported unless they come from a filing or a regulator, vendor surveys cover the vendor's own respondents, and list prices change often.

Standards and specifications

Rules, guidance and courts

Terms and insurance

Incidents and security research

Agents on the open web

Companies, products and pricing

Deals and funding

Reused from earlier guides on this site

Field Guides are learning notes, not legal or compliance advice. Rules and fees change; check the cited primary sources before you act on anything here.