Agent Name Service (ANS): A Proof-of-Concept Trust Layer for Secure AI Agent Discovery, Identity, and Governance in Kubernetes

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Mittal, Akshay, De La Cruz, Elyson
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Mittal, Akshay
De La Cruz, Elyson
author_facet Mittal, Akshay
De La Cruz, Elyson
contents Autonomous AI agent ecosystems require stronger mechanisms for secure discovery, identity verification, capability attestation, and policy governance. Current deployments frequently lack (1) uniform agent discovery, (2) cryptographic agent authentication, (3) capability proofs that protect secrets, and (4) enforceable policy controls. This paper presents an implementation-oriented proof of concept for the Agent Name Service (ANS), a DNS-inspired trust layer for AI agent discovery and interoperability in Kubernetes, grounded in the ANS protocol specification~\cite{huang2025ans}. The implementation uses Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs), Verifiable Credentials (VCs), policy-as-code enforcement with Open Policy Agent (OPA), and Kubernetes-native integration patterns (CRDs, admission controls, service mesh integration). In a demo research environment (3-node cluster, 50-agent workflow simulation), we observe sub-10ms response in demonstrated service paths and full success for scripted demo deployment scenarios. We explicitly scope these findings as proof-of-concept evidence rather than production certification. We further provide a threat model, assumptions, and limitations to separate implemented evidence from protocol-defined and roadmap capabilities. The result is an evidence-grounded pathway from ANS protocol concepts to reproducible engineering practice for secure multi-agent systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_26997
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Agent Name Service (ANS): A Proof-of-Concept Trust Layer for Secure AI Agent Discovery, Identity, and Governance in Kubernetes
Mittal, Akshay
De La Cruz, Elyson
Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
Multiagent Systems
Autonomous AI agent ecosystems require stronger mechanisms for secure discovery, identity verification, capability attestation, and policy governance. Current deployments frequently lack (1) uniform agent discovery, (2) cryptographic agent authentication, (3) capability proofs that protect secrets, and (4) enforceable policy controls. This paper presents an implementation-oriented proof of concept for the Agent Name Service (ANS), a DNS-inspired trust layer for AI agent discovery and interoperability in Kubernetes, grounded in the ANS protocol specification~\cite{huang2025ans}. The implementation uses Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs), Verifiable Credentials (VCs), policy-as-code enforcement with Open Policy Agent (OPA), and Kubernetes-native integration patterns (CRDs, admission controls, service mesh integration). In a demo research environment (3-node cluster, 50-agent workflow simulation), we observe sub-10ms response in demonstrated service paths and full success for scripted demo deployment scenarios. We explicitly scope these findings as proof-of-concept evidence rather than production certification. We further provide a threat model, assumptions, and limitations to separate implemented evidence from protocol-defined and roadmap capabilities. The result is an evidence-grounded pathway from ANS protocol concepts to reproducible engineering practice for secure multi-agent systems.
title Agent Name Service (ANS): A Proof-of-Concept Trust Layer for Secure AI Agent Discovery, Identity, and Governance in Kubernetes
topic Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
Multiagent Systems
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.26997