If your AI agents are already in production but their identities aren’t governed, you’re in good company. Seventy-nine percent of organizations lack written policies for governing AI agents yet have already deployed them, according to a 2025 EMA survey conducted in conjunction with Ory. Worse, the same survey found that while 76% have tools to identify agents within their systems, only 55% have documented policies that govern their behavior.

The gap in AI agent governance is a growing concern as the deployment of agents increases.

That’s why teams are actively evaluating alternatives to Astrix and Aembit. Astrix, a go-to for API key and OAuth token visibility, is now part of Cisco and ended standalone new-license sales on June 30, 2026. Aembit still delivers strong short-lived, scoped credential issuance at runtime.

This list starts with Ory, a top choice for composable architecture, execution-point enforcement via Ory Agent Security (powered by Ory Talos and Ory Keto), and infrastructure that already manages almost 3.3 billion identities.

Methodology: How We Evaluated These Astrix and Aembit Alternatives

We focused on platforms that secure AI agent identities across authentication, authorization, and runtime policy enforcement, specifically targeting the two capabilities that made Astrix and Aembit reference points: securing API keys and OAuth tokens, and issuing short-lived, scoped credentials at runtime.

We evaluated each solution against five criteria:

  1. API key and OAuth token discovery, visibility, and security.
  2. Just-in-time, short-lived credential issuance at runtime.
  3. Runtime authorization at the point of tool call or execution.
  4. Delegation-chain visibility and audit trails.
  5. Unified governance across human and non-human identities, plus deployment flexibility.

The 2025 EMA survey provides the data backbone: it captured 271 qualified responses out of 1,256 from IT, security, and IAM professionals at organizations with 500+ employees across the US, UK, Canada, France, and Germany.

Why Astrix and Aembit Are the Baseline in 2027

Astrix Security made its name by discovering and securing the API keys, service accounts, and OAuth tokens that AI agents depend on, giving teams a way to map and manage the sprawling non-human credential landscape.

Cisco announced its intent to acquire Astrix on May 4, 2026, listing it on the corporate acquisitions page. Astrix’s site now states it is part of Cisco; standalone new-license sales ended June 30, 2026, though existing customers still receive service and support.

The deal’s financial details remain unconfirmed: Globes reported the intent with no numbers, The Information pegged it at about $300 million, but Cisco has not confirmed any figure.

Aembit, the second baseline, replaces long-lived credentials with short-lived, scoped tokens issued at runtime. It uses blended identity for user-driven agents, supports MCP via OAuth 2.1, is SOC 2 Type II and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified, and offers a free-forever tier.

Identity assignment itself is anything but uniform. 60.5% of organizations manage AI agents with a hybrid human/service account model, 23.6% treat them as pure service accounts, and just 10% as human identities, the same 2025 EMA survey found.

Platform sprawl compounds the mess: Organizations report using an average of three IAM platforms, with 34% running four or more. While 52.8% prefer an all-in-one platform, only 24% have actually achieved it.

The proliferation of API keys and OAuth tokens across cloud services, SaaS apps, and on-prem systems creates an inventory problem that traditional IAM wasn’t built to solve. This complexity pushes teams to look for platforms that can cover both discovery and runtime enforcement, not just one slice of the puzzle.

As you weigh these factors, working with an enterprise AI development company can help you integrate identity security into the custom agent workflows you’re building.

Understanding the baseline strengths of Astrix and Aembit clarifies why certain alternatives stand out, especially when you need to cover the full spectrum of agent identity security.

1. Ory: Composable, Execution-Point Enforcement That Also Secures API Keys and Issues Scoped Credentials

Ory is an API-first, composable IAM/CIAM platform with AI Agent Identity built for machine-scale agent and machine-to-machine systems. Where Astrix focuses on API key and OAuth token visibility and Aembit on short-lived credential issuance, Ory delivers both capabilities plus execution-point enforcement through a precise mix of core products.

Ory Hydra for web-scale authorization, Ory Talos for ephemeral token issuance, and Ory Keto for fine-grained access control.

  • API key and OAuth token security: Ory Hydra provides web-scale authorization with token introspection, revocation, and rotation, handling OAuth 2.0 and OAuth 2.1 flows. That’s the same authorization engine that powers OpenAI’s 1.2 billion weekly users (as of Sept. 2026), demonstrating its ability to lock down API keys and OAuth tokens across massive agent fleets.
  • Short-lived, scoped credentials at runtime: Ory Talos provides secure authentication and authorization for agents and sub-agents, recording the delegation chain before any tool runs.
  • Execution-point enforcement with Ory Agent Security: This is where Ory pulls ahead. Ory Agent Security applies Ory Keto policies at the exact moment an agent executes a tool call, checking shell commands, file writes, MCP tools, and API calls. You can secure AI agents in real time, ensuring no action bypasses the policy. It enforces policy where agents actually act, not just where credentials are issued.
  • Delegation-chain audit and observability: Before any tool runs, Ory records the delegation chain back to the user or upstream agent. Every action is exported through OpenTelemetry to a SIEM, giving you full visibility and observability across agent activities.
  • Composable, self-managed flexibility: All Ory products (Ory Hydra, Ory Keto, Ory Talos, and others) deploy self-managed, on-premises or in the cloud, via an Ory Enterprise License, and also as a fully managed SaaS platform through the Ory Network. This matches the EMA/Ory survey finding that 72.1% of organizations prefer self-managed LLM deployment, and those same organizations lean toward self-managed IAM.
  • Third-party recognition: Gartner Peer Insights lists Ory in the Access Management market (transitioning to Customer Identity and Access Management); OpenAI’s 1.2 billion weekly user scale by adopting Ory Enterprise License for Ory Hydra’s web-scale authorization.

Best for: Teams seeking a single platform that covers API key and OAuth token security like Astrix, issues short-lived scoped credentials like Aembit, and adds execution-point enforcement with full delegation-chain audit trails, all via a composable, API-first architecture.

Less ideal if: You want only credential lifecycle without runtime enforcement. Ory’s strength in execution-point policy and granular authorization (Ory Keto) is overkill if you only need token rotation or short-lived issuance.

Ory offers a comprehensive alternative by addressing both Astrix’s API key/OAuth security model (Ory Hydra) and Aembit’s short-lived credential model (Ory Talos) while layering runtime enforcement (Ory Keto) exactly where agents execute.

2. Oasis Security: Known for API Key and Token Discovery Across Infrastructure

Oasis Security positions its product as Agentic Access Management, meaning access control that understands intent. Its discovery-first approach maps every API key, service account, OAuth token, and permission across IaaS, SaaS, PaaS, and on-prem environments, directly comparable to Astrix’s discover-and-secure model for non-human credentials.

  • Continuous discovery of every API key, service account, OAuth token, and permission across cloud and on-prem environments.
  • Automated agent identity provisioning and policy enforcement across IaaS, SaaS, PaaS, and on-prem.
  • Intent-aware access control that evaluates what an agent is trying to do before granting access.

Best for: Organizations needing Astrix-like API key and token discovery but with intent-aware policy layered on top.

Less ideal if: You need short-lived credential issuance at runtime like Aembit, or policy enforcement at the exact moment of a tool call like Ory Agent Security. Oasis’s discovery-first model centers on visibility and intent-aware access decisions, not on those two capabilities.

Oasis is a strong alternative when visibility into existing API keys and tokens is the primary gap left by Astrix’s acquisition.

3. Token Security: Known for Continuous Token Discovery and Lifecycle Governance

Token Security positions itself as identity-first AI agent security with continuous discovery, end-to-end lifecycle governance, and identity threat detection. Its discovery engine surfaces API keys, service accounts, and OAuth tokens across environments, making it a direct alternative to Astrix’s token visibility layer.

  • Continuous discovery of AI agent identities, API keys, and tokens.
  • End-to-end AI agent identity lifecycle governance from provisioning to decommissioning.
  • Intent-based least-privilege enforcement.
  • Identity threat detection and response, plus a Token MCP Server for agent-native integration.

Best for: Teams needing ongoing token and credential discovery plus lifecycle governance, comparable to Astrix’s discover-and-secure workflow.

Less ideal if: You need short-lived credential issuance at runtime. Token Security’s lifecycle governance model is different from Aembit’s just-in-time credential approach.

Token Security fits when continuous credential discovery and lifecycle management are the core requirements, similar to what Astrix provided before the Cisco acquisition.

4. ConductorOne: Strong Unified Credential Governance Across Agents and Tokens

ConductorOne’s C1 Identity Platform governs workforce identity, non-human identities, and agents. It provides visibility into API keys, OAuth tokens, and service account credentials across SaaS, cloud, and on-prem systems, while also issuing policy-controlled access for agents at runtime, covering both Astrix-like and Aembit-like use cases.

  • Unified governance across people, non-human identities, and agents with visibility into API keys and tokens.
  • Policy-controlled access for agents to models, tools, and credentials at runtime.
  • Connects to SaaS, cloud, on-prem systems, and MCP servers.

Best for: Organizations consolidating workforce and machine identity governance into one platform that handles both credential discovery and runtime access control.

Less ideal if: ConductorOne governs access but does not explicitly mention enforcement at the exact moment of tool call like Ory Agent Security.

ConductorOne is a governance-first alternative that spans both the token visibility need and the runtime access control need.

5. Okta (Auth0 for AI Agents): Known for User-Delegated Agent Access to Third-Party APIs

Okta’s Auth0 for AI Agents extends its established identity platform to agent workflows, focusing on how agents authenticate users and call third-party APIs on their behalf. It covers the OAuth token side of Astrix’s model through managed token handling rather than discovery.

  • Token Vault to store and exchange OAuth tokens for third-party APIs, so agents don’t handle long-lived user credentials directly.
  • Asynchronous authorization that pauses sensitive agent actions until a human approves them.
  • Fine-grained authorization to control which tools and data an agent can reach.

Best for: Teams already on Okta or Auth0 that need user-delegated agent access and managed OAuth tokens within an existing workforce or customer identity stack.

Less ideal if: You need to discover unmanaged API keys and service accounts across infrastructure like Astrix, or enforce policy at the exact moment of a tool call like Ory Agent Security.

Okta is a practical alternative when the priority is governing the OAuth tokens agents use on behalf of users, inside an identity platform you already run.

6. HashiCorp Vault: Known for Dynamic, Short-Lived Secrets Across Workloads

HashiCorp Vault is a mature secrets management platform that replaces static credentials with dynamically generated, time-limited ones. It isn’t agent-specific, but its lease and revocation model maps directly to Aembit’s short-lived credential approach, and many platform teams already run it.

  • Dynamic secrets generated on demand, with leases and automatic revocation.
  • Centralized storage and rotation for API keys and other static secrets.
  • Self-managed or managed deployment, with integration into existing workload identity systems.

Best for: Platform and security teams that already operate Vault and want to extend short-lived credential issuance to AI agent workloads.

Less ideal if: You need agent-aware delegation-chain tracking, discovery of unmanaged tokens like Astrix, or tool-call-level policy enforcement like Ory Agent Security. Vault secures the credential, not the agent’s actions.

Vault is a solid choice when short-lived credentials are the main gap and you prefer to build on infrastructure you already trust.

Caveats and Counterpoints

No single platform fits every AI agent identity use case.

The market data shows tension between all-in-one preference and reality: 52.8% prefer an all-in-one platform, but only 24% have achieved it. Cost and reliability remain top concerns: rising or unpredictable costs were cited by over 56% of medium organizations and 45.2% of large organizations, while 41% overall cited security or reliability concerns with current IAM providers.

Financial services numbers add nuance. 83% of large and 70% of medium-sized organizations have already deployed AI agents in production, and 79% of those deployed have no documented policies, according to 2026 EMA/Ory financial-services paper. In that sector, 67.6% prefer an all-in-one SaaS platform versus 50.4% in other sectors, while 35.1% cite limited ability to customize or extend their IAM. A composable approach, as highlighted in that financial-services paper, directly addresses that limitation.

The Astrix acquisition timeline and integration roadmap remain uncertain, so weigh that against your timeline.

Final Verdict

Ory earns the top spot because it addresses both capabilities that define the Astrix-Aembit baseline: API key and OAuth token security at scale, all unified under Ory Agent Security. With infrastructure managing almost 3.3 billion identities and adoption by OpenAI at web scale, Ory proves it can handle token visibility, runtime credential issuance, and deep policy enforcement in a single composable platform.

Oasis Security and Token Security are strong picks for API key and token discovery; and ConductorOne spans governance breadth.

Evaluate each platform against both API key/OAuth token security and runtime credential issuance capabilities before deciding.