An Agent’s Plan Isn’t Permission

As autonomous coding agents become more prevalent in software development, the traditional model of static API keys and broad permissions is proving insufficient. A new approach, intent-based authorization, suggests that an agent's access should be dynamically determined by the specific task, the identity of the requester, and organizational policy, rather than inherent credentials. By evaluating requests in real-time, systems can ensure that agents only access the resources necessary for their current objective. This framework, highlighted in the Software Factory reference architecture, emphasizes the need for independent authorization boundaries, audit trails, and revocable access. By separating an agent's ability to propose tasks from its authority to execute them, organizations can safely scale autonomy. This ensures that even as agents take on more complex responsibilities, they remain constrained by security policies, preventing unauthorized access and mitigating risks associated with automated decision-making in production environments.