Know Your Agent: Governance for Enterprise AI Agents
Know Your Agent (KYA) is an enterprise governance discipline for understanding which AI agents operate for an organization, why they are used, who is responsible for them, what they are authorized to do and what evidence supports their operation.
As AI agents gain the ability to access enterprise data, use applications, call tools, interact with MCP Servers and delegate actions, knowing that an agent exists is no longer enough. Organizations need to understand the authority under which it operates.
From discovery to governance
- 1
AI Agent Lookup
Public discovery
- 2
Know Your Agent
Enterprise context
- 3
Enterprise Agent Record
Controlled representation
- 4
Agent Governance
Operational lifecycle
- 5
Enterprise AI Governance
Organizational oversight
What is Know Your Agent?
Know Your Agent is the process of establishing and maintaining the enterprise context required to govern an AI agent.
It connects technical information about an agent with the organizational information that public registries, protocols and Agent Cards cannot determine: who owns the agent, why the organization uses it, what it is authorized to do, what it can access, whether it can delegate actions, who approved it and what evidence supports those decisions.
KYA does not require an agent to have a universal public identity or registry entry. Internal enterprise agents must also be governable even when no public Agent Card, registry record or externally discoverable identity exists.
Why AI Agents Require Specific Governance
AI agents are not merely content-generating applications. Depending on their configuration and permissions, they may query data, call APIs, use enterprise applications, invoke tools, interact with MCP Servers, initiate workflows or act with varying levels of autonomy.
This creates a governance problem that extends beyond discovering which AI technologies are present. An organization must understand both the capabilities available to an agent and the authority granted to it.
- Which AI agent is operating?
- Who owns and operates it?
- Why is the organization using it?
- What is it technically capable of doing?
- What is it authorized to do?
- Which applications, systems, tools and data can it access?
- Can it call MCP Servers, tools or other agents?
- Can it delegate actions?
- Which human or business owner remains accountable?
- Who approved its operation?
- What evidence supports those decisions?
An agent can be correctly identified and technically authenticated while still having inappropriate authority. KYA therefore extends beyond identity into enterprise governance.
Know Your Agent Is Not Know Your Customer
Know Your Customer (KYC) traditionally concerns the identification and verification of customers, particularly in financial services and regulated activities.
Know Your Agent addresses a different question. It concerns how an organization identifies, understands, authorizes, governs and documents the AI agents that operate for it or interact with its environment.
KYC asks: Who is the customer?
KYA asks: Should this AI agent be allowed to operate for our organization, and under what authority and controls?
Alterlayer does not present KYA as a statutory equivalent of KYC or claim that a universal Know Your Agent obligation currently exists. KYA is an enterprise governance methodology for addressing the operational questions created by increasingly autonomous AI agents.
The Nine Dimensions of Know Your Agent
A governable AI agent requires more than an identity. Alterlayer structures Know Your Agent around nine connected governance dimensions.
Identity
What agent is this?
Establish the agent's identity and available technical or public identifiers.
Ownership
Who owns or operates it?
Identify the organizational and technical ownership of the agent.
Purpose
Why is the organization using it?
Document the business purpose and intended use of the agent.
Authority
What is it authorized to do?
Define the actions the agent is permitted to perform on behalf of the organization.
Access
What can it access?
Document the data, applications, systems and tools available to the agent.
Delegation
Can it delegate actions?
Establish whether the agent can invoke tools, MCP Servers, other agents or delegated workflows.
Accountability
Who remains responsible?
Identify the human or business responsibility associated with the agent's operation.
Approval
Who authorized its use?
Record the decision and conditions under which the agent is permitted to operate.
Evidence
Can the organization demonstrate the above?
Maintain evidence supporting ownership, authority, access, controls and governance decisions.
Public Agent Information Is Only the Beginning
Public standards and registries can provide useful information about an AI agent. Alterlayer AI Agent Lookup brings supported public metadata into a readable view while preserving its source and provenance.
Public Agent Information
Potentially discoverable through public sources:
- Agent Card
- provider
- public endpoint
- capabilities
- A2A information
- protocol interfaces
- MCP Server metadata
- public source and provenance
Enterprise Governance Information
Established by the organization:
- department
- business owner
- technical owner
- business purpose
- permitted actions
- restricted actions
- application and system access
- data access
- tools
- delegation
- human oversight
- approval
- governance evidence
Public metadata can help identify and understand an agent. It cannot determine why a particular organization uses the agent, who internally owns it or what authority that organization has granted to it.
Look Up an AI AgentThe Enterprise Agent Record
Know Your Agent should result in a durable enterprise record rather than a one-time verification.
An Enterprise Agent Record brings the information required to understand and govern an agent into one controlled representation. It can combine externally declared or discovered metadata with private enterprise context and governance decisions.
- Identity
- Agent identity, provider, version, identifiers and protocols.
- Business Context
- Department, purpose, business owner and technical owner.
- Authority
- Permitted actions, restricted actions, autonomy and delegation.
- Access
- Applications, systems, data, tools and MCP Servers.
- Control
- Human oversight, approval, review conditions and escalation.
- Evidence
- Sources, approvals, supporting evidence, changes and review history.
The Enterprise Agent Record is private enterprise governance information. It is not a public agent registry.
KYA Applies to Internal and External AI Agents
An organization may need to govern both externally provided agents and agents developed or configured internally.
External AI Agent
Public metadata may provide a starting point for understanding the agent, its provider, capabilities and interfaces. The enterprise must still determine whether the agent is appropriate for its environment and under what authority it may operate.
Internal AI Agent
An internally developed agent may have no public Agent Card, registry entry or discoverable identity. It still requires ownership, purpose, authority, access, accountability, approval and evidence.
A successful public lookup is therefore useful context, not a prerequisite for Know Your Agent.
From Know Your Agent to Agent Governance
Knowing an agent is not a one-time exercise. Its purpose, capabilities, integrations, access and authority may change over time.
Enterprise governance must therefore maintain the agent through its operational lifecycle.
- Proposed
- Assessed
- Approved
- Active
- Restricted / Suspended
- Retired
KYA establishes the governance context required to make and evidence these decisions. Agent Governance maintains that context as the agent evolves.
The Role of Alterlayer
Alterlayer helps organizations move from AI visibility to operational governance.
For AI agents, this means connecting available identity and technical information with enterprise ownership, purpose, authority, access, approval and evidence.
AI Agent Lookup provides a public discovery entry point. Know Your Agent establishes the enterprise governance context. That context can then become part of the organization's broader AI Inventory, Ownership, Governance and Evidence model.
From Public Agent Information to Enterprise Governance
Looking up an AI agent can reveal publicly available information about its identity, provider, capabilities, protocols or MCP presence.
Know Your Agent begins where public information stops: establishing why your organization uses the agent, who is responsible for it, what authority it has and what evidence supports its operation.
Know Your Agent FAQ
What is Know Your Agent?
Know Your Agent (KYA) is an enterprise governance discipline for identifying, understanding, authorizing and documenting the AI agents that operate for an organization or interact with its environment.
Is Know Your Agent the same as KYC?
No. Know Your Customer concerns customer identification and verification. Know Your Agent concerns the enterprise governance of AI agents, including their ownership, purpose, authority, access, accountability, approval and evidence.
Is Know Your Agent required by the EU AI Act?
Know Your Agent is not presented by Alterlayer as a specific universal obligation established by the EU AI Act. It is an enterprise governance methodology for addressing operational questions around AI agent ownership, authority, oversight and evidence.
What information should an Enterprise Agent Record contain?
An Enterprise Agent Record can document identity, ownership, business purpose, authority, access, delegation, accountability, approvals, controls and supporting governance evidence.
What is the difference between AI Agent Lookup and Know Your Agent?
AI Agent Lookup retrieves supported publicly available agent and MCP metadata. Know Your Agent adds the private enterprise context required to determine why an organization uses an agent, who owns it, what it is authorized to do and how that decision is governed.
Does an AI agent need a public Agent Card to be governed?
No. Public metadata can provide useful context, but internal or private AI agents may have no publicly discoverable Agent Card or registry entry. They still require enterprise ownership, authority, access, approval and evidence.
Why is authority different from access for an AI agent?
Access describes the resources an agent can technically reach. Authority defines what the organization permits the agent to do. An agent may technically have access to a system while being authorized to perform only a limited set of actions.