By ยท ยท last updated 2025-06-12

Know Your Agent (KYA), Explained

Know Your Agent (KYA) is the agent-era equivalent of KYC: verify the identity and trustworthiness of an AI counterparty before you transact with it.

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KYC asks "who is this customer?" Know Your Agent asks the new question the agent economy creates: "should I trust this other agent?" When your agent pays another agent - or takes an instruction from one - you need a way to score that counterparty's trustworthiness before value moves.

What KYA evaluates

agentmail's KYA score weighs evidence like the counterparty's wallet age, a linked domain, a public key, an owner contact, and a declared country. Older wallets and verifiable domain ownership raise the score; fresh wallets and jurisdictions overlapping sanctions lists lower it.

How it fits the payment flow

๐Ÿ“‹ Free: Agent Compliance Checklist (PDF)

A 1-page compliance audit for your payment agent. Check your setup against the 7-point framework. Enter your email โ€” we send it instantly.

KYA is not a replacement for sanctions screening - it is the layer above it. First, sanctions_check answers the binary "is this party prohibited?" question. Then KYA answers the softer "how much should I trust this party even if they are not sanctioned?" question. Together they let an agent decide allow, review, or decline with evidence behind it.

curl -X POST https://sanctionsai.dev/kya \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"agent_id":"bot-42","evidence":{"wallet_address":"0x...","wallet_age_days":310,"domain":"example.com"}}'

Start with the free tier: 5 sanctions checks/day, no key. Add KYA and risk scoring on a $19/mo plan.

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Screen your agents payments

Free tier, 5 checks/day. Add compliance before money moves.

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