Whitepaper

Abstract

We present the Open Agent Specification (OAS), a vendor-neutral identity framework for autonomous software agents based on the W3C Decentralized Identifier (DID) standard. OAS introduces a novel lineage model that cryptographically binds every agent identity to a human root through HKDF-SHA256 key derivation chains, ensuring human accountability for all autonomous actions. The specification defines eleven entity kinds, three progressive conformance levels, and a suite of cryptographic primitives (Ed25519, BLAKE3, FROST threshold signatures) optimized for offline verification. We provide reference implementations in seven programming languages with cross-language cryptographic parity achieved through a shared Rust WASM core. Security analysis demonstrates resistance to identity forging, lineage chain tampering, and key compromise propagation.