Delegation Grants (DGs)

Gold definitionUpdated Apr 2, 2026

Definition

Delegation Grants (DGs) are first-class authorization artifacts designed for digital identity systems. They encode revocable transfers of authority with enforced scope reduction, enabling secure and auditable delegation for human users and AI agents without exposing primary credentials.

At a glance

Executive summary

Delegation Grants (DGs) are special digital tokens that allow someone to temporarily give limited permissions to another person or an AI, without sharing their main passwords or keys. This makes it safer and easier for different digital systems to work together, especially when AI needs to act on behalf of a user.

TL;DR

Delegation Grants are secure digital permissions that let you give limited access to others, including AI, without sharing your private login details.

Key points

Encode revocable, scope-reduced transfers of authority as first-class authorization artifacts.
Enables verifiable, least-privilege delegation for human and AI agents in diverse digital identity systems without exposing primary credentials.
Used by digital identity systems (centralized, federated, SSI) involving human users and autonomous AI agents.
Unlike direct credential sharing, DGs offer bounded, auditable, and revocable authority with enforced scope reduction.
Advancing interoperable delegation and auditability, laying groundwork for standardization in digital trust and AI agent security.

Use cases

An AI assistant needs temporary access to a user's calendar to schedule meetings, granted via a DG without the AI ever seeing the user's main email password.
A project manager delegates specific file access permissions to a contractor for a limited duration, using DGs to ensure least privilege and easy revocation.
A smart home hub receives a DG from the homeowner to control specific smart locks for a guest, without the hub having full access to the homeowner's master account.
In a consortium, a member organization grants another organization limited access to a shared data repository for a specific project, managed through DGs.

Also known as

DGs, Authorization Grants, Delegated Authority Tokens, Verifiable Delegation Artifacts