Identity guides for people, organizations, machines, and AI agents.
Learn how identity, verification, credentials, authorization, delegated authority and audit evidence work together, and where each control begins and ends.
Start with identity, in six steps
A suggested sequence for first-time readers. Each step links to its guide once that guide is published. Unpublished steps are shown without a link.
Who or what is the actor?
Learn how people, organizations, services and agents are represented.
Verification versus authentication
Why a sign-in claim and an identity claim are different checks.
Credentials
Structured claims, with the roles of issuer, holder and verifier.
Authorization and delegated authority
What may be done, by whom, within which scope and time.
Trust signals and revocation
How permissions may need re-checking when context changes.
Evidence and oversight
How decisions are documented for review, within privacy limits.
Guide cards appear once they are approved
Each card will show its title, a short direct answer, topic, actor class, level and the date it was last reviewed. Only published guides appear here.
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Identity, then permission, then proof
Digital identity infrastructure establishes and manages information about people, organizations, services, machines and agents. Authentication checks a sign-in claim; authorization evaluates a requested action; delegated authority describes permission to act on another party's behalf. Zoiko ID's intended trust story connects those decisions with reviewable evidence.
1 · Actor
Who or what is represented: a person, organization, service, machine or agent.
2 · Authority decision
Whether a requested action is permitted, within a defined scope and time.
3 · Evidence
A reviewable record of the decision, subject to privacy controls.
Identity
Who or what an actor is.
Authentication
Checks a sign-in claim. It is not permission.
Credential
A structured claim with issuer, holder and verifier roles.
Authorization
Whether a specific action is permitted now.
Delegated authority
Who may act for whom, for what, within which scope and time.
Evidence
The reviewable basis for a decision.
Five kinds of actor, each with its own considerations
Human, organization, service, machine and AI agent identities differ. They do not share identical verification methods, and the workflows available for each are not assumed to be the same.
Human
A person who signs in and acts for themselves.
Organization
An affiliation, recorded explicitly rather than inferred.
Service
A workload with its own identity and a narrow role.
Machine
A device or process acting within a bounded duty.
AI agent
Acts only under explicit, sponsored authority.
Auditability without unrestricted surveillance
Evidence can document the actor, scoped authority, policy version, decision, timestamp and any revocation, where the architecture and retention rules permit. Privacy controls limit what is collected, kept and shared.
What evidence explains
- Which actor acted, under which authority
- Which policy version applied
- What was decided, and when
What is protected
- Personal data beyond what a decision needs
- Who may view the record
- How long records are kept, per approved policy
Why access needs a mandate, a scope and a time limit
An employee or agent may act for an organization only within a defined mandate, resource, purpose and time. Policy and current signals may change what is allowed. This is an illustrative scenario.
Actor
Requests an action
Sponsor
Accountable party
Mandate
Scope and time
Policy check
Current rules
Decision
Allow or deny
Evidence
Reviewable record
Live enforcement is not claimed here. Whether a change in trust signals takes effect immediately depends on the approved capability for your integration.
Three checks, three different questions
Authentication
Verifies an asserted sign-in.
confirming a session is held by the expected party.
a permission to take a business action.
Verification
Assesses an identity claim against evidence.
establishing that a claim is supported by governed evidence.
an ongoing authorization decision.
Credentials
A structured claim with issuer, holder and verifier.
carrying a verifiable claim where implemented and verified.
proof of current permission.
Implementation status. Specific protocols or credential formats are described only where verified. Their presence in a concept guide is not a support claim.
Each technical question has its own owner
This hub explains concepts. Architecture, step-by-step implementation, API contracts and release changes live in their own destinations.
Architecture Guides
How the system fits together.
Developer documentation
Quickstarts, API Reference and SDKs.
Delegated Authority
Mandates, scope and time limits.
Machine & Agent Identity
Non-human principals and sponsorship.
Frequently asked questions
Find answers to common questions about Zoiko iD
Keep learning, or move to the technical material.
Browse the guides as they are published, read the developer documentation for implementation details, or talk to an identity expert about your environment.