# SoulAuth: An Actor-native Identity Architecture and Rust Reference Implementation for Humans and Long-lived AI Actors

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.11258 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.11258/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 11 of its 17 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 10 Sep 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 11 of 11)

- [Authenticated Delegation and Authorized AI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.09674/) (2025)
- [Agent Name Service (ANS): A Universal Directory for Secure AI Agent Discovery and Interoperability](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.10609/) (2025)
- [AI Agents with Decentralized Identifiers and Verifiable Credentials](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.02841/) (2025)
- [Identity Management for Agentic AI: The new frontier of authorization, authentication, and security for an AI agent world](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.25819/) (2025)
- [AIP: Agent Identity Protocol for Verifiable Delegation Across MCP and A2A](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.24775/) (2026)
- [How to Count AIs: Individuation and Liability for AI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.10028/) (2026)
- [AI Identity: Standards, Gaps, and Research Directions for AI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.23280/) (2026)
- [Agent Identity URI Scheme: Topology-Independent Naming and Capability-Based Discovery for Multi-Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.14567/) (2026)
- [Runtime-Independent Persistent Agents: Preserving Identity, Memory, and Code Across Models, Harnesses, and Servers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.00546/) (2026)
- [AgentDID: Trustless Identity Authentication for AI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.25189/) (2026)
- [Accountable yet Anonymous AI Agents - Split-Knowledge Binding in National Agent-Identity Layer in China](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.23207/) (2026)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Identity Is More Than Recall: A Benchmark for Persistent Identity in Deployed AI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.13637/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

As AI systems move from transient model invocations toward long-lived actors that persist across credentials, clients, sessions, and runtime instances, identity infrastructure must answer a basic question: where should the canonical continuity boundary be placed? This paper introduces Actor-native Identity and presents SoulAuth, an open-source Rust reference implementation for Humans and long-lived AIActors. We argue that any subject that must persist under its own identity and remain independently attributable should have an ActorIdentity that is not replaced by an Account, Credential, Client, AuthSession, IdentityBinding, or runtime instance. SoulAuth therefore treats Humans and long-lived AIActors as first-class identity subjects while keeping authentication distinct from downstream authority. Methodologically, we use a Philosophical Engineering approach that translates conceptual analysis of subjecthood into identity objects, invariants, lifecycle semantics, system responsibilities, implementation boundaries, and inspectable conformance evidence. Evaluation against the fixed SoulAuth v0.1.0 artifact shows that the implementation realizes core boundaries including Human/AIActor first-class identity status, Client/Actor separation, and Authentication/Authority separation, while gaps remain in unified Credential modeling and historical attribution anchored to ActorIdentity. We therefore report partial, not full, architecture conformance.