> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.nfh.global/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.nfh.global/nfh-fabric/agents.md).

# Agents as first-class participants

How autonomous software participates in NFH fabric — identity, authority, accountability — built into the protocol rather than bolted on.

NFH fabric treats autonomous software as a full network participant. Not "supported"; not "compatible with" — addressed, identified, accountable in the same way humans and organisations are.

This page explains what that means concretely - where the design decisions live, and which NFH fabric services agents interact with directly.

## What "first-class" means at the protocol level

| Capability     | How NFH fabric expresses it                                                                                                                                                                                            |
| -------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Identity       | The agent can sign up in the [Registry](/product-documentation/products/registr.md), with its own keypair.                                                                                                             |
| Authority      | Authority comes via verifiable credentials. A human or organisation issues a scoped, time-bounded delegation credential. The agent presents it; verifiers check it.                                                    |
| Accountability | Every action the agent signs is anchored in [Observability & Audit](/product-documentation/products/observability-audit.md). Reversibility, dispute resolution, and revocation work the same for agents as for humans. |
| Wealth         | The agent can hold a [Tokenisation](https://docs.finternetlab.io/) account in its own name. Pay it, charge it, audit it.\*                                                                                             |
| Reputation     | Counterparties sign reputation claims against the agent's registry entry. The reputation travels with the identity, not the platform.                                                                                  |
| Discovery      | The agent finds offerings via [Discovery Edge](/product-documentation/products/discovr.md), exposed natively. No scraping, no screen-reading.                                                                          |

## Why this design

The next wave of economic activity will be agent-driven — agents brokering deals, executing payments, coordinating fleets, managing portfolios. If the protocol treats them as second-class, every interesting interaction becomes a workaround: a human shim, a fake-user account, a fragile permissions model.

NFH fabric was designed assuming agents are full participants. That assumption simplifies the protocol — there is one identity model, one authority model, one accountability model. It is also what lets agent-driven and human-driven flows compose cleanly in a single team.

## Patterns

### Agent-owned account

Provision a agent ID for the agent in the Registry. Issue it a capability credential. Fund a Tokenisation account in its name. The agent transacts under its own identity; the audit trail attaches to it.

### Delegated authority

A human or organisation issues a credential delegating a specific capability for a specific time. The agent acts under that delegation; revocation is a one-call operation against the issuing credential.

### Human-in-the-loop gating

A policy plug-in on the Network Adapters Edge can require human countersignature for actions over a threshold — value, risk score, counterparty class. The gating is enforced at the protocol boundary, not in app code.

### Multi-agent commerce

Discovery via MCP. Contracts via Network Adapters Edge. Settlement via Tokenisation. Audit via Observability & Audit. Agents brokering with agents, end-to-end, with humans in the loop only where the policy demands it.

{% hint style="info" icon="note" %}
*\*some of the features are still under development*
{% endhint %}


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