Vouched and the Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF) today announced the release of KYA-OS Protocol Specification v1.0.0, an open specification designed to establish trusted identity, authorization, and accountability for AI agents.

As AI agents take on more autonomous roles across businesses and digital services, a critical infrastructure challenge has emerged: organizations need to know which agent is acting, who authorized it, and what it is allowed to do. KYA-OS provides an open foundation for answering those questions and enabling trusted agent interactions at scale.

Vouched began developing its agent identity framework in spring 2025, ahead of the broader industry focus on agent identity and authorization. Rather than commercializing the technology as a proprietary solution, Vouched donated the framework, originally introduced as MCP-I, to the Decentralized Identity Foundation to advance it through open standards and community governance.

Since the donation four months ago, nearly 10,000 unique visitors have engaged with the protocol resources, demonstrating growing interest in open approaches to building trust into AI agent ecosystems.

The specification was advanced through DIF’s Trusted AI Agents Working Group, which brought together a broad cross-section of experts from decentralized identity, enterprise organizations, startups, and academia. This collaboration helped shape KYA-OS into a practical framework designed to meet the needs of organizations deploying AI agents across diverse environments.

“We understand that many organizations are waiting for an agentic identity framework before they feel authorized to successfully adopt AI,” said Rosalyn Curato, Chief Innovation Officer and GM of Agentic Security at Vouched. “Thanks to the speed and thoughtful contributions of the DIF Working Group, we are pleased to share the first step towards transformation through trust.”

While the Model Context Protocol (MCP) has become a leading standard for connecting AI agents with tools and services, it does not define agent identity or authorization. KYA-OS complements MCP by adding three essential trust capabilities:

  • Identity — Cryptographically verifiable identities for AI agents using W3C Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs).

  • Delegation — Verifiable authorization that defines what an agent can do and on whose behalf it can act.

  • Proof — Cryptographically signed records that enable verification of agent actions and authorization history.

Built on open standards, KYA-OS uses established cryptographic technologies and defines conformance levels that allow organizations to adopt agent trust capabilities based on their security requirements.

“Agentic AI presents unique identity challenges when it comes to trust. Enterprises are struggling to get cross-organizational accountability that matches the speed of proliferation of AI agents,” said Grace Rachmany, Executive Director of the Decentralized Identity Foundation, who now owns the KYA-OS specification. “KYA-OS represents the progress that is possible when the ecosystem comes together around shared standards.”

KYA-OS is available today through DIF’s open-source repositories, which include the protocol specification, reference implementation, and conformance documentation.

As AI agents become increasingly integrated into business and digital workflows, trusted identity and authorization will become foundational infrastructure. KYA-OS provides the open, community-driven foundation needed to support the next generation of agent-based systems.

About Vouched

Vouched is pioneering the future of identity verification by delivering technology that quickly and securely validates the identities of both AI agents and humans. The recognized leader in identity verification for healthcare, Vouched has expanded its capabilities across financial services, automotive, and other industries. Vouched is writing the next chapter of the CISO playbook to take advantage of digital IDs and to identify software agents. Each month, Vouched verifies millions of identities with unmatched speed, accuracy, and regulatory compliance–accelerating trust in an increasingly digital world.

About DIF

The Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF) was established to create an IP-protected environment for decentralized identity-related specifications and open-source code development. DIF functions as a proto-standards body for rapid development and publication of technical specifications and reference implementations for decentralized identity. DIF operates as a Joint Development Project of the Linux Foundation, which provides the governance and fiscal frameworks trusted by organizations worldwide. We promote the use of DIDs, VCs, and related decentralized identity technologies. DIF maintains more than 270 GitHub repositories that have been contributed or developed by members and working groups.

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