Orbit: Agent identity and verification
IETF Web Bot Auth
An IETF working group that standardizes how bots, crawlers and AI agents prove who they are to websites by signing HTTP requests with RFC 9421 HTTP Message Signatures.
- Steward
- IETF Web Bot Auth (webbotauth) working group, Web and Internet Transport area; chairs David Schinazi and Rifaat Shekh-Yusef
- Status
- Working group draft (-00); charter milestones not yet met
- Latest version
- draft-ietf-webbotauth-httpsig-protocol-00 (current revision on 2026-10-11) ()
- Primary source
- Web Bot Auth (webbotauth) working group: about and charter (external link)
What it is
is an IETF working group, acronym webbotauth, in the Web and Internet Transport area. Its charter covers cryptographic authentication of automated HTTP clients such as search crawlers, web archivers, AI training crawlers and AI agents that fetch or act on content for end users. Authenticating the end user, HTTP APIs, agent-to-agent interfaces and reputation tracking are out of scope, so payment authorization stays with the payment protocols. Source [1]
The working group’s one adopted document, draft-ietf-webbotauth-httpsig-protocol, profiles for bots. A signed request must cover @authority or @target-uri, must carry created, expires, keyid and tag, and the must be web-bot-auth. The keyid is a base64url SHA-256 thumbprint, and the draft recommends an expiry of no more than 24 hours. Every signed request carries a Signature-Agent header that points to where the ’s keys can be found, by default a key directory at /.well-known/http-message-signatures-directory. The draft adds no rule beyond RFC 9421, and an agent that needs the body covered must send and sign Content-Digest. Source [2]
Status
The group was created in BOF state on 2025-06-15, met at IETF 123 on 2025-07-21, and had its charter approved on 2025-10-23. Source [1, 3, 4] The working group draft -00 was posted on 2026-09-01 by T. Meunier (Cloudflare) and S. Major (Google), and it is still the current revision on 2026-10-11; it expires on 2027-03-05. Source [2, 5] The charter milestones (two standards-track documents due 2026-04-30 and a best-practice document due 2026-08-31) had not been met on 2026-10-11. Source [1, 5]
The draft has a line of individual predecessors. The architecture and key directory drafts started on 2025-04-15, and Cloudflare announced the approach on its blog the same season, on 2025-05-15. Source [6, 7, 8] In 2026 the work was folded into draft-meunier-webbotauth-httpsig-protocol (-00 on 2026-06-26, -02 on 2026-08-18), which the working group draft replaced. Source [9, 10] Other individual drafts around the group, such as a registry and signature draft, are not adopted. Source [11, 12]
How it relates to the eight
Visa TAP launched on 2025-10-14, almost eleven months before the working group draft, so the draft is not its basis. Source [2, 13] uses HTTP Message Signatures and says it is aligned with the direction, but it does not conform to the working group draft: it uses its own tags (agent-browser-auth and agent-payer-auth), has no Signature-Agent, makes the mandatory and serves keys from Visa’s own key directory. Source [2, 14] Mastercard Agent Pay follows the same pattern with the Agent-pay-auth and a Mastercard key directory, and Cloudflare describes both networks as building on Web Bot Auth with an added tag and a required nonce. Source [15, 16, 17]
UCP added an optional Web Bot Auth profile in v2026-08-25 on top of its own RFC 9421 signing, which puts it closer to the draft than TAP. Source [18, 19] In x402 only Cloudflare’s cloudflare:402 signs requests with the web-bot-auth tag. Source [20] The mppx SDK for MPP offers optional request attestation for Web Bot Auth and TAP. Source [21] An AP2 issue discusses composing AP2 with Web Bot Auth, but AP2 does not adopt it. Source [22] No relation was found for ACP or ERC-8004.
Status history
- 2025-04-15: first individual drafts for the architecture and the key directory. Source [6, 7]
- 2025-05-15: Cloudflare announces on its blog. Source [8]
- 2025-06-15: working group created in BOF state. Source [3]
- 2025-07-21: at IETF 123. Source [4]
- 2025-10-14: Visa launches , which signs with but predates the working group draft. Source [13]
- 2025-10-23: charter approved, group active. Source [3]
- 2026-06-26:
draft-meunier-webbotauth-httpsig-protocol-00posted. Source [9] - 2026-09-01: working group draft
draft-ietf-webbotauth-httpsig-protocol-00posted. Source [2]
Relations at a glance
| Protocol | Relation | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Visa Trusted Agent Protocol | Complements | TAP (launched 2025-10-14) signs with RFC 9421 and is aligned with the Web Bot Auth direction, but it does not conform to the working group draft (different tags, no Signature-Agent, mandatory nonce, own key directory). |
| Mastercard Agent Pay | Complements | Mastercard's guide uses the same signed-request pattern with its own tag, Agent-pay-auth, and a Mastercard key directory; Cloudflare verifies both networks at the edge. |
| UCP | Compatible with | Since v2026-08-25 UCP has an optional Web Bot Auth profile (Signature-Agent, tag web-bot-auth, JWK thumbprint keyid) on top of its own RFC 9421 signing. |
| x402 | Compatible with | Only the Cloudflare cloudflare:402 batch-settlement scheme signs requests with the web-bot-auth tag and a key directory; the core x402 schemes do not. |
| Stripe MPP (Machine Payments Protocol) | Compatible with | The mppx SDK offers optional RFC 9421 request attestation for Web Bot Auth and Visa TAP; the MPP core specification does not require it. |
Sources
- Web Bot Auth (webbotauth) working group: about and charter (external link)
- draft-ietf-webbotauth-httpsig-protocol-00: HTTP Message Signatures for automated traffic (external link)
- Web Bot Auth (webbotauth) working group history (external link)
- Minutes IETF123: webbotauth (Mon 15:00) (external link)
- Datatracker API: Internet-Drafts adopted by the webbotauth working group (external link)
- draft-meunier-web-bot-auth-architecture: HTTP Message Signatures for automated traffic Architecture (external link)
- draft-meunier-http-message-signatures-directory: HTTP Message Signatures Directory (external link)
- Forget IPs: using cryptography to verify bot and agent traffic (external link)
- draft-meunier-webbotauth-httpsig-protocol: HTTP Message Signatures for automated traffic (individual draft) (external link)
- draft-meunier-webbotauth-httpsig-directory: HTTP Message Signatures Directory (external link)
- draft-meunier-webbotauth-registry: Registry and Signature Agent card for Web bot auth (external link)
- Datatracker API: Internet-Drafts with webbotauth in the name (external link)
- Visa Introduces Trusted Agent Protocol: An Ecosystem-Led Framework for AI Commerce (external link)
- Trusted Agent Protocol merchant specifications (external link)
- Level 1 Agentic Commerce: Enable Agent Support with Minimal Changes (external link)
- Securing agentic commerce: helping AI Agents transact with Visa and Mastercard (external link)
- Securing agentic commerce: helping AI Agents transact with Visa and Mastercard (external link)
- UCP Message Signatures (v2026-08-25) (external link)
- Release v2026-08-25 (external link)
- Scheme: batch-settlement on cloudflare:402 (external link)
- Expanding identity support in mppx (MPP blog) (external link)
- Issue 268: Checkout JWT algorithm constraint forces dual keys under WBA (and conflicts with normative Security and Privacy guidance) (external link)