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Your agent calls tools on behalf of users. How do you design its identity, credentials, and authorization?

An agent running on one over-privileged service account is a confused deputy waiting to happen. The signal is per-user delegated credentials, token exchange, per-tool scopes, and an audit trail that names the human. Here is the answer.

Updated Aug 2026 · Grounded in real Applied AI Engineer interview loops and written to a senior-engineer editorial bar.

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LEARN THE BACKGROUND

These lessons teach the material this question tests, in order and from the beginning.

Agent Engineering·Trusting nothing the agent readsSign in13mWhy an agent's threat model is not your application'sEvery security model you have used assumes code decides and data is inert. An agent erases that line, because the text it reads is the same channel as the instructions it follows. This lesson replaces the assumption before the next three lessons build on it.Agent Engineering·Trusting nothing the agent readsSign in14mDeciding what the agent may do, not what it may sayOnce you accept that an injection will eventually succeed, the only thing that bounds the damage is what the agent was permitted to do at that moment. Identity, scoping, and the actions that need a second signature.

UP NEXT ON YOUR JOURNEY

Next in this trackYour reviewers agree with the AI 98% of the time. Is your human-in-the-loop a real control or a rubber stamp?Next in this trackAn MCP server you already approved changes a tool's description. What breaks, and how do you defend against it?Next in this trackFifty teams are each shipping their own agents. What does the platform layer look like?

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