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Use OAuth 2.0 Token Exchange (RFC 8693) to let an authorization server accept an existing token and issue another one for a particular delegation. Keep the user represented as the subject and the AI agent represented as the actor when the agent must remain accountable for its actions. Token exchange is a protocol building block, not a complete agent-authorization system: your authorization server still decides whether to issue the token, and your application must arrange user authorization, define trust and policy, and validate the resulting token.
What token exchange does—and what it does not do
RFC 8693, OAuth 2.0 Token Exchange, defines a mechanism for an OAuth client to submit an existing security token to an authorization server’s token endpoint and request a different token. The specification was published as an IETF Standards Track RFC in January 2020. Its extension grant type is urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:token-exchange.
For an AI-agent deployment, the exchange can be used to request a token with narrower or otherwise different authority than the token supplied to the exchange. The authorization server validates the supplied token or tokens, applies its own rules, and decides whether to issue a new token and what information it contains. The exchange request is not itself proof that the user consented to a particular action, nor does submitting an actor token automatically authorize the agent.
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Choose delegation when the agent must remain identifiable
The central design choice is whether the agent is acting for the user or is being treated as the user. RFC 8693 distinguishes these semantics:
- Delegation: the subject is the party whose authority is represented, while the actor is the party performing the action. The agent remains distinct and actions can be attributed to it as acting for the user.
- Impersonation: the actor is treated as the subject within the authorized rights. The distinction between the user and the acting agent is not preserved in the same way.
For an agent that takes actions on a user’s behalf, delegation is generally the clearer model when auditability and accountability require the resource server to know both who the authority concerns and which agent acted. RFC 8693 describes the delegated actor as retaining its own identity while representing the subject. Do not describe a delegated agent as simply “the user” if that would hide the agent’s role.
For JWTs, RFC 8693 defines the act claim to identify an actor; it also allows nested actor relationships. An actor claim communicates identity information. It is not, by itself, permission to perform an operation. The authorization server’s issuance decision and the resource server’s authorization checks determine what the agent may do.
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Build the exchange request around a subject token
An exchange request uses the authorization server’s token endpoint. RFC 8693 requires a subject_token and its corresponding subject_token_type. The subject token represents the party on whose behalf the request is made. An actor_token is optional; if supplied, its corresponding actor_token_type is required.
The following is a conceptual form-field outline, not a complete interoperable request. The token endpoint, accepted token types, client authentication, and any additional request fields depend on the authorization server and deployment.
grant_type=urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:token-exchange
subject_token=the-subject-token
subject_token_type=the-subject-token-type
actor_token=the-agent-actor-token
actor_token_type=the-actor-token-typeInclude actor fields only when the deployment has established how the authorization server recognizes and trusts the agent. If no actor token is sent, do not assume the resulting token will identify an agent: the authorization server controls the claims and representation in the issued token.
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- Acquire the subject token. Obtain a token that the authorization server accepts as representing the relevant user or other subject. Token exchange does not define how a user signs in or grants initial consent.
- Establish the agent identity. Provide an actor token when the deployment’s trust model supports it, and send its token-type field as required by RFC 8693. The issuer and format must be ones the authorization server is configured to validate.
- Request only the intended authority. The request may express desired scope or resource targeting where supported. Their meaning, the server’s interpretation, and the final token are deployment-specific; a request is not a guarantee of issuance.
- Apply server-side policy. The authorization server validates the indicated tokens and decides whether the exchange is allowed, whether to issue a token, and whether to carry subject and actor information into it.
- Enforce the result at the resource server. The service receiving the issued token must validate it according to its token profile and make authorization decisions for the requested operation. Do not rely on an agent-provided identity label or on the presence of
actalone.
Decide what each system must trust and enforce
A sound implementation needs explicit decisions that RFC 8693 leaves to the deployment. Document them before connecting an agent to protected services.
- Token trust: specify which issuers and token types may be accepted as subject and actor tokens, how they are validated, and which authorization server is allowed to exchange them.
- Identity semantics: decide whether the exchange represents delegation or impersonation, and whether the issued token preserves enough information to distinguish the subject from the actor.
- Authority limits: define which scopes, resources, operations, and other limits can be requested, and what the server is allowed to issue. Where a delegated token should have less authority than its source, make that attenuation an explicit policy and verify the result.
- Resource-server checks: specify how each protected service validates the issued token and interprets its subject, actor, audience or resource, and granted authority. The exact checks depend on the token profile and service.
- Failure behavior: decide what the agent does when exchange is rejected, a token is expired or untrusted, or the target service receives a token without the expected delegation information. Fail closed for protected actions rather than silently substituting the user’s broader credential.
Scope and resource targeting can help express the requested authority, but RFC 8693 does not make a requested scope a universal policy or guarantee that a token is constrained in the same way across deployments. Confirm the authorization server’s behavior and the resource server’s enforcement together.
Keep consent acquisition separate from exchange
Token exchange happens at the token endpoint; it does not define a user-facing consent interaction or obtain the initial subject token for you. If the application needs a user to authorize agent activity, design that step separately and ensure the resulting authorization is appropriate for the requested actions. The user-facing grant, the server-side exchange decision, and the resource server’s permission check are related parts of a system, but they are not the same operation.
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IETF WIMSE interim presentation material on AI agent authentication and authorization discusses OAuth tools including authorization-code flow, token exchange, JWT access-token profiles, and introspection. That presentation is discussion material, not a normative specification. Select the initial authorization method and interaction to fit the application; do not infer that RFC 8693 prescribes one.
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Several 2026 Internet-Drafts explore how to combine token exchange with other controls for agent delegation. They are proposals under development, not finalized standards or evidence of broad implementation support.
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|---|---|---|
| Credential Delegation for AI Agents in Multi-System Environments (WIMSE) | Internet-Draft published July 28, 2026; work in progress. | Composes RFC 8693 exchange with proof-of-possession, Rich Authorization Requests, and OpenID Connect CIBA for scoped delegation across service providers. |
| OAuth Profile for Delegated AI Agent Authorization, version 02 | Informational Internet-Draft dated August 30, 2026. | Proposes user authorization, resource-bound and sender-constrained JWT access tokens, attenuated delegation through token exchange, and refresh-token rotation. It says it does not standardize orchestration, policy languages, audit storage, or credential-vault APIs. |
| OAuth Actor Profile for Delegation | Internet-Draft published April 30, 2026. | Proposes a common actor structure and discovery metadata to address inconsistent actor representation. Whether an actor may act for a subject remains a deployment-policy decision. |
| OAuth 2.0 Token Exchange, RFC 8693 | Published IETF Standards Track RFC, January 2020. | Defines the general token-exchange mechanism and delegation/impersonation concepts; it is not an agent-specific end-to-end authorization profile. |
Treat the draft proposals as possible directions for profile design, not requirements of RFC 8693. Check the draft version and implementation support relevant to your environment before depending on a proposed combination of mechanisms.
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Evaluate an implementation by its boundaries
When reviewing an authorization-server or agent integration, focus on observable behavior rather than the mere presence of a “token exchange” feature:
- Can the system distinguish the subject from the acting agent, and do the resulting token and service checks preserve that distinction when needed?
- Which subject and actor token types and issuers are trusted, and how are they validated?
- How are requested scopes and resource targets interpreted, constrained, and enforced by the receiving service?
- Does the deployment use proof-of-possession or sender constraints? These appear in agent-oriented draft profiles, but are not universal requirements imposed by RFC 8693.
- How does the user grant authority before exchange, and how does the system behave when that authorization is missing or insufficient?
- Which parts rely on the published RFC, which are server-specific policy, and which depend on evolving Internet-Draft profiles?
There is no single RFC-mandated profile that answers these questions for every AI agent. RFC 8693 provides the exchange mechanism; secure delegation depends on the surrounding identity, consent, policy, token-validation, and resource-enforcement design.
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