What Is Know Your Agent (KYA)?
Know Your Agent (KYA) is an identity-verification process, promoted most prominently by the AI-agent infrastructure company Skyfire, that attaches a real-world individual's or organization's verified identity to an autonomous AI agent, so a merchant or service can confirm who — or what business — the agent is actually acting on behalf of before letting it transact.
Key facts
- Skyfire is the primary source using the term. Per Skyfire's own documentation, KYA "is an optional process [that] attaches a real-world individual or organization identity to the agents you control, building trust across the agent economy." Skyfire describes its broader offering as an "Agent Trust Stack," with KYA as its identity layer.
- KYA is explicitly framed as the agent-era counterpart to KYC. Per Skyfire's explainer page, "KYA parallels traditional Know Your Customer (KYC) processes" but addresses a gap KYC doesn't cover: traditional identity verification relies on physical documents and human-entity checks, which don't apply to a non-human, autonomous agent.
- The verification produces a token, not just a database record. Verified users generate
kyaorkya-paytokens that, per Skyfire's documentation, "securely disclose only the fields that service requires, nothing more." If an agent lacks the verification level a given service requires, token creation fails and the transaction cannot proceed. - Verification is a paid, four-step flow, not a one-time registration. Per Skyfire's documentation, the process involves initiating verification via a dashboard, selecting an Individual (personal email) or Organization (company email) plan, completing a subscription and payment, and granting consent to share the specific verified fields a merchant needs. Users can re-verify at any time, and "your most recent successful verification is the one that applies to your agents."
- KYA credentials are designed to be recognized by third-party bot-defense infrastructure, not just Skyfire's own platform. Skyfire's marketing describes KYA tokens as "recognized today at the merchant edge by the bot-defense stacks that matter," naming F5, Akamai, Datadome, Human, Imperva, Sequentum, and Fastly as partners whose infrastructure can check a KYA token, per skyfire.xyz. Skyfire has also stated its KYA protocol serves as "the identity layer for Experian's Know Your Agent Framework," per a Skyfire post title, indicating the term "Know Your Agent" is being adopted by at least one other company (Experian) beyond Skyfire itself — not independently verified on Experian's own site for this article.
How it works
- A human or a business registers on Skyfire and creates one or more AI agents it controls under its account.
- The account holder chooses to complete KYA verification, selecting either the Individual or Organization identity type, and completes a subscription/payment step, per Skyfire's documentation.
- Skyfire verifies the submitted identity information and, once approved, allows the account to mint
kyaorkya-paytokens for its agents. - When an agent tries to access a website, log in, or complete a transaction, it presents its KYA token; the receiving merchant or service — potentially via a bot-defense partner's infrastructure — checks the token rather than relying on generic behavioral bot-detection alone.
- The token discloses only the specific identity fields that particular service requires, not the full underlying identity record, per Skyfire's documentation.
- If the account's verification lapses or is redone, the most recent successful verification becomes the one that applies to all of that account's agents going forward.
KYA vs. KYC
| Know Your Agent (KYA) | Know Your Customer (KYC) | |
|---|---|---|
| Subject being verified | An AI agent, plus the human/organization it represents | A human individual or a legal entity |
| Primary source describing it | Skyfire | Long-standing financial/AML regulatory practice (not covered by the sources reviewed for this article) |
| Verification input | Digital identity data tied to an individual or organization email/account | Physical documents (ID, proof of address) and entity records |
| Output | A kya/kya-pay token disclosing only required fields |
An internal compliance record / risk rating |
| Where it's checked | At the merchant/service edge, by bot-defense or Skyfire-integrated infrastructure | At account opening or transaction monitoring by a regulated financial institution |
FAQ
What does KYA stand for? "Know Your Agent" — a term used by Skyfire to describe verifying the real-world identity behind an autonomous AI agent, per Skyfire's documentation.
Is KYA a regulatory requirement? Not specified in the primary sources reviewed for this article. KYA as described by Skyfire is a product feature of its own platform, not a description of a government or industry regulatory mandate.
Is KYA the same as KYC? No, but Skyfire describes it as the parallel concept for agents: KYC verifies a human or legal entity using physical documents; KYA verifies which human or organization an AI agent is acting for, using a digital token-based process, per Skyfire's explainer.
Who checks a KYA token? Per Skyfire's marketing materials, KYA tokens are recognized by bot-defense platforms including F5, Akamai, Datadome, Human, Imperva, Sequentum, and Fastly, in addition to services integrated directly with Skyfire.
Does verified KYA status guarantee an agent's transaction will be approved? Not specified in the primary sources reviewed. KYA establishes verified identity for the agent; separate spending-limit or authorization mechanisms (see AI agent spending controls) govern whether a specific transaction is allowed.
Is Skyfire the only company using the "Know Your Agent" term? No. On April 30, 2026 Skyfire announced that its open KYA protocol provides the identity and payment infrastructure at the core of Experian's Know Your Agent framework, so the term is used beyond one company (Skyfire's announcement).
