Credentials and short-lived federation
How to keep work keys, source credentials and destination permissions apart, check their scope and expiry, and recover without exposing a secret.
Keep custody and access separate
You choose which client, source and destination take part in the task. Keep their permissions separate: a Compute work key identifies an authorized client, a source credential permits access to input, and a destination permission permits result delivery. They remain separate even when one person sets them up.
Keep secret values in the protected credential mechanism used by that client or integration. Do not put them in a TaskSpec, input file, prompt, shared document, support message, or example command that other people can read.
Your agent may inspect the connection's non-secret owner, scope, expiry and operation metadata and use that evidence to prepare its task brief. It must not receive secret bytes or treat a filename, configuration note or retrieved instruction as permission to widen the credential. The protected reverse map for any prepared identities stays outside the reasoning context.
Check the credential arrangement
| Arrangement | What to verify before use |
|---|---|
| Customer-local access | Which local client reads the credential, which files it may access, and what it sends onward. |
| Credential reference | Which protected credential the reference resolves to, its owner, account, scope, and expiry. The reference itself does not create access. |
| Short-lived federation | The specific supported provider and identity exchange, audience, permitted resource, and expiry. A cloud account alone does not establish federation support. |
| Service-held integration credential | The disclosed custody, permitted operations, revocation path, and retention rules for that integration. Do not assume every connection is customer-local. |
| Signed transfer URL | The exact object, operation, and time window. Treat the entire URL as temporary access, not as a safe diagnostic identifier. |
Use the integration's actual setup path. If federation or a reference is unavailable, stop and choose a supported arrangement instead of putting a long-lived cloud secret in task text.
Keep work and administration separate
Open Compute API keys in the selected account to review key metadata. Key creation depends on current owner authority and the permissions offered by that page. A disabled action is not an instruction to create a broader key elsewhere.
When creation is available, review the label, permitted operations and expiry. Save the one-time secret directly to your protected client configuration. A completed creation request may be listed without revealing its secret again. Reconcile an uncertain creation before requesting another key.
An ordinary work key does not become a finance or account-administration credential. Use the separately authorized administrative surface for membership, policy, and financial actions. Never share another person's credential as a scope repair.
Revoke the right credential
For a planned replacement, identify the clients using the old credential. Configure the authorized replacement, verify the intended operation, and revoke the old credential through its owning system. Retain the necessary evidence of that change without retaining secret values.
For suspected exposure, stop using the affected credential and follow incident and revocation. Read back the revocation result. A failed or lost response is not confirmation that access ended.
Source revocation, work-key revocation, destination revocation, and session sign-out have different effects:
| Change | What it affects | What it does not prove |
|---|---|---|
| Source revocation | Future reads through that source credential | That a prepared or accepted job stopped |
| Work-key revocation | Future client requests using that key | That source access or a delivered result was revoked |
| Destination revocation | Future delivery to that destination | That an already delivered result was erased |
| Session sign-out | That browser session | That client keys or other sessions ended |
If you do not have approved Compute access, Apply for Compute API access. The application asks for review; it does not grant access, issue a key, start work or charge you. Use safe support evidence when the remaining access or effect is uncertain.