AgentValet vs Permit.io
Both say authorisation and both say policy, and Permit.io now has products for AI agents too. They still start from different places. Permit.io starts from permissions inside the software you build. AgentValet starts from the key an agent would otherwise hold.
Two approaches, in plain words
What Permit.io is
Permit.io is authorisation as a service. You model roles, attributes and relationships (RBAC, ABAC and ReBAC), write policy in a no-code editor or as code on OPA and Cedar, and your application asks for a decision at each point that matters. Decisions can run in a local decision point inside your own network.
For agents, Permit.io offers an MCP gateway. It sits between MCP clients and MCP servers, holds the upstream OAuth tokens so they aren’t passed to the client, checks each tool call against the trust level a person granted, and logs every allow or deny against the agent and the human.
What AgentValet is
AgentValet is a credential broker for AI agents. The agent never holds the platform key; it asks the broker, which checks the grant and your rules on the real call, holds it for your approval when a rule says so, and attaches the credential only then.
It covers SaaS APIs such as Slack, GitHub and Stripe as well as MCP servers. It doesn’t authorise your users inside your product.
The question that separates them
Is the decision a check your code chooses to make, or the only route to the platform?
Permit.io’s core product is a decision your application asks for. Done well, that’s a clean way to get fine-grained permissions out of business logic. But a code path that never asks gets no answer, and an agent holding its own API key doesn’t need to ask.
Permit’s MCP gateway closes that gap for MCP traffic, because it holds the upstream tokens. AgentValet closes it for every platform the agent touches, and adds a pause for a person on the individual call.
- Your application or agent
- Permit.io check
- Your code acts with keys it holds (the key sits with the agent)
- Real platform
Strong inside software you wrote, where you control every path. A path that skips the check, or a key used directly, is never seen.
- Your agent
- Broker checks identity, grant and approval
- Credential attached in memory
- SaaS API or MCP server
The agent holds no platform key, so there’s no path around the decision.
What each one actually does
One line per cell. Open the detail underneath for the longer version.
| AgentValet | Permit.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | AI agents calling outside platforms: SaaS APIs, MCP servers and your own services. | Applications authorising their users and resources, with an MCP gateway for agents. |
| Where it enforces | On the platform call, where the broker attaches the credential. | Where your code asks for a decision, or at its gateway for MCP tool calls. |
| Holds the credentials | Yes, for every connected platform. | Its MCP gateway holds upstream OAuth tokens; the core product leaves keys wherever your app keeps them. |
| In-app user permissions | Not a feature. | The core product, with a policy editor, SDKs and policy as code. |
| Non-MCP platforms | Yes: SaaS APIs and MCP servers go through the same broker. | Its gateway works with MCP servers; other APIs rely on your code asking for a decision. |
| Human approval on a risky action | The call pauses at the broker until you approve it. | A person sets a trust level when they connect; we found no per-call hold in its gateway docs. |
| Audit trail | Append-only, with a signed receipt on every decision. | Audit logs and decision traces for every check. |
| Revocation | Revoke an agent and its next call fails closed. | Change the policy or trust level; keys held outside the gateway still need rotating. |
The detail behind 3 of these rows
- In-app user permissions
Permit.io: RBAC, ABAC and ReBAC, built on OPA and Cedar, with Terraform and GitOps workflows and an optional local decision point in your own network.
- Human approval on a risky action
AgentValet: Approve with a passkey or email link on every plan, with push notifications on Team and above. The approved call then runs.
Permit.io: Permit’s consent service lets a person choose a trust level (read, write or destructive) up to the admin’s maximum when an MCP client first connects. Its embedded elements include approval flows you can build into your own app.
- Audit trail
AgentValet: Receipts are signed ES256 and can be verified against a published key set without access to our database.
Where Permit.io genuinely wins
If you’re building permissions for the people using your product, use a purpose-built authorisation layer, and Permit.io is a strong one. AgentValet won’t model your org chart, your resource hierarchy or your customers’ sharing rules, and isn’t trying to.
Policy as code on open engines, a local decision point for low latency, and one policy model shared by your users and your MCP agents are real advantages if that’s the shape of your problem.
Where AgentValet wins
If your agents act on outside platforms, the question is who holds the key. AgentValet holds it for every connected platform, not only MCP servers, so the decision is the only route and not advice your code opted into.
A risky call waits for a person, one agent at a time, and every decision leaves a signed receipt. Setup is one command, not a policy model.
Plenty of teams will run both: a policy engine deciding what users may do inside the app, and a broker deciding what agents may execute outside it. They meet in the middle without overlapping.
Which one fits
Choose Permit.io if
- You’re building permissions for your own product’s users.
- You want policy as code on OPA or Cedar.
- Your agents only reach MCP servers and a connect-time trust level is enough.
Choose AgentValet if
- Your agents call SaaS APIs such as Slack, GitHub or Stripe, not only MCP servers.
- You want to approve individual risky calls before they run.
- You want setup in minutes, without writing a policy model.
Run both if
- Your product has its own users and permissions, and your team also runs agents against outside platforms.
Checked against permit.io and the Permit MCP Gateway documentation on 24 September 2026. If something has changed, report a correction and we’ll fix the page.
If your problem is agents, start here.
Register one agent on the free plan, grant it one scope, and watch a denied call fail closed with an audit row to show for it. It takes minutes, and there’s no card.
npx @agentvalet/register