Problem Statement for Human-Anchored Agent Identity, Delegation, and Provenance

Software agents now act on behalf of people across communication, automation, and decision-making contexts. These agents increasingly initiate actions, delegate tasks, and interact with other agents without a clear, durable, or verifiable connection to the human who authorized them. Existing identity systems authenticate software, but they do not provide a model for human anchoring, scoped delegation, or provenance across agent ecosystems. This document describes the problem space for human-anchored agent identity. It outlines the gaps in current identity mechanisms, the risks created by uncontrolled replication and impersonation, and the need for a consistent architectural model that preserves human authority, supports explicit delegation, and maintains verifiable provenance across contexts. This document does not define a protocol. It defines the problem that an architectural model must address in order to support safe, accountable, and interoperable agent ecosystems.