WorkOS founder Michael Grinich argues that account registration remains a missing step in end-to-end agent workflows. Tools and context are not enough if an agent cannot legitimately obtain access to a service. He distinguishes this problem from defeating anti-abuse controls and says services need ways to assess intent, identity, permissions and risk.
The auth.md proposal advertises supported registration flows, identity proofs, scopes, free-tier constraints and later human or organizational custody. Grinich walks through a Cloudflare deployment example in which a backing identity service supplies a signed identity assertion and the provider returns access credentials. The example is presented as a collaboration and demonstration, not a universal capability of every provider.
The proposal addresses the initial registration step rather than replacing ordinary APIs, MCP integrations or the entire agent-identity stack. Providers retain application-specific policy and may require additional verification. Grinich sees agent-native onboarding as a product opportunity, but his growth predictions and platform comparisons are arguments, not established forecasts.
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