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KYA (Know Your Agent) is Sly’s formal identity verification framework for AI agents. It’s the direct parallel to KYC/KYB for human accounts — a tier-based system where higher tiers require more verification and unlock higher spending limits.

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The four tiers

TierLabelPer-txDailyMonthlyRequirements
0Registered$20$100$500Agent created (nothing more)
1Declared$100$500$2,000DSD declaration filed
2Verified$1,000$5,000$20,00030-day history OR enterprise override
3TrustedCustomCustomCustomKill-switch operator + Continuous Agent Integrity (CAI)
Limits shown are defaults. Your tenant can configure per-tier overrides — see tier limits.

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Tier 0: Registered

The starting tier. An agent is created under a parent account and immediately becomes Tier 0. No declarations, no history, no vouching — just “this agent exists.”
  • Safe for prototypes, dev, minimal-trust automations
  • Spending capped low enough that a runaway loop is financially containable
  • No additional docs required

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Tier 1: Declared

The agent’s operator files a Declared Spending Declaration (DSD) — a self-attestation stating:
  • What the agent will be used for (natural-language purpose statement)
  • Expected merchant categories
  • Expected monthly volume
  • Who’s accountable (a named individual in your org)
curl -X POST https://api.getsly.ai/v1/agents/$AGENT_ID/declare \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pk_live_..." \
  -d '{
    "purpose": "Automated supplier invoice payments",
    "expected_categories": ["saas", "business_services"],
    "monthly_estimate": "1500.00",
    "accountable_individual": "jsmith@acme.example"
  }'
Upgrade is instant on submission. No external review required.

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Tier 2: Verified

Two paths: Path A — Historical record. Agent has operated at Tier 1 for 30 days with no violations, disputes, or manual freezes. Automatic upgrade. Path B — Enterprise override. Your tenant’s operations team approves the upgrade based on their own due diligence. Useful for agents where the operator has its own established history (e.g. a treasury bot for a Fortune 500 customer). 
curl -X POST https://api.getsly.ai/v1/agents/$AGENT_ID/upgrade-tier \
  -d '{ "to_tier": 2, "justification": "Enterprise override — Acme Treasury" }'

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Tier 3: Trusted

The highest tier. Requires:
  1. Kill-switch operator — a named human (not the agent itself) who can instantly revoke credentials. Their contact details are held in the agent record.
  2. Continuous Agent Integrity (CAI) — an ongoing signal that the agent code and behavior haven’t drifted. Usually wired up to your CI/CD + runtime monitoring.
Tier 3 limits are custom — negotiated per agent. Typical ceilings: 10k/tx,10k/tx, 100k/day, $1M/month. Some trusted partners run at no ceiling at all, with the kill-switch as the sole backstop.

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Effective limits

Agent KYA tier is combined with the parent account’s KYC/KYB tier. The effective cap is the minimum of both: 
effective_per_tx = min(agent_kya_limit, account_kyc_limit)
effective_daily   = min(agent_kya_daily,  account_kyc_daily)
effective_monthly = min(agent_kya_month,  account_kyc_month)
So an agent can never “escape” via its own KYA tier — the parent account is a ceiling.

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Read the current limits

curl https://api.getsly.ai/v1/agents/$AGENT_ID/limits \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pk_live_..."
Response: 
{
  "kya_tier": 2,
  "agent_limits": { "per_tx": "1000.00", "daily": "5000.00", "monthly": "20000.00" },
  "account_limits": { "per_tx": "1000.00", "daily": "10000.00", "monthly": "50000.00" },
  "effective_limits": { "per_tx": "1000.00", "daily": "5000.00", "monthly": "20000.00" },
  "used_today": "342.00",
  "used_this_month": "8102.50"
}

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Violations

If an agent attempts a spend over its effective limit, the API returns 403 KYA_LIMIT_EXCEEDED. The attempt is logged. Repeated violations can trigger automatic tier downgrade (configurable per tenant).

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Upgrade path API

EndpointPurpose
GET /v1/agents/:id/limitsRead current effective limits
POST /v1/agents/:id/declareFile DSD (Tier 0 → 1)
POST /v1/agents/:id/upgrade-tierRequest upgrade to a higher tier
GET /v1/tier-limitsTenant’s configured per-tier caps
POST /v1/tier-limitsConfigure per-tenant overrides
POST /v1/agents/:id/request-limit-increaseAsk for a one-time exception