We're optimizing agent token costs fast — but who's designing agent authorization boundaries?

Straight_Condition39 · reddit · 2026-10-05

The author argues the agent ecosystem is racing to cut token costs (context compression, caching, cheaper-model routing) because feedback is immediate, while security has a slow feedback loop: broad agent access that causes no visible harm for months gets assumed safe.

Key points:

Agents are moving from answering questions to reading files, executing commands, calling tools, spawning processes, and modifying infrastructure
When an agent chains Agent → bash → Python → Terraform → cloud, where does its authority end? Should Python inherit all user permissions? Should Terraform know the request came from an AI?
"Sandbox everything" isn't the answer; the real emerging question is identity: humans have identity, workloads have identity — do agents need their own?

Most teams, the author suggests, are still in the "give it access and make it work" phase.

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We're optimizing agent token costs fast — but who's designing agent authorization boundaries?

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