Most of the difficulty with agents is not the model. It is that an agent sits between a user and a system that was designed on the assumption a user would be there in person.
This piece walks through how we think about it at Paycux, what we have changed our minds about, and where the sharp edges are.
Serve markdown, not HTML
That brings us to serve markdown, not html. The audit trail matters more here than in any human flow. When something goes wrong, the question is never "did the user intend this" in the abstract — it is which agent, acting under whose authority, made which call, and whether the record can prove it.
An agent's credential should describe what it may do, not who owns it. Scope it to the narrowest set of operations that make the task possible, bind it to a single principal, and give it a lifetime measured in minutes rather than days.
Render what React hides
Render what React hides deserves its own treatment. The audit trail matters more here than in any human flow. When something goes wrong, the question is never "did the user intend this" in the abstract — it is which agent, acting under whose authority, made which call, and whether the record can prove it.
Consent is the part most implementations get wrong. Asking once at install time and then acting indefinitely is not consent; it is a standing grant with no expiry and no visibility.
- Scope every agent credential to one principal and one task
- Give tokens minutes of life, not days
- Record which agent acted, under whose authority, on what
- Make revocation a single call that takes effect immediately
Handling agents in the real world
Handling agents in the real world deserves its own treatment. Consent is the part most implementations get wrong. Asking once at install time and then acting indefinitely is not consent; it is a standing grant with no expiry and no visibility.
An agent's credential should describe what it may do, not who owns it. Scope it to the narrowest set of operations that make the task possible, bind it to a single principal, and give it a lifetime measured in minutes rather than days.
The sneaky routing bug
That brings us to the sneaky routing bug. An agent's credential should describe what it may do, not who owns it. Scope it to the narrowest set of operations that make the task possible, bind it to a single principal, and give it a lifetime measured in minutes rather than days.
The audit trail matters more here than in any human flow. When something goes wrong, the question is never "did the user intend this" in the abstract — it is which agent, acting under whose authority, made which call, and whether the record can prove it.
The audit trail matters more here than in any human flow.
LOL for LLMs.txt
That brings us to lol for llms.txt. The audit trail matters more here than in any human flow. When something goes wrong, the question is never "did the user intend this" in the abstract — it is which agent, acting under whose authority, made which call, and whether the record can prove it.
An agent's credential should describe what it may do, not who owns it. Scope it to the narrowest set of operations that make the task possible, bind it to a single principal, and give it a lifetime measured in minutes rather than days.
What we learned
Consider what we learned. Consent is the part most implementations get wrong. Asking once at install time and then acting indefinitely is not consent; it is a standing grant with no expiry and no visibility.
The audit trail matters more here than in any human flow. When something goes wrong, the question is never "did the user intend this" in the abstract — it is which agent, acting under whose authority, made which call, and whether the record can prove it.
Where this leaves us
If there is one thing worth taking away, it is that the expensive decisions are the ones made implicitly. Making them on purpose costs an afternoon.
If you are working through the same problem and want to compare notes, the docs cover the mechanics and the console shows the behaviour on your own data.
Everything here, already built
Sign-in, enterprise SSO, directory provisioning, roles and an audit trail behind one API. Start with the quickstart and have a working sign-in this afternoon.