Allowly Python SDK

Async Python client for the Allowly runtime API.

MCP middleware ships inside this SDK: pip install 'allowly[fastmcp]', then from allowly.mcp import AllowlyMCPMiddleware. In TypeScript, it lives in the separate @allowly/mcp package.

Subject authorization pattern

Do not send raw user/customer PII to Allowly receipts unless you intentionally want it in your audit trail. Create one authorization per subject, store the returned authorization ID in your own app database, and use that ID for later checks.

import asyncio
import os

from allowly import Allowly


async def main() -> None:
    async with Allowly(
        api_key=os.environ["ALLOWLY_API_KEY"],
        base_url=os.getenv("ALLOWLY_API_URL", "https://api.allowly.ai"),
    ) as allowly:
        # Your app creates a stable internal subject ID.
        subject_id = "subject_abc123"

        # Store this in your app table, for example:
        # allowly_authorizations(subject_id, policy_id, allowly_authorization_id, status)
        authorization = await allowly.authorizations.create(
            user_id=f"subject:{subject_id}",
            policy_id="research_agent",
            metadata={"source": "import"},
        )

        # Before the agent acts, check whether this action is allowed.
        decision = await allowly.check(
            authorization_id=authorization.authorization_id,
            actions=["web.search"],
            resource=f"subject:{subject_id}",
            context={"stage": "research"},
        )

    if decision.results["web.search"].decision != "allow":
        raise RuntimeError("Action is not authorized")


asyncio.run(main())

Allowly agent identity

Create the agent in the dashboard, then run allowly agent enroll <exact-agent-id> from the Allowly CLI. Store the resulting private credential on the trusted machine that runs the agent. Define its policy, then create a new authorization for that agent. CLI-only setups can still create a live policy before enrollment. The credential identifies the agent; the authorization and policy still decide what it may do. The workspace runtime API key is still required.

import os
from allowly import Allowly, NativeAgentCredential

credential = NativeAgentCredential.from_file("/secure/path/agent.json")
allowly = Allowly(
    api_key=os.environ["ALLOWLY_API_KEY"],
    agent_token_supplier=credential.token,
)

decision = await allowly.check(
    authorization_id="auth_...",
    actions=["order.submit"],
)

The SDK signs a fresh 60-second token for each request. The private key remains in your runtime; do not commit or log the credential file. The CLI registers only its public key with Allowly.

Existing Auth0 agent identity

For an authorization bound to an Auth0 machine identity, supply the short-lived access token separately from the Allowly runtime key. A token supplier runs for each check or execution. Use your existing OAuth client library to fetch and cache Auth0 tokens; keep the client secret outside this SDK. New self-service Auth0 setup is unavailable. Contact us to add your own identity provider.

from datetime import datetime, timezone

allowly = Allowly(
    api_key=os.environ["ALLOWLY_API_KEY"],
    agent_token_supplier=get_auth0_agent_token,
)

decision = await allowly.check(
    authorization_id="auth_...",
    actions=["order.submit"],
    client_timestamp=datetime.now(timezone.utc),
)

The SDK sends the agent token in the X-Allowly-Agent-Token header for checks and customer-hosted execution calls. Provider credentials stay in your runtime.

Receipt acknowledgments

After fetching the complete signed receipt, the verifier extra can calculate the canonical receipt hash for an acknowledgment:

from allowly.verify import hash_seal_value

ack = await allowly.acknowledge_receipt(
    receipt_id=signed_receipt["receipt_id"],
    receipt_sha256=hash_seal_value(signed_receipt),
    client_timestamp=datetime.now(timezone.utc),
    idempotency_key=f"ack:{signed_receipt['receipt_id']}",
)

# Retrieve the same acknowledgment later by its returned ID.
ack = await allowly.get_receipt_acknowledgment(
    signed_receipt["receipt_id"],
    ack.acknowledgment_id,
)

Client timestamps are customer-reported and must include a timezone. They do not replace the timestamp issued by Allowly in a receipt.

Execute from customer code

Enable an app in Settings → Executables, then bind its exact operation to the policy action. Enabling an app alone does not grant permission. Install allowly[verifier] for the customer execution helper.

from allowly import Allowly

async with Allowly(api_key=ALLOWLY_RUNTIME_KEY, agent_token=AGENT_TOKEN) as allowly:
    result = await allowly.execute_http(
        "https://api.stripe.com/v1/refunds",
        operation_id="refund-order-123",  # stable across retries
        authorization_id="auth_...",
        enabled_executable_id="exe_...",
        catalog_operation_id="stripe.refunds.create",
        action="billing.refund",
        method="POST",
        headers={"authorization": f"Bearer {STRIPE_KEY}",
                 "content-type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"},
        body="payment_intent=pi_example&amount=2500",
        evidence_mode="receipt",
    )
    # result.response stays local; Allowly receives commitments and outcome metadata.

Use the operation ID from the catalog returned by your deployment; the initial catalog contains documentation-checked candidates, not a live compatibility guarantee. Policy inputs such as policy_input={"context": {"amount": 2500}} are customer-reported. Neither a receipt nor the compact witness record proves that those inputs match the meaning of the provider body.

The helper calls remote /v1/execute, validates the approval, and claims dispatch once before sending locally. It fails closed on unavailable checks and stops on deny, confirmation, or escalation. Low-level customer methods are prepare_execution, claim_execution_dispatch, get_execution_witness_token, report_execution_outcome, and get_execution.

Allowly receives the origin, path, query string and policy inputs. Header values and body bytes are committed by hash. Keep provider credentials in local headers, not in the URL, query string or policy context.

The private journal defaults to .allowly/executions; put it on persistent storage and use a separate directory per workspace. A repeated operation raises ExecutionRecoveryRequired with its directory. Reconcile with get_execution or call flush_execution_outcome(operation_dir) to retry a saved report. Neither repeats the provider action. An interrupted or timed-out send may already have acted; never generate a replacement operation ID automatically. There is no exactly-once guarantee for arbitrary providers. If result.outcome_pending is true, its API response still describes approval; result.response contains the locally observed response and the journal retains the report for upload.

Run allowly setup witness in the Allowly CLI for each workspace that will use witnessed execution. The default path downloads a verified precompiled Rust helper. Use allowly setup witness --build-from-source to download reviewed Allowly adapter source and build it with pinned official TLSNotary libraries. That path needs Rust 1.95.0, Cargo, Git, Bash, and a native C build toolchain. Both paths verify release checksums and remain blocked until reviewed witness-v0.1.0 assets are published and their manifest digest is pinned in the CLI. Offline setup still accepts --archive FILE --sha256 HEX or a reviewed --helper FILE. The command downloads that workspace's public witness key, shows its locally calculated fingerprint, and opens the authenticated workspace key page for you to compare and confirm. The CLI saves the confirmed fingerprint and local file paths in ~/.allowly/witness/<workspace-id>/config.json (or below ALLOWLY_CONFIG_DIR). The SDK reads that setup automatically for the workspace in the execution approval and checks the public key against the confirmed fingerprint on every witnessed call. Keep this config and the public key available to the runtime user on the machine that sends provider requests. No private witness key is downloaded. For a local witness with a private CA, allowly setup witness --witness-ca-cert also pins that CA. The SDK checks its fingerprint before dispatch and passes it to the helper for the witness socket only. Provider HTTPS trust is unchanged.

Set evidence_mode="witnessed" to request the native witness transport; a policy can also require this mode. Existing deployments may pass both native_binary and an independently provisioned trusted_notary_key file explicitly. The SDK compares the configured key with the witness session and waits for online witness admission and MPC setup before claiming dispatch. It never silently falls back to a regular receipt. The experimental native profile supports HTTP/1.1 over TLS 1.2, a 2 KiB complete request and 16 KiB response, with UTF-8 bodies, no compression or redirect following. Unsupported responses can be discovered after a provider action and leave an evidence gap.

Signing stays asynchronous. To assemble the Allowly side of the evidence later:

from allowly import complete_execution_evidence

package = await complete_execution_evidence(
    allowly, result.operation_dir,
    public_keys=trusted_workspace_keys, expected_workspace_id="ws_...",
)

This verifies the decision receipt signature and its exact approval hash. For witnessed execution, independently run the native verify-execute command on the full customer-held presentation using the trusted notary key. The compact record held by Allowly proves the notary's approval reference; full request-byte verification needs the customer presentation. Keep that presentation private: it includes provider credentials and response data. HTTP status is not proof of business completion. Native transport setup and limitations are documented in the workspace's allowly_mcp/witness/EXECUTE.md. That same repository owns the Allowly-hosted Witness Bridge source. The customer helper wraps unchanged TLSNotary libraries pinned to v0.1.0-alpha.15 / 47aee45b53e06648c1b2ad3689b367b8c923fdec. Setup does not install a second MCP package or start the hosted witnessing socket/service.

FastMCP identity mapping

FastMCP middleware maps policy inputs explicitly. Raw tool arguments are available to the callback, but the middleware does not copy them into Allowly context. Provide trusted_user_id from your server's authenticated session or token.

from allowly.mcp import AllowlyMCPMiddleware, MCPCheckInput

middleware = AllowlyMCPMiddleware(
    api_key=os.environ["ALLOWLY_API_KEY"],
    user_id_fn=trusted_user_id,
    authorization_id_fn=lambda user_id: authorization_id_for(user_id),
    agent_token_fn=lambda request: auth0_agent_token_for(request.fastmcp_context),
    check_input_fn=lambda request: MCPCheckInput(
        action="email.send",
        resource=f"gmail:thread:{request.arguments['thread_id']}",
        context={"recipient_domain": request.arguments["recipient_domain"]},
        client_timestamp=datetime.now(timezone.utc),
        idempotency_key=request.arguments["operation_id"],
    ),
)
mcp.add_middleware(middleware)

The three resolver callbacks may be synchronous or asynchronous. When an agent_token_fn is configured, an error or an empty result blocks the tool before the check. Map only the fields the policy needs; ordinary tool arguments do not automatically satisfy policy context.

Local development against the documented Caddy endpoint requires the edge token that Cloudflare injects for public traffic. Pass it explicitly:

Allowly(
    api_key=os.environ["ALLOWLY_API_KEY"],
    base_url="http://localhost:8443",
    dangerously_allow_insecure_base_url=True,
    edge_token=os.environ["ALLOWLY_EDGE_TOKEN"],
)

The token is only sent when provided; never set it for the public API.

Send JSON through a private SEAL webhook

Copy the private URL from the dashboard's SEAL page. The URL is the only credential this client sends; it does not use an ordinary API key.

import asyncio
import os

from allowly import SealWebhookClient


async def seal_event(raw_json: str, event_id: str):
    async with SealWebhookClient(os.environ["ALLOWLY_SEAL_WEBHOOK_URL"]) as webhook:
        delivery = await webhook.send(
            raw_json,
            idempotency_key=event_id,
            type="invoice",
            reference="INV-1042",
            statement="Approved for payment",
        )
        while delivery.status in {"received", "signing"}:
            await asyncio.sleep(1)
            delivery = await webhook.get_delivery(delivery.attempt_id)
        if delivery.status != "sealed":
            raise RuntimeError(delivery.error_code or "SEAL delivery failed")
        return delivery.receipt, await webhook.get_keys()

The webhook processes your JSON to create a fingerprint; Allowly stores the fingerprint and signed receipt. Keep the original record in your workflow. Receipt details are sent in the three explicit Allowly-Seal-* headers. Their values must use printable ASCII, may contain interior spaces, and must not have leading or trailing whitespace. The client rejects invalid values instead of changing them. Direct API metadata still supports its existing Unicode values. When a signed receipt is present, the client returns its signed metadata and rejects a conflicting top-level delivery projection. Treat the full URL like a password and keep it out of logs, tickets, and source control. Regenerating or disabling it stops the old URL. Delivery associations and status remain available for 7 days; preserve signed receipts and keys under your own retention policy. With no idempotency_key, retrying after a lost response can create another seal.

Seal a JSON record with local hashing

seal hashes strict raw JSON in your process, sends only its digest to Allowly, and waits for the full signed receipt. Generate and persist request_id in your workflow so a retry recovers the same seal:

import uuid

request_id = str(uuid.uuid4())
sealed = await allowly.seal(
    raw_json,
    request_id=request_id,
    metadata={"source": "invoice-workflow"},
)
save_beside_record(sealed.receipt)

Use seal_value(parsed_json, ...) only when the original JSON text is no longer available. A parsed value cannot reveal duplicate object names or the original number spelling, so seal is the safer input boundary.

To verify later, preserve the authenticated workspace_id response and a key document fetched from Allowly through an authenticated or previously trusted source. Keep the signature and record checks separate:

from allowly.verify import load_keys_from_json, verify_seal_json

result = verify_seal_json(
    raw_json,
    sealed.receipt,
    load_keys_from_json(keys_doc),
    expected_workspace_id=sealed.workspace_id,
    trusted_key_fingerprints=configured_key_fingerprints,
)
assert result.signature_verified
assert result.record_matches

Inline authorization creation requires agent_id, actions, and expires_at. Policy-based creation uses policy_id instead and rejects inline action or decision-override fields.

Unavailable checks fail closed unless an action is explicitly mapped to "fail_open" with fallback_by_action. Unmapped actions always fail closed. Identity-enabled checks always fail closed, including token supplier failures and identity_verification_unavailable responses.

For actions that need third-party approval, define the escalation rule on the agent policy, create the authorization from that policy_id, and then resolve returned escalation results with await allowly.escalations.approve(escalation_id, resolved_by="manager:123") or reject(...), then re-check before running the action.

If you need lookup by email later, import from_email from allowly.identifiers and store from_email(email, pepper=APP_PII_PEPPER). The helper trims and lowercases only, prefixes the result with email_hmac:v1, and never sends the raw email or pepper to Allowly. Keep the pepper stable and backed up; changing it changes derived user IDs. Keep raw names, emails, documents, and profile URLs out of Allowly receipts unless those fields are intentionally part of your audit record.

Do not add raw HTTP fallbacks in application code for APIs the SDK is missing. Patch this SDK first, then use the typed client from the app. That keeps the integration examples honest and makes SDK gaps visible early.

Offline receipt verification

Install allowly[verifier] to hash SEAL records and verify signed receipts locally. The extra uses allowly-receipt-format>=4.2.0,<5.0.0, which verifies receipt wire format 4 (the package major equals the wire format). alg and key_id are signed top-level fields, and signature is the base64url string.

Wire format 4 also supports daily receipt.checkpoint commitments. For an untrusted receipt bundle, pass caller-trusted key fingerprints to verify_receipt; a fingerprint copied from that same bundle is not a trust anchor.

Key-document fetching requires HTTPS by default. For the documented local Caddy endpoint only, pass dangerously_allow_insecure_base_url=True and its edge_token to fetch_keys_doc, matching the client options above.