Agent Identity Protocol (AIP): Verifiable Delegation for AI Agent Systems vs Credential Delegation Protocol for AI Agents in Multi-System Environments
The map lists them as complementary: sites and agents commonly implement both.
| Agent Identity Protocol (AIP): Verifiable Delegation for AI Agent Systems AIP | Credential Delegation Protocol for AI Agents in Multi-System Environments | |
|---|---|---|
| Lifecycle step | 3 Permit: What may the agent do here? | 3 Permit: What may the agent do here? |
| Answers | How can a relying party verify from a token and the issuer's public key who delegated authority, which agents it passed through, and that no hop widened it, when no authorization server is on the path? | How can a human user delegate scoped, attenuated, revocable credentials to AI agents across multiple service providers without exposing the underlying OAuth tokens to the agents? |
| Governed by | Individual Internet-Draft by a single independent author; Intended Status: Standards Track | Individual Internet-Draft submitted to the IETF WIMSE Working Group mailing list; source on GitHub (cred-ninja/protocol) |
| Status (issuer's words) | Internet-Draft, Intended Status: Standards Track; expires 13 April 2027 | Internet-Draft, Intended Status: Standards Track; expires 16 April 2027 |
| Version | draft-prakash-aip-02 (2026-10-10) | draft-sweeney-wimse-credential-delegation-01 (2026-10-13) |
| Form / transport | document format | endpoint |
| Found at | /.well-known/aip/<path>.json | Delegation Server endpoints within a trust domain; no standard discovery path described in the available text |
| Implementation | none found | prototype |
| Evidence | 1 reported | 2 reported |
| Primary use case | Delegate a user's authority to an agent | Delegate a user's authority to an agent |
| Last verified | 2026-10-23 (current) | 2026-10-23 (current) |
| Specification | https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-prakash-aip-02 | https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-sweeney-wimse-credential-delegation-01 |
When to use which
- Choose Agent Identity Protocol (AIP): Verifiable Delegation for AI Agent Systems when your question is “How can a relying party verify from a token and the issuer's public key who delegated authority, which agents it passed through, and that no hop widened it, when no authorization server is on the path?” and you accept its maturity: status "Internet-Draft, Intended Status: Standards Track; expires 13 April 2027", implementation none found.
- Choose Credential Delegation Protocol for AI Agents in Multi-System Environments when your question is “How can a human user delegate scoped, attenuated, revocable credentials to AI agents across multiple service providers without exposing the underlying OAuth tokens to the agents?” and you accept its maturity: status "Internet-Draft, Intended Status: Standards Track; expires 16 April 2027", implementation prototype.
Read the full articles
- Agent Identity Protocol (AIP): Verifiable Delegation for AI Agent Systems: How can a relying party verify from a token and the issuer's public key who delegated authority, which agents it passed through, and that no hop widened it, when no authorization server is on the path?
- Credential Delegation Protocol for AI Agents in Multi-System Environments: How can a human user delegate scoped, attenuated, revocable credentials to AI agents across multiple service providers without exposing the underlying OAuth tokens to the agents?
aip-delegation-chain.json · credential-delegation-protocol-wimse.json · Markdown