---
title: "Auth for Agents: Unblock Autonomous AI with auth.md"
category: "talks"
date: "2026-07-01"
time: "11:40am-12:00pm"
track: "Agentic Engineering"
room: "Main Stage"
speakers: ["Michael Grinich"]
sourceLabels: ["Official conference schedule", "Public YouTube metadata"]
scheduleTrack: "Agentic Engineering"
scheduleRoom: "Main Stage"
scheduleLabels: ["Agentic Engineering", "Main Stage", "session", "confirmed"]
---
# Auth for Agents: Unblock Autonomous AI with auth.md

## Conference Context
- Date/time: 2026-07-01 · 11:40am-12:00pm
- Track/room: Agentic Engineering · Main Stage
- Speaker(s): Michael Grinich
- Session type/status: session · confirmed

- Track: Agentic Engineering
- Room: Main Stage
- Session type: session
- Status: confirmed

## Session Description
AI agents are ready to act on users' behalf, but legacy auth flows were built for humans, not agents. This session introduces auth.md, an open protocol that lets agents register and authenticate users without sign-up forms, and shares what early implementers have learned since launch. Learn about the new protocol that Cloudflare, Firecrawl, Cogny, and monday.com are adopting to power agent registration — authenticating agents without sign-up forms.

## Media Evidence
[CIAM for AI: Authn/Authz for Agents — Michael Grinich, CEO of WorkOS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4Dswf-__RM) (speaker-match related prior/adjacent AI Engineer video; captions: English auto-captions).

- Source video: `youtube-D4Dswf-__RM`
- Slide deck: [[youtube-D4Dswf-__RM-reconstructed-slides|Reconstructed Slides: CIAM for AI: Authn/Authz for Agents — Michael Grinich, CEO of WorkOS]] — 16 visible slide image(s); 16 HTML recreation(s).
![[assets/reconstructed-slides/D4Dswf-__RM/slide-003.jpg]]
![[assets/reconstructed-slides/D4Dswf-__RM/slide-004.jpg]]
![[assets/reconstructed-slides/D4Dswf-__RM/slide-005.jpg]]
- Additional slide evidence: [[youtube-D4Dswf-__RM-slides|Slides: CIAM for AI: Authn/Authz for Agents — Michael Grinich, CEO of WorkOS]]
- Slide-derived themes for `youtube-D4Dswf-__RM`: grant, negotiation, authorization, protocol.

## Evidence Graph
This evidence graph is generated from currently linked source material: official schedule text, related video pages, cached transcripts, visible slide text, dense/reconstructed slide pages, and AI slide-classification audits.

### Media Signals
- `youtube-D4Dswf-__RM` — 2 slide-derived text signals
- Slide-derived themes for `youtube-D4Dswf-__RM`: grant, negotiation, authorization, protocol.
- Evidence links for `youtube-D4Dswf-__RM`: [[youtube-D4Dswf-__RM]], [[youtube-D4Dswf-__RM-slides]], [[youtube-D4Dswf-__RM-reconstructed-slides]]

### Agent Reading Notes
Use these signals to refine the synopsis, topic links, people/company context, and method notes. If a source is a related external video rather than an exact official recording, keep it framed as supporting evidence.

## Transcript Status
Related video transcript availability: English auto-captions. Treat this as supporting context, not a recording of this exact scheduled session unless later confirmed. Not fetched yet.

## People
- [[michael-grinich]]

## Supporting Slides
- [[youtube-D4Dswf-__RM-slides]] — extracted from the related public AI Engineer video.

## Synthesis
### Synthesized Breakdown
# Auth for Agents: Unblock Autonomous AI with auth.md ## Conference Context - Date/time: 2026-07-01 · 11:40am-12:00pm - Track/room: Agentic Engineering · Main Stage - Speaker(s): Michael Grinich - Session type/status: session · confirmed - Track: Agentic Engineering - Room: Main Stage - Session type: session - Status: confirmed ## Session Description AI agents are ready to act on users' behalf, but legacy auth flows were built for humans, not agents. This session introduces auth.md, an open protocol that lets agents register and authenticate users without sign-up forms, and shares what early implementers have learned since launch. Learn about the new protocol that Cloudflare, Firecrawl, Cogny, and monday.com are adopting to power agent registration — authenticating agents without sign-up forms. ## Media Evidence [CIAM for AI: Authn/Authz for Agents — Michael Grinich, CEO of WorkOS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4Dswf-__RM) (speaker-match related prior/adjacent AI Engineer video; captions: English auto-captions).

### Speaker And Company Context
- [[michael-grinich|Michael Grinich]] — Founder & CEO at [[workos|WorkOS]].

### Topics Covered
- [[agent-security]]

### Derived Links And Source Material
- [[youtube-D4Dswf-__RM]] — related YouTube source page.
- [[youtube-D4Dswf-__RM-slides]] — slide evidence.
- [[youtube-D4Dswf-__RM-reconstructed-slides]] — slide evidence.

### Novel Concepts / Clever Methods
- No highlighted novel concept has been detected yet.

### Evidence Boundary
This synthesis is based on the official schedule and linked source pages. It should be revisited when exact session recordings or transcript-backed secondary sources are available.