aim-sdk 1.22.1

Python SDK for AIM (Agent Identity Management) - Automatic identity verification for AI agents

AIM Python SDK

Cryptographic identity, capability authorization, and audit trails for Python AI agents. Apache 2.0.

Part of Agent Identity Management (AIM). Managed hosting at aim.opena2a.org/get-started; self-host via the main README.

Quick start

from aim_sdk import secure

agent = secure("my-first-agent")

@agent.perform_action(capability="db:read")
def get_customer(customer_id):
    return db.query("SELECT * FROM customers WHERE id = ?", customer_id)

secure() generates an Ed25519 keypair, registers the agent with the AIM backend, and stores credentials at ~/.aim/. @perform_action signs every invocation, runs it through 5-step Fine-Grained Authorization on the server, and records the outcome in the audit log.

Install:

pip install aim-sdk
aim-sdk login                              # OAuth to aim.opena2a.org
aim-sdk login --url http://localhost:8080  # or to your self-hosted AIM

Login uses OAuth 2.0 with PKCE. Credentials save to ~/.aim/sdk_credentials.json (mode 0600).

Framework auto-detection

secure() reads sys.modules to detect the agent's framework or LLM provider from imports:

Category	Detected from	Mapped agent_type
Frameworks	langchain, crewai, autogen, llama_index, haystack, semantic_kernel, langgraph	langchain, crewai, etc.
LLM providers	anthropic, openai, google.generativeai, mistralai, cohere	claude, gpt, gemini, mistral, cohere

Frameworks take priority over LLM providers. If both langchain and anthropic are imported, the agent type is langchain.

Override explicitly:

from aim_sdk import secure, AgentType

agent = secure("my-agent", agent_type=AgentType.CREWAI)

Auto-instrumentation

After secure() registers the agent, the SDK installs no-op-on-failure hooks for any of these libraries that are present:

• LangChain
• CrewAI
• OpenAI
• Anthropic

Each model call (chat completion, embedding, tool call) is recorded to the audit trail. The hooks never raise — a hook failure logs a warning and the call proceeds.

Disable: secure("my-agent", auto_hooks=False).

Capability decorators

@agent.perform_action signs each invocation, runs it through FGA on the server, and records the outcome. Risk level auto-detects from the capability string using two lookup tables in aim_sdk/risk_detector.py:

• Namespace prefix maps payment:, admin:, system:, billing:, finance: to critical; email:, notification:, sms:, user:, auth:, secret:, credential: to high; db:, database:, file:, storage:, cache: to medium; api:, weather:, search:, geocode:, translate:, time:, math:, util: to low.
• Action suffix maps :read, :fetch, :get, :list, :query, :view, :check, :validate to low; :write, :update, :create, :modify, :save, :upload to medium; :delete, :send, :execute, :run, :invoke, :export, :transfer to high; :process, :refund, :charge, :approve, :drop, :truncate, :wipe, :terminate to critical.

When namespace and action disagree the higher risk wins. SPECIFIC_CAPABILITY_MAP overrides both for known patterns (for example user:delete escalates to critical).

@agent.perform_action(capability="db:read")               # medium (db: medium, :read low → max = medium)
def get_customer(customer_id): ...

@agent.perform_action(capability="db:delete")             # high (SPECIFIC_CAPABILITY_MAP override)
def delete_customer(customer_id): ...

@agent.perform_action(capability="payment:refund",
                      risk_level="critical",
                      jit_access=True,
                      timeout_seconds=300)
def process_refund(order_id, amount): ...                 # waits for admin approval

JIT access

jit_access=True pauses execution and creates an approval request in the AIM dashboard. The function returns only after a human approves, or raises JITAccessTimeoutError after timeout_seconds.

Enforcement mode

The organization's enforcement mode (configured in dashboard Settings → Security → Policies) controls what happens on verification failure:

• Monitoring (default) — warning logged, function executes anyway. For dev and gradual rollout.
• Strict — PermissionError raised, function blocked. For production and compliance.

Override locally for testing: AIM_STRICT_MODE=true python my_agent.py. Production deployments configure in the dashboard, not via env var.

Capability declaration

The SDK supports three ways to declare capabilities. Decorators are preferred.

1. Decorators — @agent.perform_action(capability="...") in code. Most accurate.
2. Config file — ~/.aim/capabilities.json with {"capabilities": ["db:read", ...]}. For static declarations.
3. Explicit at registration — secure("my-agent", capabilities=["api:call", "db:read"]).

Auto-detection from sys.modules is disabled by default — it's noisy and misleading (almost every Python agent imports the same generic packages).

Request additional capabilities

After registration, new capabilities require admin approval (prevents privilege escalation per CVE-2025-32711):

result = agent.request_capability(
    capability_type="db:write",
    reason="Need to update user preferences"
)

if result["status"] == "pending":
    print(f"Request {result['id']} submitted - awaiting admin approval")
elif result["status"] == "approved":
    print("Capability granted")

MCP server registration

secure() auto-discovers MCP servers via Claude Desktop config and queries each server using the MCP protocol (tools/list):

agent = secure("my-agent", mcp_servers=["filesystem", "github"])
# SDK queries each server, discovers actual capabilities, auto-attests.

Manual registration:

agent.register_mcp(
    server_name="my-database-server",
    server_url="http://localhost:3001",
    capabilities=["db:read", "db:write", "data:delete"]
)

Discover capabilities without attesting:

from aim_sdk.detection import discover_mcp_capabilities

caps = discover_mcp_capabilities(["filesystem", "github"])
# {"filesystem": ["read_file", "write_file", ...], "github": [...]}

Credential storage

Path	Contents	Mode
~/.aim/sdk_credentials.json	OAuth tokens (from aim-sdk login)	0600
~/.aim/agents/<name>.json	Per-agent Ed25519 keypair + metadata	0600
~/.aim/credentials.json	Legacy combined-store; auto-migrated	0600
~/.aim/capabilities.json	Explicit capability declarations (optional)	0644

The private key is returned once at registration. The SDK saves it locally. Losing the private key means rotating credentials via the dashboard.

To force a fresh registration that bypasses the local cache and reconnects to the backend:

agent = secure("my-agent", force_new=True)

force_new=True is for credential rotation, debugging, or post-database-reset recovery. To create an entirely new agent, use a different name.

CLI commands

The SDK ships with a small CLI for authentication and status:

aim-sdk login                    # OAuth to AIM Cloud
aim-sdk login --url <URL>        # OAuth to self-hosted instance
aim-sdk logout                   # Clear ~/.aim/sdk_credentials.json
aim-sdk status                   # Show authentication state
aim-sdk --version                # Show SDK version

For SecOps workflows (scanning a codebase, hardening configs, monitoring runtime), see the separate opena2a CLI.

Manual mode (no OAuth)

For CI environments or pre-configured credentials, skip aim-sdk login and pass an API key:

agent = secure("my-agent", api_key="aim_abc123")

Or supply full credentials:

from aim_sdk import AIMClient

client = AIMClient(
    agent_id="550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
    public_key="<base64-Ed25519>",
    private_key="<base64-Ed25519>",
    aim_url="https://aim.opena2a.org"
)

@client.perform_action(capability="db:read")
def get_customer(customer_id): ...

Examples

Working examples in examples/:

Example	Shows
example.py	Decorator-based verification, manual mode
example_auto_detection.py	Framework + MCP auto-discovery (no backend required)
example_one_line_setup.py	Zero-config secure() flow (requires backend)

Framework integration guides:

• LangChain
• CrewAI
• MCP servers

Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• requests (HTTP)
• pynacl (Ed25519)
• cryptography (TLS, secure storage)
• keyring (OS keychain for OAuth tokens)

All install via pip install aim-sdk.

Versioning

Semantic Versioning 2.0.0. Current: see VERSION file. SDK 1.x.x is compatible with backend 1.x.x; SDK 2.x.x requires backend 2.x.x.

import aim_sdk
print(aim_sdk.__version__)

See CHANGELOG.md for history, docs/VERSIONING.md for the support policy.

Related

• Java SDK — same API shape, AspectJ-based decoration
• TypeScript SDK — local-or-server mode
• opena2a CLI — codebase auditing, credential migration, runtime monitoring
• AIM backend — server, dashboard, deployment

License

Apache-2.0. See LICENSE.