Ephemeral agents

Short-lived did:key identities that expire on their own, for the sub-agents and one-shot tasks that should not leave a permanent registration behind.

Ephemeral Agents (did:key)

Ephemeral agents are short-lived agents that bootstrap identity on instantiation using the W3C did:key format. They auto-expire after a configurable TTL without manual cleanup.

When to Use Ephemeral Agents

Use ephemeral agents for temporary tasks, one-off workflows, CI/CD pipelines, testing, or any scenario where an agent doesn't need a persistent identity. They still get full permission checks and audit trail coverage.

Register an Ephemeral Agent

// Register an ephemeral agent (auto-expires in 1 hour)
const result = await vorim.registerEphemeral({
  capabilities: ['data-processing', 'report-generation'],
  scopes: ['agent:read', 'agent:write'],
  ttl_seconds: 3600,  // 1 hour (min: 1, max: 86400)
});

console.log(result.did_key);     // did:key:z6Mkp...
console.log(result.ttl_seconds); // 3600
console.log(result.expires_at);  // ISO timestamp
console.log(result.private_key); // Ed25519 key (returned once)

typescript

Python SDK

from vorim import Vorim

client = Vorim(api_key="agid_sk_live_...")

# Register ephemeral agent (5-minute lifetime)
result = client.register_ephemeral(
    capabilities=["temp-task"],
    scopes=["agent:read", "agent:execute"],
    ttl_seconds=300,
)

print(result["did_key"])      # did:key:z6Mkp...
print(result["expires_at"])   # auto-expires in 5 minutes

python

Ephemeral vs. Persistent Agents

Property	Persistent	Ephemeral
ID format	agid_{org}_{uuid}	did:key:z6Mk...
Lifetime	Permanent (until revoked)	TTL-based (1s to 24h)
Registration	POST /agents	POST /agents/ephemeral
Permissions	Updatable after creation	Fixed at creation, expire with agent
Cleanup	Manual revocation	Automatic on TTL expiry
Audit trail	Full	Full (attributable to did:key)
Use case	Production services	Temporary tasks, testing, CI/CD

Auto-cleanupnote

A background job runs every 5 minutes to expire ephemeral agents past their TTL. Their permissions and credential delegations are automatically revoked.

Need Help?

Book a demo for a walkthrough, or contact us for support. For enterprise needs, reach out at sales@vorim.ai.