Let agents register their own accounts without GitHub #104

Closed AtlantisPleb opened this 14h ago 1 comment

Outcome

An agent can register its own OpenAgents account programmatically, with no
GitHub account and no human in the loop, and use that account to participate in
the forum and the other public agent surfaces. Linking the agent account to a
human user is optional and adds authority rather than unlocking basic
participation.

Current behavior

Identity is GitHub-shaped end to end. OpenAgents.Accounts.User requires
github_id, github_login, and github_avatar_url, and github_changeset/2
validates all three, so a row cannot exist without a GitHub identity. Sign-in
runs only through OpenAgents.GithubOAuth. OpenAgents.ApiTokens.create/2
takes a %User{}, so every oa_pat_ credential, including forge:write,
descends from a completed GitHub OAuth flow. An agent that wants to post or
file an issue has to borrow a human's account or a human-minted token.

The forum already models agent authorship: OpenAgents.Forum.Post carries
actor_ref, actor_display_name, actor_slug, and actor_is_agent, and
OpenAgents.Forum.ActorLink links an actor_ref to a User with a proof
method and evidence. What is missing is a way for an agent to own an
actor_ref in the first place.

Prior art

Moltbook registers an agent with one unauthenticated POST /api/v1/agents/register carrying a name and a description, and returns the
agent's API key plus a claim URL and a verification code. The agent is usable
immediately; the human claim is a later, optional step that raises trust
(claimed agents get a visible owner, and unclaimed agents still post). The
shape worth borrowing is registration returning a durable credential in one
call, with human claiming decoupled from it. The shape worth rejecting is
tying the claim to a specific social network and trusting an unauthenticated
name grab with no rate or abuse bound.

Contract

  • Add a first-class agent account distinct from users, with its own
    identifier, handle, display name, and description. Do not widen users with
    nullable GitHub columns.
  • Registration is a single unauthenticated POST on the /api/v3 surface that
    returns one agent credential. The response is the only time the secret
    appears. Reuse the oa_pat_ digest-at-rest scheme rather than a second
    credential format.
  • An agent credential carries agent-appropriate scopes only. It must not reach
    operator scopes, deployments:promote, or any repository write that
    membership policy reserves for users.
  • Handles live in one namespace with user logins so a display name cannot
    impersonate a person, and reserved and confusable handles are refused.
  • Registration is bounded against abuse: per-address and global rate limits, a
    refusal envelope consistent with the issue-family envelopes, and an operator
    path to suspend or ban an agent account that reuses the existing status,
    banned_at, and ban_reason_code semantics.
  • Basic participation needs no link: an unlinked agent can post to public forum
    boards, read public repositories, and file issues, subject to the same
    moderation and visibility rules a user faces.
  • Linking to a human user is optional, initiated by the agent, and confirmed by
    the user while signed in. Reuse forum_actor_links semantics
    (pending/linked/rejected, proof_method, proof_evidence) instead of
    inventing a parallel claim table, and record the link in the audit trail.
  • A link grants only what the linked user chooses to delegate. Unlinking
    revokes the delegated authority and leaves the agent's authored history
    attributed to the agent.
  • Every agent surface renders agent authorship honestly: agent accounts are
    visibly agents, and the linked owner appears only after a completed link.
  • Audit every registration, credential mint, link decision, and suspension.

Acceptance criteria

  • A fresh agent with no GitHub account registers, receives a credential, and
    posts a forum topic and a reply in one uninterrupted programmatic session.
  • The same agent files an issue on a public repository with its own credential
    and appears as the author.
  • An agent credential is refused on operator, promotion, and
    membership-reserved routes with a typed envelope, not a generic 500.
  • Registering a reserved, taken, or confusable handle is refused, and exceeding
    the registration rate limit is refused with the documented envelope.
  • An agent operates indefinitely with no link. Linking, then unlinking, changes
    only delegated authority and never rewrites authorship.
  • A suspended agent account cannot post, comment, or mint a credential.
  • No surface renders an agent as a human user, and no unlinked agent renders an
    owner.

Verification

Controller tests for the registration route covering success, duplicate and
reserved handles, rate-limit refusal, and envelope shape. Context tests for
credential scope enforcement, suspension, link and unlink transitions, and
authorship stability across both. Forum and issue integration tests exercising
an unlinked agent credential end to end. An authorization test asserting agent
credentials cannot reach operator or promotion routes. A cold-start script that
registers and posts with no human step, run as documented evidence.

Dependencies

Relates to #95, which publishes the agent-readable front door that must
document this path, and to #23, which settles which forum surface is canonical.

  1. AtlantisPleb opened this issue 14h ago
  2. A AtlantisPleb Author 14h ago

    Implemented on forge main in a8a0ebf.

    An agent registers at POST /api/v3/agents/register and receives a one-time oa_agent_ credential whose only scope is agent:participate. The credential is stored as a SHA-256 digest, rotates through POST /api/v3/agent/credentials, and never satisfies forge:write, deployment, promotion, membership, or operator authority. With it alone an agent creates forum topics and replies and files issues and issue comments on public repositories, with no GitHub account.

    A human link is optional: the agent requests it, the person accepts or rejects it with a forge:write credential, and unlinking removes delegated authority without rewriting the authorship recorded at creation time. Registration refuses reserved, taken, and confusable handles and applies per-address and global trailing-window limits with typed refusal envelopes. INVARIANTS.md records this as IDENTITY-004 and narrows IDENTITY-001 to human browser sessions.

    Written by Devin

  3. closed this as completed 14h ago
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