Public Comment — NIST NCCoE
Accelerating the Adoption of Software and AI Agent Identity and Authorization
Submitted by: Hernán Alfredo Capucci
Date: March 13, 2026
To: AI-Identity@nist.gov
ORCID: 0009-0008-7216-3032
Spec: https://agent-manifest-spec.org (DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18833956)
DOI of this comment: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19000957
Context
This document was submitted as a formal public comment in response to the NIST NCCoE concept paper:
“Accelerating the Adoption of Software and AI Agent Identity and Authorization”
National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE), February 5, 2026
Comment period open through April 2, 2026
Core Argument
Current AI agent identity frameworks — OAuth, OpenID Connect, SPIFFE/SPIRE — address authentication and authorization but do not address declaration: the structured, public statement of what an agent is, what it may and may not do, and who is responsible for it.
This is the Declaration Gap.
Agent Manifest fills this gap with a minimal pre-execution declaration layer.
Proposed Architecture (4 layers)
| Layer | Function | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Declaration | What does the agent declare before acting? | Agent Manifest |
| 2. Authentication | Is the agent who it claims to be at runtime? | OAuth, OpenID Connect, SPIFFE |
| 3. Authorization | Is the agent permitted to perform this action? | Policy engines, NGAC |
| 4. Audit | What did the agent do, and can it be reconstructed? | Logging, SIEM |
Agent Manifest occupies Layer 1 — currently absent from NIST’s proposed stack.
Key Recommendations to NIST
- Include a pre-execution declaration standard in the demonstration scope.
- Consider the
/.well-known/agent-manifestpattern as a low-friction discovery mechanism. - Evaluate the autonomy level field as a structured mechanism for human-in-the-loop policy.
- Treat declaration and authentication as separate concerns.
Full Document
The complete submission is available in this directory:
Also archived on Zenodo:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19000957
Status
- Submitted to AI-Identity@nist.gov — March 13, 2026
- Archived on Zenodo — March 13, 2026
- Tracking closed — July 2026. The comment period closed on April 2, 2026. The NCCoE does not publish individual comments for this concept paper, so no public listing is expected. No further action is planned. This document is preserved unchanged as the record of the submission as sent.
Agent Manifest — agent-manifest-spec.org — CC BY 4.0