Glossary Terms: A

Attribute Assertion

Security concepts

An attribute assertion is simply a structured, verifiable claim about an identity, whether it’s a human user or a piece of software. It’s delivered by your identity system to another application during authentication.

AI Agent Gateway

AI/MCP Concepts

An AI agent gateway is an architectural component that sits between AI agents and the external systems, APIs, and data sources they need to access. It manages routing, security enforcement, traffic management, and observability for agent-to-agent and agent-to-resource communications.

API Gateway

IT concepts

An API gateway is essentially a centralized entry point; a server that acts as the “bouncer” and “traffic cop” for all requests trying to access your company’s back-end services. Its job is to manage traffic flow while enforcing crucial rules like authentication (checking ID), authorization (checking permissions), and rate limiting (making sure no one overwhelms the system).

API

IT concepts

An API key is a unique string of characters used to authenticate and identify an application or user when interacting with an API. It acts as a simple form of credential that verifies who or what is making a request, without requiring a full authentication protocol.

Authorization

IAM concepts

Authorization is the process of verifying whether a previously authenticated identity (user, machine, or agent) is allowed to perform a specific action or access a particular resource.

Authentication

IAM concepts

Authentication is the process of verifying the identity of a user, machine, or application attempting to access a system or resource. It ensures that each access request originates from a legitimate, trusted entity before authorization and policy enforcement take place.

Attestation

IAM concepts

Attestation is simply a digital way to verify a piece of software (a workload) is trustworthy and truly is who it claims to be. It’s a security process that provides proof of authenticity using signed, digital evidence. This proof eliminates the need for old-fashioned passwords or static keys. Think of it as a digital passport check: instead of just trusting that an application is what it says it is, attestation forces it to prove its identity using verifiable, tamper-proof measurements.

Agent-to-Human Handoff

AI/MCP Concepts

An agent-to-human handoff is the seamless transition of a task or interaction from an autonomous AI agent to a human operator when the agent reaches scope, capability, or accountability limits.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI/MCP Concepts

Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to computer systems that perform tasks typically requiring human cognition, such as reasoning, learning, perception, and decision-making. In enterprise contexts, AI spans from predictive analytics and language models to fully autonomous agents capable of executing multi-step workflows across software environments.

AI Agent

AI/MCP Concepts

An AI agent is an autonomous or semi-autonomous software entity that can perceive inputs, reason over context, and take actions toward a goal without direct human control. Unlike traditional rule-based automation, AI agents can dynamically plan, execute, and adapt across digital environments using large language models (LLMs), APIs, and integrated tools.