# Show HN: Kepil – passport, mandate and tamper-evident journal for AI agents

> Source: <https://github.com/oleg-vdv/kepil>
> Published: 2026-09-14 05:28:36+00:00

**Accountability layer for AI agents.** Give every agent a passport, put every
action through one gate, and keep a log that cannot be rewritten afterwards.

53% of organisations have had an AI agent exceed its intended permissions. 48% of agents in production run with no monitoring at all. Only 22% treat an agent as an entity with its own identity. — Cloud Security Alliance and State of AI Agent Security, 2026

Kepil is what the other 78% are missing: identity, mandate, enforcement,
evidence — and the part nobody else does, **undo**.

```
pip install kepil
python -m kepil.admin        # http://localhost:7317
```

Русская версия: [README.ru.md](/oleg-vdv/kepil/blob/main/README.ru.md)

**Passport.** Every agent version gets an immutable card: who built it, who runs
it, what it does, what it will *never* do, its risk class, its autonomy class,
its limits, and when its risks are due for review. A new version is a new card;
the old one is kept forever.

**Mandate.** A machine-readable power of attorney for one job: allowed actions,
allowed systems, spending limits, a validity window, and which action types must
be confirmed by a human. Anything not explicitly allowed is refused.

**Gate.** The single point through which an agent touches the outside world.
Every action is checked against the mandate *before* a model is even called.
Fail-closed: any error inside the check means refusal, never a pass.

**Journal.** Append-only JSONL where every record carries the hash of the one
before it. Editing or deleting a record is detectable — by anyone, using an
independent implementation:

```
npx proofbyte-agent-trace verify data/journal.jsonl
```

**Undo.** The journal is a graph of actions, and every profession declares its
compensating action. Kepil walks that graph backwards and stops honestly at the
first step that cannot be undone. Agent platforms record what happened; this one
puts it back.

**Confirmations on your phone.** Irreversible actions arrive in Telegram with
two buttons — approve or return — so being accountable does not mean sitting at
a laptop.

Kepil ships an MCP server, so an editor, an assistant or another agent can work through it — and every action still passes the same gate into the same journal.

```
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kepil": { "command": "python", "args": ["-m", "kepil.mcp"] }
  }
}
```

Seven tools: list professions, create an order, run a step, read order status, see what is waiting for a human, verify the journal, read an agent passport.

**One tool is deliberately missing: confirmation.** If a model could approve an
irreversible action, the human would drop out of the chain and the whole design
would be pointless. The confirmation card goes to a person — in the panel or in
Telegram — and no MCP client can press it. A test enforces this.

Kepil has a small JSON API, so an n8n workflow, a Make scenario or your own script can ask permission before acting:

```
curl -X POST http://localhost:7317/api/check   -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEPIL_API_TOKEN"   -H "Content-Type: application/json"   -d '{"order_id":"ord-0042","action":"send:message","system":"whatsapp.local"}'
{ "decision": "await_human", "allowed": false, "needs_human": true,
  "reason": "необратимое действие: требуется подтверждение человека" }
```

The answer is recorded in the journal, so later you can show on what grounds the
automation did — or did not do — something. For n8n there is a ready node:
[n8n-nodes-kepil](https://github.com/oleg-vdv/n8n-nodes-kepil).

**The API stays off until you set a token** (panel → Settings, or
`KEPIL_API_TOKEN`). A panel bound to localhost is protected by the binding; a
programmatic interface is not, so it is disabled by default.

`AgentPassport` refuses to be constructed with the autonomy class where a human
can no longer cancel a decision. That is a deliberate architectural limit rather
than a missing feature — see
[ADR-0002](/oleg-vdv/kepil/blob/main/docs/decisions/ADR-0002-medium-autonomy.md). The gate enforces the
same rule regardless of what a profession definition claims.

An agent's job is a JSON description: ordered steps, boundaries, limits, irreversible action patterns, rollback rules. Adding a new kind of work means adding a file — or filling in a form in the panel. The dangerous parts stay in code and under test.

Five ship with the project: inbound leads, process automation, bookkeeping documents, AI-adoption audit, public-procurement packages.

An order's journal is a sequence of actions and every profession declares the
compensating action for each, so the panel can walk it backwards: pick a window,
and the pass runs from the last action towards earlier ones, stopping at the
first one that cannot be undone. What will happen is shown **before** the button
is pressed, naming the step where the pass will stop — an undo promise that
quietly fails is worse than no undo at all. The result is recorded as an
operator's decision, which is why neither the MCP server nor the JSON API can
roll anything back: an agent undoing its own actions would be signing in
somebody else's name.

`python -m kepil.admin` opens an operator console: orders, professions, agent
passports, a meter (actions, tokens, cost, human time replaced), the compliance
generator, the journal with chain verification and anchoring, and settings.

State is plain JSON files under `KEPIL_DATA` (default `./data`). No database:
you can open them, read them, and attach them to a dispute.

Documentation requirements differ by country and change faster than code, so the
texts live outside the engine. The neutral pack shipped here follows
international practice (ISO/IEC 42001, record-keeping in the spirit of the EU AI
Act). Jurisdiction packs — for example Kazakhstan's AI Law No. 230-VIII with
order No. 95/НҚ — are dropped into `$KEPIL_DATA/packs` as files.

- **Zero dependencies.** The core runs on the Python 3.11+ standard library, and
CI fails the build if a third-party import appears. That keeps Kepil
installable inside an air-gapped perimeter, and keeps the supply-chain attack
surface of a tool that sees every action at zero.
- **Values never enter the journal** — only types, counts and hashes.
- **The verifier is a separate implementation in another language.** Proof that
only its own author can check is not proof.

| Project | Role | 
|---|---|
| [agent-trace](https://github.com/oleg-vdv/agent-trace) | Independent journal verification and evidence packs (MIT) | 
| [AI-Gateway](https://github.com/oleg-vdv/AI-Gateway) | PII and secret masking between your apps and external models | 
| [AutoGov](https://github.com/oleg-vdv/AutoGov) | Discovery of shadow automations and the credentials they can reach | 

Alpha, 115 tests. Interfaces may still change. Nothing here is a legal opinion: before relying on generated documents, have them reviewed by a lawyer in your jurisdiction.

AGPL-3.0-or-later. Running a network service built on Kepil obliges you to
release your own source under the same terms — or to take a commercial licence.
See [NOTICE.md](/oleg-vdv/kepil/blob/main/NOTICE.md).