Outcome: an agent identity that can mint a `client_credentials` token and call one protected route. About five minutes after Agents access is approved.

**Sales-gated.** [Agents](/docs/console/agents) stays locked until access is approved. Use **Request access** on the locked landing or [Support](/docs/console/support). Do not put a human cookie or PAT in the agent runtime.

## 0. Prerequisites

- An Authdog tenant, project, and environment.
- Approved access to **Agents** in that environment.
- A token endpoint from the environment OIDC metadata (`/oauth2/token`).

## 1. Register an agent

In the console, open **Agents** (`/dashboard/agents`):

1. **New agent** → **Create new agent identity**.
2. Name it. Optional: scopes (`mcp:invoke`), allowed tools (`*` or globs).
3. Copy the client ID and client secret. The secret is shown once.

This provisions a confidential OIDC client and a trust-store row whose subject is that client ID.

REST equivalent (after you have a management token):

```
POST /v1/tenants/{tenantId}/environments/{environmentId}/mcp/trust-store
```

The wizard is the path that also creates the OIDC client. REST registers a subject that already authenticates.

## 2. Exchange credentials for a token

```bash
curl -X POST "$TOKEN_ENDPOINT" \
  -u "$AUTHDOG_CLIENT_ID:$AUTHDOG_CLIENT_SECRET" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
  --data-urlencode "grant_type=client_credentials"
```

You get `access_token`, `token_type`, `expires_in`. No refresh token. Repeat the exchange before expiry.

A revoked agent whose subject is this `client_id` gets **401** on this call. Tokens already issued stay valid until `expires_in` unless the resource server runs trust-store **enforce**.

## 3. Call a protected route

```http
Authorization: Bearer <access_token>
```

For an HTTP API, use a backend SDK `require_auth` gate ([Express](/docs/quickstarts?sdk=express), [FastAPI](/docs/quickstarts?sdk=fastapi)). For MCP, run `examples/mcp-auth-sample` with `MCP_TRUST_STORE_MODE=enforce` and `MCP_AUTHZ_MODE=enforce`. `@authdog/mcp-sdk` is source-only (`packages/mcp-sdk`), not on npm.

## 4. Verify

- Token exchange without credentials → 401.
- `GET` the protected route without a bearer → 401.
- With the bearer → the caller is the agent, not a human session.

## Next

- [Agents](/docs/console/agents): verify, revoke, pin, activity.
- [Machine identity](/docs/machine-identity): M2M project vs Agents vs service account vs PAT.
- [AI agent security](/guides/ai-agent-security): same primitives, longer form.
- [MCP security](/guides/mcp-security): protect your MCP server.