The Nexus Protocol: Standardizing Identity and Connection Orchestration for Autonomous Agents
Description
In the emerging era of Autonomous Agents, software is moving from Chat to Action. Agents must interact with a multitude of external APIs, SaaS platforms, and cloud services to perform useful work. However, the existing authentication infrastructure is designed for interactive humans (SSO, 1Password) or static servers (hardcoded secrets) which is fundamentally ill-suited for dynamic, long-running agent fleets. This mismatch leads to the "N+1 Problem," where every new integration requires bespoke authentication logic, creating security risks and development bottlenecks. This paper introduces the Nexus Protocol, a standardized open protocol for Agent Identity and Connection Orchestration. Nexus decouples the Authentication Mechanics (headers, signatures, tokens) from the Agent Logic. By delegating identity management to a central Authority, agents become Universal Adapters, capable of connecting to any service without code changes, driven entirely by server-side policy.
Files
The Nexus Protocol_ Standardizing Identity and Connection Orchestration for Autonomous Agents.pdf
Files
(579.4 kB)
| Name | Size | Download all |
|---|---|---|
|
md5:2ae6cf6195462a7d8310df68a68cd973
|
579.4 kB | Preview Download |
Additional details
Dates
- Submitted
-
2026-01-20
Software
- Repository URL
- https://github.com/Prescott-Data/nexus-framework
- Programming language
- Go
- Development Status
- Active
References
- Okta. What is AI agent identity? Securing autonomous systems [Internet]. Okta; 2025 Oct [cited 2026 Jan]. Available from: https://www.okta.com/identity-101/what-is-ai-agent-identity.
- Strata Identity. What is AI agent identity management? 2026 guide [Internet]. Strata Identity; 2025 Dec [cited 2026 Jan]. Available from: https://www.strata.io/glossary/ai-agent-identity-management.
- Microsoft Entra. Agent OAuth flows - on-behalf-of flow [Internet]. Microsoft; 2025 Nov [cited 2026 Jan]. Available from: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/agent-id/identity-platform/agent-on-behalf-of-oauth-flow.
- IETF Draft. OAuth 2.0 extension: on-behalf-of user authorization for AI agents [Internet]. IETF; 2025 May [cited 2026 Jan]. Available from: https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-oauth-ai-agents-on-behalf-of-user-00.html.
- South T et al. Identity management for agentic AI: the new frontier of authorization [Preprint]. arXiv; 2025 Oct [cited 2026 Jan]:9 p. Available from: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.25819.
- South T et al. Authenticated delegation and authorized AI agents [Preprint]. arXiv; 2025 Jan [cited 2026 Jan]:12 p. Available from: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.09674.
- HashiCorp. Zero trust for agentic systems: managing non-human identities at scale [Internet]. HashiCorp; 2025 Dec [cited 2026 Jan]. Available from: https://www.hashicorp.com/blog/zero-trust-for-agentic-systems-managing-non-human-identities-at-scale.
- Aembit. Agentic AI and workload identity & access management [Internet]. Aembit; 2025 [cited 2026 Jan]. Available from: https://aembit.io/.
- SPIFFE Project. SPIFFE concepts [Internet]. SPIFFE Project; [date unknown] [cited 2026 Jan]. Available from: https://spiffe.io/docs/latest/spiffe-about/spiffe-concepts.
- SPIRE Project. SPIRE concepts [Internet]. SPIRE Project; [date unknown] [cited 2026 Jan]. Available from: https://spiffe.io/docs/latest/spire-about/spire-concepts.
- Alqithami S. Autonomous agents on blockchains: standards, execution models, and trust boundaries [Preprint]. arXiv; 2026 Jan [cited 2026 Jan]:30 p. Available from: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.04583.