What happened
At TechXchange 2026 (Oct 27) IBM announced Agent Identity is generally available — it records each agent's owner, lifecycle status, and delegated authority and shares that context with HashiCorp Vault, which now issues secured short-lived, least-privilege credentials to agents and revokes access in real time on unauthorized actions. Vault 2.2 adds dedicated agent accounts, automatic credential renewal, and post-quantum encryption; watsonx Orchestrate adds Discover/Contain (tech preview) and Evaluate (GA) for agents/models/MCP servers across Bedrock, Foundry and Gemini, with a governed catalog aligned to OWASP/CoSAI/AI Risk Atlas.
Why it matters
It leverages Vault's very large installed base to deliver agent identity + short-lived, least-privilege credentialing and cross-platform agent discovery/containment from a vendor many organizations already run, rather than requiring a new agent-identity category purchase.
Applicability
Enterprises with existing HashiCorp Vault/IBM estates (and those consolidating non-human identity) should evaluate Agent Identity + Vault 2.2 for agent credentialing and real-time revocation.