Academy
What is a shadow agent?
Glossary · AI agent and machine identity security
Short answer
A shadow agent is an AI agent that runs in your environment without an owner or approval on record.
Why it matters
You cannot review the reach of an agent you do not know about. Unowned agents also have nobody to ask when something looks wrong.
What it looks like
A team connects an assistant to the code repository with a personal token. It works, so nobody tells security.
In nerl0
nerl0 shows agents with no owner, so the first question in a new workspace can be which agents nobody owns. See Agent.