How Opal Solves It
One Framework for Every Identity Type
Opal doesn't treat agent identities as a special case. They're first-class entities in the same access graph, subject to the same OpalScript policies, evaluated by the same Paladin engine, and queryable through the same OpalQuery interface as human identities. When an AI agent requests access, it goes through the same approval chain — with the same contextual evaluation, time-bound enforcement, and audit trail — as a request from any employee. The security posture you've built for humans extends to agents automatically, not as a bolt-on.
01
Opal treats AI agents as first-class identities in the unified access graph — alongside humans, service accounts, and groups — with full visibility into their entitlements, group memberships, resource access, and access history. Like any human identity, agents are queryable via OpalQuery, and no agent operates in a blind spot.
Agent identities appear in the same access graph as human and machine identities
Queryable via OpalQuery: "show me all AI agents with access to production databases" works the same as any other query
Full visibility into agent entitlements, access paths, and group memberships

02
OpalScript policies apply to agent identities without modification. JIT rules, approval workflows, SoD constraints, duration caps, and break-glass procedures govern agents exactly as they govern humans. Need agent-specific rules? Same language, same version control, same pipeline — credential scoping, delegation limits, and action-type restrictions are all expressible in the same composable logic.
Agent-specific constraints: credential scoping, delegation limits, action-type restrictions
Uniform policy enforcement across human and agent identities
Agent governance through Git and CI/CD — not an afterthought

03
When an AI agent requests access, Paladin applies the same multi-signal evaluation as human requests — identity context, access history, resource sensitivity, policy compliance, and justification quality. Agents within policy bounds are approved; those requesting sensitive access without adequate justification are escalated to a human reviewer with Paladin's reasoning attached. No rubber-stamping. No silent provisioning.
Paladin evaluates agent requests against identity context, history, and policy
High-confidence requests approved autonomously; ambiguous ones escalate with reasoning
Every agent access decision is auditable — same trail as human decisions

04
Standing access for AI agents is the same risk as standing access for humans — arguably worse, because agents operate at machine speed and don't take vacations. Opal enforces JIT and time-bound access for agent identities by default. Credentials are scoped to a task. Access expires on completion. Long-running agents are subject to periodic re-evaluation. The attack surface from a compromised agent credential is bounded by the same duration and scope policies that govern human access.

Impact
Access intelligence
OpalQuery surfaces agent identities alongside humans: query for over-provisioned agents, orphaned agent credentials, and agents with access to sensitive resources.
AI-powered reviews
Paladin evaluates agent access requests with the same contextual rigor as human requests — no separate review process, no governance gap.
Just-in-time access
Time-bound enforcement eliminates standing agent credentials, reducing the blast radius of any compromised agent identity
Programmable governance
OpalScript encodes agent-specific policies (credential scoping, delegation limits, action-type restrictions) in the same version-controlled, testable language used for human policies.






