capnagent — Python bindings

Python bindings for capnagent, the capability-based authority-token engine for AI agent tool calls.

The bindings cover the same surface as the TypeScript/WASM bindings: Issuer, CapabilityBuilder, Capability, Verifier, Auditor. The Rust core (capnagent-core) is shared 1:1 — same engine, different language surface.

Install

pip install capnagent

(Pre-1.0: built from source via pip install capnagent once the first wheel is published; until then, install from source — see "Build from source" below.)

Quick start

import json
import os
from capnagent import Issuer, Verifier, Auditor

root_key  = os.urandom(32)   # production: KMS / secret manager
audit_key = os.urandom(32)

# Issue a scoped capability.
cap = (
    Issuer.from_key(root_key)
    .issue("checkout")
    .caveat('caller == "agent:planner"')
    .caveat('tool == "checkout.purchase"')
    .caveat("now <= @2099-01-01T00:00:00Z")
    .build()
)

verifier = Verifier(root_key)
auditor  = Auditor(audit_key)

# Verify a call: returns a JSON-encoded receipt.
ctx = {
    "caller": "agent:planner",
    "tool": "checkout.purchase",
    "args": {"sku": "USB-C cable", "amount_cents": 1299},
    "nowMs": 1_700_000_000_000,
}
receipt_json = verifier.verify_with_context(cap, json.dumps(ctx), auditor)
receipt = json.loads(receipt_json)
assert receipt["outcome"]["kind"] == "allowed"

API

Why the Python binding gets A.1 closure for free

The v0.6 angle finding A.1 (sub-ulp f64 collapse) has a JS-layer artefact: JS's Number IS f64, so JSON.parse collapses sub-ulp digits BEFORE the WASM boundary. v0.6.1 added a JSON-string entry point to the WASM binding to work around this for JS callers.

Python doesn't have that problem. Python's json.dumps preserves arbitrary integer precision (Python ints are unbounded), and float literals round-trip through repr() in a way that preserves syntactic shape. The Rust side parses the JSON string with serde_json::from_str (with arbitrary_precision), keeping the source text past the parse boundary. So the v0.6 integer-domain rule fires correctly end-to-end through the Python binding by default.

The test test_v0_6_integer_caveat_rejects_decimal_arg in tests/test_basic.py exercises this directly.

Build from source

Prerequisites:

• Rust toolchain (stable)
• Python 3.8+ with development headers
• pip install maturin

cd crates/capnagent-py
maturin develop          # editable install into the current venv
python -m pytest tests/ -v

To produce a publishable wheel:

maturin build --release
# Wheel appears under crates/capnagent-py/target/wheels/

License

Apache-2.0 — same as the Rust core.