What is may_act_grants and how does delegation work?

SharkAuth expresses delegation policy as structured data. Every grant is scoped to specific actions, resources, and time windows, and can be revoked or expired automatically when conditions change.

How does DPoP protect against token theft?

Every access token is cryptographically bound to the agent's private key via RFC 9449 DPoP. A stolen token is useless without the key, making replay attacks impossible by design.

What is act chain depth and why does it matter?

SharkAuth preserves the complete delegation chain across every agent hop. When agent A delegates to B who calls API C, the full provenance is surfaced in token introspection, eliminating 'the agent did it' dead ends.

How fast is cascade revocation?

Revoke any grant and every downstream token invalidates automatically. The change is indexed by grant_id and propagated through introspection in under 12 ms p99.

Can SharkAuth run offline or on edge devices?

Yes. It ships as a single static Go binary with embedded SQLite WAL. Deploy it next to your app, in a container, on a corporate VM, or an air-gapped edge. Or drop it on a $5 VPS. Backup is a single file copy.

What audit capabilities does SharkAuth provide?

Structured JSON audit logs, indexed by grant_id, subject, actor, and grant. Stream directly to your SIEM via events websocket. Compliance-ready out of the box.

v0.1.0 · Now Shipping · Open Source · Self-hosted

Ship AI agents.
Connect them safely to anything.

A vault of encrypted service connections. Scoped permissions. Signed tokens.
A complete audit trail — so you always know exactly who did what.

One ~29 MB Go binary with OAuth 2.1, OIDC, RFC-grade delegation, and DPoP. Zero config. Self-host forever.

Read Documentation Join Cloud Waitlist

OAuth 2.1 OpenID Connect RFC 8693 Token Exchange RFC 9449 DPoP MIT

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Agent-auth comparison

The only platform with
a vault, delegation, and audit in one binary.

Every other identity provider was built for users logging in. SharkAuth gives agents a vault of encrypted service connections, scoped permissions, signed tokens, and a complete audit trail.

2 of 6 groups open

Feature	SharkAuth	Auth0	Clerk	Keycloak	Ory Hydra	Authelia	Zitadel	Authentik
Agent Era7
Agent as first-class identity
RFC 8693 Token Exchange (full)		Partial		Partial	Partial		Partial
Act / actor chain (depth ≥ 4)
may_act_grants & granular policy
RFC 9449 DPoP key binding		Partial
Cascade revocation (< 12 ms)
Audit indexed by grant_id		Partial	Partial	Partial	Partial		Partial	Partial
Standard Auth6
Passkeys / FIDO2					Partial
Magic links					Partial
MFA / TOTP					Partial
Enterprise SSO (SAML 2.0, OIDC)					Partial
Multi-tenant organizations					Partial
Wildcard RBAC					Partial	Partial
Platform2 Click to expand
HMAC-signed webhooks				Partial	Partial
Zero-config admin UI						Partial
Deployment4 Click to expand
Single binary, zero deps
Self-hostable & open-source
Runs on a $5 VPS					Partial			Partial
Air-gapped / no outbound calls
Pricing2 Click to expand
Free tier self-host limit	Unlimited	25K MAU	50K MRU	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
First paid tier	$49/mo (Cloud)	$35/mo (B2C)	$20/mo (Pro)	Free	Free	Free	Free	Free
Ecosystem (Shark gaps)11 Click to expand
Native iOS / Android SDKs
LDAP / Active Directory native
SCIM user provisioning				Partial
Push notification MFA					Partial	Partial
Breach / leaked password detection
GeoIP & impossible-travel alerts						Partial
FIPS 140-2 / compliance certs				Partial
Global multi-region managed cloud
Terraform / Pulumi provider						Partial
SIEM connectors (Splunk, Datadog)				Partial
Custom claims scripting engine				Partial	Partial

Get the Binary Join Cloud Waitlist Read the Specs

We don't have everything yet. SharkAuth v0.1.0 is a focused auth server for agents. We intentionally skipped enterprise baggage (LDAP, SCIM, FIPS, native mobile SDKs) to ship RFC-grade agent primitives first. If you need Active Directory federation or Splunk connectors today, Keycloak or Auth0 is the safer choice. If you need self-hosted agent delegation chains with RFC-native token exchange, DPoP binding, grant_id audit, and cascade revocation in one binary, SharkAuth is purpose-built for that.

Comparison based on publicly documented product capabilities as of April 2026.

Benchmarks

Independent performance numbers are coming soon.

Token issuance p99, introspection latency, revocation propagation, and memory footprint vs. Keycloak and Ory Hydra.

Get notified

60-second quickstart

Simple ops. One binary, one SQLite file.

No Postgres. No Helm chart. No vendor SDK with 18 transitive dependencies. Drop the binary, set your config, mint agent tokens. Done.

~/acme · zsh

shark ❯ shark serve  main    

  ▄▄▄▄▄                             
 ██▀▀▀▀█▄ █▄                          
 ▀██▄  ▄▀ ██          ▄     ▄▄      
   ▀██▄▄  ████▄ ▄▀▀█▄ ████▄ ██ ▄█▀  
 ▄   ▀██▄ ██ ██ ▄█▀██ ██    ████    
 ▀██████▀▄██ ██▄▀█▄██▄█▀   ▄██ ▀█▄  
                                    
                                                                                                       
SharkAuth — Open Source Auth for Agents and Humans
Binary: 29 MB · Version: 0.1.0
Docs:   https://sharkauth.com/docs
Repo:   https://github.com/shark-auth/shark
13:17:42 INFO  database schema up to date
13:17:42 INFO  email: provider=dev — using in-db dev inbox for capture
13:17:42 INFO  oauth: loaded existing ES256 signing key  kid=uLHp-sa54BeWehkO

  Dashboard   http://localhost:8080/admin

13:17:42 INFO  SharkAuth starting  addr=:8080  dev_mode=false
13:17:42 INFO  admin dashboard  url=http://localhost:8080/admin
13:17:42 INFO  health check  url=http://localhost:8080/healthz

STEP 01

Drop the binary

Single Go binary, ~29 MB. macOS, Linux, ARM. No runtime, no daemon.

STEP 02

Configure once

Environment variables or the admin API. Set up issuers, clients, and agent permissions.

STEP 03

Mint agent tokens

OAuth 2.1, OIDC, Token Exchange, DPoP. Every action auditable by grant_id.

Why SharkAuth

The agent identity platform
built for teams shipping to production.

We’ve solved the hardest parts of deploying agents: safely connecting them to services, scoping what they can do, and proving exactly what happened — with a chain of custody you can review.

Vault

Safe connections to any service.

Connect Gmail, Slack, GitHub, Linear — any OAuth provider. Refresh tokens stay encrypted server-side. Agents get access tokens without ever seeing credentials.

user-owned · encrypted at rest

may_act_grants

Scoped permissions by default.

Give every agent exactly the access it needs — by action, resource, and time. Nothing more.

spec: act / actor / may_act

RFC 9449 DPoP

Tokens bound to keys, not bearers.

Every access token is cryptographically bound to the agent's private key. A stolen token is useless without the key.

replay-resistant by default

Full act chain

Complete delegation chain.

Preserve every hop — agent A → agent B → API C. Full provenance surfaced in every token introspection.

chain depth observed: up to 7

Cascade revocation

Instant cascade revocation.

Pull any grant and every downstream token invalidates automatically. Under 12 ms.

p99 propagation < 12 ms

~29 MB binary

Run it anywhere.

Single Go binary with embedded SQLite. Deploy on-prem, on a $5 VPS, or air-gapped. No outbound calls.

cold start: 38 ms

Audit by grant_id

Audit logs by grant_id.

Structured audit logs indexed by grant, subject, and actor. Stream to your SIEM. Hash-chained.

append-only · hash-chained

Pricing

Self-host is the product.
Cloud is a convenience.

Self-HostRecommended

$0forever

The complete engine. MIT licensed. Unlimited MAI, unlimited depth, unlimited vaults. No telemetry, no vendor lock-in, no "free until we change our mind."

View source

Binary size~29 MB

LicenseMIT

ProtocolsOAuth 2.1 · OIDC

Token exchangeRFC 8693

Key bindingRFC 9449 DPoP

DatabaseSQLite WAL

MAI limitUnlimited

Act chain depthUnlimited

VaultsUnlimited

SupportCommunity / GitHub

Shark Cloud

Managed infrastructure for teams that prefer not to run their own issuer. Same binary, same spec compliance, zero ops. Pricing scales by MAI — Monthly Active Identities.

Cloud Free

20K MAI · 3 vault connections · 7-day audit

$0/mo

Cloud Pro

50K MAI · 10 vault connections · 30-day audit

$49/mo

Cloud Team

200K MAI · 25 vault connections · 90-day audit

$199/mo

Enterprise

Unlimited · SLA · from $25K/yr

Custom

Join Cloud Waitlist

The flow

See agent delegation in action

Engineering Journal · /blogs

Building in the open.
Deep dives on agent auth, DPoP, delegation, and shipping an open-source identity platform.

View all entries

Apr 29, 2026PROTOCOL

The DPoP Revolution

Why sender-constrained tokens are the only way to secure autonomous agent fleets in 2026.

Read log

Apr 29, 2026LAUNCH

SharkAuth v0.1.0: Auth for the Agent Era

SharkAuth v0.1.0 is live. One ~29 MB binary. Zero dependencies. OAuth 2.1, OIDC, RFC 8693 Token Exchange, and RFC 9449 DPoP. Built for agents from day one.

Read log

Use cases

How teams ship agents with confidence.

Connect agents to any service — safely.

Users connect Gmail, Slack, GitHub, Dropbox once via OAuth. Agents get short-lived access tokens from the vault — they never see your refresh tokens. When you disconnect, every agent loses access instantly.

Know exactly which agent did what — at every hop.

When agent A delegates to agent B who calls your API, the full delegation chain is preserved. No more "the agent did it" dead ends. Every action is attributable and revocable independently.

Give agents time-boxed, least-privilege access.

Your email agent reads inbox but can't send. Your GitHub agent reviews PRs but can't merge. Every grant is scoped by action, resource, and expiry. No over-privileged agents.

Pass your next compliance audit.

Structured, hash-chained audit logs indexed by grant_id. Stream directly to your SIEM. Auditors get receipts without a week of back-and-forth.

Self-host on your own infrastructure.

Deploy behind your firewall. No outbound calls. No telemetry. Your data never leaves your network. One binary, one SQLite file — backup is a single file copy.

Embed auth into your own SaaS product.

Ship OAuth 2.1, OIDC, and an admin UI without a vendor dependency. Drop the binary next to your app. No vendor on your critical path.

Ready to connect your agents
to the services they need?

$go install github.com/shark-auth/shark@latest

sha256: 4f5a 8b21 19e6 … · v0.1.0 · MIT

Star on GitHub 4,200 Join Cloud Waitlist Read Documentation

Ship AI agents. Connect them safely to anything.

The only platform with a vault, delegation, and audit in one binary.