Alter vs Aembit for AI agents
Aembit is identity and access management for non-human workloads. Instead of handing a service an API key, it attests the workload from its runtime — a Kubernetes service account, an IAM role, a GitHub Actions OIDC token — checks an access policy, and has a credential minted or retrieved just in time. It covers CI/CD jobs, Lambda functions and backend services as well as AI agents.
For agents, Aembit adds blended identity, which evaluates the agent and the human operating it together, and two MCP deployment shapes: an Authorization Server that issues the agent a short-lived token, and an MCP Identity Gateway that proxies MCP traffic so the agent holds no credential at all. The gateway can also allow or block individual MCP tools by name.
Alter is built around a narrower moment: an agent calling a third-party API such as Gmail, HubSpot or Stripe on a particular end user's behalf. Alter holds that user's OAuth grant or API key, evaluates each request against default-deny rules down to its parameters, can park a specific call until a named approver signs off, lets the end user revoke the grant from a wallet, and writes an audit row for every call it handles.
Alter and Aembit, capability by capability
Every mark that is not a plain yes carries the sentence that explains it and a link to Aembit's own documentation.
| Capability | Alter | Aembit |
|---|---|---|
| Credentials | ||
| Injects the credential into the outbound call | ||
| The agent never holds the third-party token | Partial Calls routed through the proxy, and every call from a proxy-only key, never expose the token. A key granted the token-retrieval scope can fetch it, so issue agents proxy-only keys. | Partial Behind Aembit Edge or the MCP Identity Gateway the agent never sees a credential. In the MCP Authorization Server deployment, the agent itself receives a short-lived token (one hour by default) and presents it to the MCP server. Source (opens in a new tab) |
| Providers supported out of the box | 137 | About 35 guides The Server Workload guides page walks through roughly 35 targets across AI, CI/CD, data, databases, finance and security tools, and the MCP Identity Gateway lists 16 supported MCP servers. A guide is a setup walkthrough rather than a closed list, so this is an approximate size, not a hard limit. Source (opens in a new tab) |
| Policy | ||
| Policy evaluated per outbound call, down to the parameter | Partial Access policies decide whether a client workload may reach a server workload, and the gateway's MCP Tool Access Control matches tool names, with CrowdStrike AIDR as an optional content inspector. The pages read describe no rule on the HTTP path or argument values of an individual API call. Source (opens in a new tab) | |
| Default deny: an unlisted endpoint is refused | Partial If no access policy matches both the client and server workload, Aembit denies the request — a real default-deny at the service level. The pages read describe no refusal of one endpoint within a service the policy already permits. Source (opens in a new tab) | |
| Control | ||
| A named human approves a specific pending call before it runs | Not described Content Security returns allow or block, and a user may complete OAuth consent the first time they reach an MCP server. The product pages read describe no step where a named person reviews one pending call and releases it. Source (opens in a new tab) | |
| Each agent is a distinct principal with its own keys | ||
| Revoking one agent cuts its access without rotating others | Partial Aembit says a single user's agent access can be withdrawn without touching other users or rotating shared credentials, and the gateway checks policy on every request. A token already issued in the Authorization Server mode stays usable until it expires, and the pages read describe no way to revoke it early. Source (opens in a new tab) | |
| Evidence | ||
| An audit row for every credential-touching request | Partial Every MCP request through the gateway is logged with agent, user, target server and policy decision, and events stream to a SIEM. In the Authorization Server mode the agent carries its own token past the gateway, and the pages read do not show those later calls being recorded one by one. Source (opens in a new tab) | |
| End users can see and revoke what an agent may do for them | — With per-user MCP tokens, each person completes an OAuth consent once and Aembit then stores and refreshes their token. The pages read describe no view where that person can later list or withdraw what an agent may do for them. Source (opens in a new tab) | |
Comparison accurate as of September 23, 2026, based onAembit's public documentation. Products change: if something here is out of date, tell us athello@alterauth.com and we will correct it.
- Aembit: IAM for Agentic AI (opens in a new tab) — read September 23, 2026
- Aembit Docs: Securing AI agent access to your resources (opens in a new tab) — read September 23, 2026
- Aembit Docs: About Aembit Edge (opens in a new tab) — read September 23, 2026
- Aembit Docs: About Access Policies (opens in a new tab) — read September 23, 2026
- Aembit Docs: About Access Conditions (opens in a new tab) — read September 23, 2026
- Aembit Docs: Content Security in the MCP Identity Gateway (opens in a new tab) — read September 23, 2026
- Aembit Docs: MCP Identity Gateway (opens in a new tab) — read September 23, 2026
- Aembit Docs: Server Workload guides (opens in a new tab) — read September 23, 2026
- Aembit Docs: About Credential Providers (opens in a new tab) — read September 23, 2026
- Aembit Docs: Understanding Blended Identities (opens in a new tab) — read September 23, 2026
- Aembit Docs: About Client Workloads (opens in a new tab) — read September 23, 2026
- Aembit Docs: Set up the MCP Identity Gateway (opens in a new tab) — read September 23, 2026
- Aembit: IAM for Workloads (opens in a new tab) — read September 23, 2026
Aembit is a trademark of Aembit, Inc.. Alter is not affiliated with or endorsed by Aembit, Inc..
Workload identity vs. per-call policy
An Aembit access policy pairs a client workload with a server workload, names a trust provider that attests the client, adds access conditions such as posture or GeoIP, and picks the credential provider that mints the secret. Once that pairing is authorised, Aembit Edge injects the credential and the request proceeds; the policy has already answered its question. Alter's rule is evaluated per request against <strong>the method, path and parameters</strong> of the outbound call, so two requests from the same agent to the same API can get different answers — one sent straight through, one refused, one held for an approver who sees a redacted summary of it.
- Aembit: may this attested workload reach that service, under these conditions?
- Alter: may this agent make this exact request on this user's grant, now?
- Aembit: MCP tools allowed or blocked by name at the gateway.
- Alter: a matching call can be paused until a named approver releases it.
Organisation credentials and end users' grants
Most of Aembit's credential providers are the organisation's own: OAuth client credentials, stored API keys, and cloud federation to AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. Per-user OAuth exists for MCP servers behind the gateway, where each user consents once and Aembit refreshes the token. Alter starts from the other end. Its core object is a grant a specific end user connected, and that user can open the wallet, see which agents hold it, and revoke it without asking the operator. If the risk you are managing is a pipeline's cloud keys, that is Aembit's problem to solve; if it is an agent acting inside a customer's own Google or Salesforce account, it is the one Alter was built for.
When Aembit is the better choice
A comparison that never reaches this section is a brochure.
Secretless access for every workload
Aembit attests workloads from where they run — Kubernetes, ECS, Lambda, GitHub Actions, GitLab, Jenkins, Azure, Google Cloud — and federates short-lived credentials to clouds, databases and SaaS, so pipelines and services lose their stored keys too. Alter only governs agents' calls to third-party APIs and identifies an agent by the key it presents, not by its runtime environment.
Posture-aware conditional access
Access conditions can require a healthy CrowdStrike endpoint or a Wiz-verified cloud posture, a time window, or a GeoIP country before a credential is issued. Alter's rules can pin source IPs and time windows, but it reads no posture signal from an EDR or CSPM tool.
Enforcement inside your network
Aembit Edge runs in your own compute, and the MCP Identity Gateway can be self-hosted on a Linux host you control, which keeps the data plane within your boundary. Alter can also be deployed on-premises, but as one central service; Aembit places its enforcement point beside each workload.
Questions people ask
Is Alter a replacement for Aembit?
Not across the board. Aembit removes stored secrets from services, CI/CD jobs and cloud workloads, and Alter has no answer for those. Where the two overlap is an agent calling a third-party API: Alter adds parameter-level rules, approval holds and end-user revocation on those calls, and the two can sit side by side.
Can I self-host Alter?
Yes. Alter runs in its managed cloud or on-premises in your environment. Aembit likewise keeps its data plane on your side: Aembit Edge runs in your compute and the MCP Identity Gateway can be self-hosted.
Aembit's gateway can block MCP tools. How is that different from Alter's rules?
The gateway's tool access control matches the tool's name, and CrowdStrike AIDR can inspect MCP content for threats. Alter rules match the API request itself — endpoint, method and parameter values — so an agent can be allowed to read a mailbox but not send from it, or to send email only to recipients inside the company's own domain, and anything unlisted is refused.
Does Alter support posture-based conditional access?
No. Alter rules can restrict a call to an IP allowlist or a time window, but Alter does not read device or cloud posture from tools like CrowdStrike or Wiz. Aembit's access conditions do, and that is a genuine difference in its favour.
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