Can you prove an AI agent was authorized? Logs and traces can't answer that
docybo · reddit · 2026-09-07
As agents move from generating text to acting on real systems—payments, infrastructure, customer records—logs and traces show what happened, not whether the agent was allowed to do it.
Core arguments:
- Having credentials ≠ permission for a specific action; "the API key worked" isn't authorization.
- You must be able to answer: who issued the authorization, which policy applied, what action it was tied to, who could use it, when it was valid, whether it was already used, and whether authority was delegated.
- Authorization must exist before execution, be tied to what is actually executed, and be independently verifiable afterward—not determined by asking the agent post hoc.
- This is the "execution boundary": an upstream allow-decision must still apply when the action reaches the executing system.
"The model decided to do it" won't pass as an audit answer.
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