forge docs

Identity

did:oas DIDs, human roots, lineage chains, and seeded production identities.

Identity

Every Forge agent carries a cryptographic identity from birth. The identity is a did:oas DID rooted in a verifiable human (HMR — Human Master Record).

DID structure

did:oas:<namespace>:<kind>:<identifier>
Part Example Purpose
namespace acme Organisation or platform
kind agent, hmr, mhr, enr, tool, skill, workflow, model, dataset, service, agent:instance Entity type
identifier research-analyst Stable name within (namespace, kind)

Creating identities

Random (development only)

use forge::identity::create_hmr_identity;

let hmr = create_hmr_identity("acme", "alice")?;

A fresh Ed25519 keypair is generated. Useful for tests; not for production since the key is non-deterministic.

Seeded (production)

For reproducible production identities, pass a 32-byte seed:

use forge::identity::create_hmr_with_seed;

let seed: [u8; 32] = load_seed_from_kms()?;
let hmr = create_hmr_with_seed("acme", "alice", &seed)?;

The keypair is derived deterministically via HKDF-SHA256 with the kind, namespace, and identifier baked into the info string:

HKDF(seed, salt = "forge-identity-v1", info = "kind=hmr;ns=acme;id=alice")

This means:

  • Same seed + same triple → same DID, every time.
  • The seed alone is insufficient — you also need the (kind, namespace, identifier).
  • A leaked seed compromises only the identities derived from it under a given namespace + kind + identifier.

Store the seed in your KMS, OpenBao, or hardware security module. Forge itself never persists raw seeds.

Multi-Human Roots (MHR)

For organisations that need m-of-n threshold authorisation over the human root, Forge supports FROST-based MHR creation:

use forge::identity::create_mhr_with_seed;

let mhr = create_mhr_with_seed("acme", "leadership", &seed)?;

The MHR's keypair is a FROST aggregate; the threshold split happens through Aegis. See the OAS specification for the protocol details.

Lineage chains

Every non-root entity has a lineage proof connecting it back to a human:

HMR (Alice) ─[signs]─→ Agent (research-analyst) ─[signs]─→ Tool (web-fetch)

Verifying lineage is offline:

use forge::identity::verify_lineage;

let proof = lineage_proof_from_storage()?;
verify_lineage(&proof)?;  // Returns Ok if Ed25519 chain is intact

This is the accountability property: every action an agent or tool takes in production traces back to a human signature.

Binding identity to an agent

let agent_identity = create_hmr_with_seed("acme", "research-analyst", &seed)?;

let config = AgentConfig::new("research", "anthropic:claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929")
    .with_identity(agent_identity);

The agent will sign its outbound messages with this identity's private key.

Glyphs

Every identity has a deterministic visual representation derived from its DID — a "glyph" used in the harness terminal, dashboards, and audit logs. See Glyphs.

Next

  • Capabilities — Arsenal Agent Capability Tokens (ACTs)
  • Glyphs — visual identity rendering
  • Security model — how identity, capability, and approval interact