Agent Authority Proof.
Prove an agent's authority without handing it the keys.
Give an AI agent a cryptographic proof of who it acts on behalf of and how far its scope reaches — without ever handing over a signing key. One of the five proofs that make up the Lemma API.
Prove delegated authority alone, without handing over a key.
Delegator, role, scope, limit, and validity are fixed in a cryptographic proof. The AI agent acts only within scope, and every action becomes verifiable.
Person / organization
Defines the role, scope, limit, and validity period granted to the AI agent.
Issues the authority as a cryptographic proof
Acts without a key
Think of it like a power of attorney.
To let someone advance a contract while you're away, you draft a power of attorney that spells out "the scope of the delegated authority" and "the expiry" — have you ever done something like this? Lemma's Agent Authority Proof uses the same mechanism for AI agents. Without handing over the key itself, it carries only "within this scope, until this expiry, in this role" as a cryptographic proof.
The scope of authority + the proof
- ✓
delegatedBy(the delegator's signature) - ✓
role/scope(role and scope) - ✓
spendLimit/validUntil(limit and expiry) - ✓The cryptographic proof of authority (independently verifiable)
Run autonomous agents without handing over a key.
How it differs from API keys, OAuth, and RBAC.
Existing authority management either "hands over a key" or "stays self-contained within a system." The era of autonomous AI agents demands "acting on behalf without handing over a key" — and that needs a different structure.
P3 is one of the five proofs that make up the Lemma API.
Business scenarios that use this proof.
Proprietary cryptography to prove delegated authority without handing over a key.
Delegator signature
Cryptographically fixes the issuer of the authority. Who delegated it can be independently verified by a third party after the fact.
Parametric authority
Role, scope, limit, and validity are parameterized. Anything exceeding them is cryptographically detected and rejected before execution.
ZK authority proof
The key itself is never handed over; only the fact that "this agent may act on behalf within this scope" is passed to the agent as a ZK proof.
{
"$schema": "your.agent.v1",
"delegatedBy": "ceo@org.jp",
"role": "procurement",
"spendLimitUSDC": 5000,
"scope": "vendor-list-2026",
"validUntil": "2026-12-31",
"issuer": "org.jp",
"zk_proof": "0x9c4f...e7d2"
}
Technical documentation related to this proof.
Issue authority as an API.
This is the “authority suite” of the Lemma API. Delegate only the scope you define to an agent — without handing over a key. Verification is always free.
- Issue proofs (billed only when you issue)
- Selective disclosure (share only the facts you need)
- On-chain permanence (optional)
Rates are on the pricing page; endpoints and code samples are in the specs.