Definitions · N · Identity & NHIM
Non-Human Identity (NHI)
A Non-Human Identity (NHI) is a machine identity used by software agents, services, and automation — not a human user account. NHIs need runtime enforcement because static entitlements do not observe what agents actually do in production.
Non-human identities are machine principals — service accounts, agent workloads, API clients, and automation roles — distinct from human user accounts in IdP systems.
Why NHIs matter for AI
Autonomous agents act continuously with tool access. Static role assignment at login does not capture runtime behavior, prompt injection, or privilege escalation during multi-step workflows.
Blekline positioning
Blekline governs NHIs at Layer 4 — the execution boundary between agents and downstream tools/APIs. See NHIM and the Runtime Simulator.
Related terms
Used in
- Quick Start
- Choose your path
- CI gate
- Eval journey
- NHIM audit quickstart
- MCP self-serve eval
- Runtime enforcement
- NHIM overview
- Egress governance
- Architecture
- Mask backends
- Enclave AKS
- Enterprise in-VPC
- Docker sidecar
- CI NHIM gate
- Compliance evidence
- Kubernetes deployment
- Reference architecture
- Shadow MCP detection
- NHIM Audit CLI
- Trust Vault sidecar
- Lineage enforcement
- NHIM verification
- Multi-region Ingress
- Microsoft Sentinel
- Benchmarks
- Trust Boundaries
- Coverage & residuals
- Threat Model
- Runtime Simulator
- Procurement Pack
- Implementation checklist