An ephemeral agent identity reduces the time and scope in which stolen or misused credentials remain valuable. It can be issued for one task, environment, tool, dataset, or action category and expire without relying on manual cleanup.
Short lifetime complements rather than replaces authorization. The identity still needs minimal permissions, secure issuance, task binding, auditability, fast revocation, and protection against repeated automatic renewal after a workflow is disabled.
ELI5
An ephemeral agent identity is a temporary account or credential for an AI agent. It works only for a short time or one task and then expires automatically.
For example, a research agent can receive one-hour access to a specific dataset. If the credential is copied, its short life and narrow scope reduce how much damage it can cause.
