Learn / Protocols and standards
Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol for merchants
The Trusted Agent Protocol is a Visa specification, announced on 14 October 2025 and developed with Cloudflare, that lets an AI agent prove to a store’s website that it is a known agent rather than an anonymous bot. It is built on HTTP Message Signatures and aligned with Web Bot Auth: the agent signs each request, and the merchant or its CDN checks the signature. It can also say whether the shopper already has an account with the store, and carry optional payment details.
Visa announced the Trusted Agent Protocol on 14 October 2025, saying it developed the protocol with Cloudflare and refined it with feedback from early partners it named as Adyen, Ant International, Checkout.com, Coinbase, CyberSource, Elavon, Fiserv, Microsoft, Nuvei, Shopify, Stripe and Worldpay.
The problem it addresses is one every store owner already has. Bot protection exists to stop automated traffic, and a shopping agent is automated traffic. Without a way to tell a known agent from a scraper, a store either blocks both or admits both. See bot wall.
How it works
The agent signs its requests to your site. Visa’s announcement says the protocol is built on the HTTP Message Signature standard and aligned with Web Bot Auth, and Cloudflare’s write up describes the mechanics: the agent’s public key is published in a directory, the request names that key, and the signature is time bound and carries a nonce so it cannot be replayed. Cloudflare said Visa and Mastercard would each host their own key directory at first.
Visa’s developer page adds that signatures are tied to a specific merchant and purpose, so a request signed to browse one store cannot be relayed to another. The definition of the underlying standard is in Web Bot Auth.
What it carries
Visa’s announcement lists three kinds of information an agent can pass to a merchant:
- Agent intent. That the agent is trusted, and whether it means to look at a product or buy it.
- Consumer recognition. Whether the shopper already has an account with you or has bought from you before.
- Payment information. Optional, to support whichever checkout method the merchant prefers.
The second is the commercially interesting one. A merchant that can recognise a returning customer arriving through an agent can apply the same treatment it gives that customer directly, which a scraper never earns.
What a merchant does about it
- Ask your CDN or bot protection provider whether it verifies Trusted Agent Protocol or Web Bot Auth signatures, and what happens to a request that passes. Cloudflare’s October 2025 post described managed rules to allow agents registered with Visa or Mastercard as planned, so check what is live rather than assuming.
- Do not lower your protection in the meantime. The point of a signature is to make admission narrow. See how to let honest agents through bot protection.
- If you use Cloudflare, read your current bot settings before changing anything. See Cloudflare settings for AI shopping agents.
- If you build your own verification, start from Visa’s specification and sample code on its developer site and its GitHub repository, visa/trusted-agent-protocol, which Visa says is subject to its product terms.
Where it fits
The protocol is the front door half of Visa’s agent payments programme. The payment half is covered in Visa Intelligent Commerce for merchants, and Mastercard’s equivalent, which uses the same Web Bot Auth foundation, is in Mastercard Agent Pay for merchants. For the standard both rest on, see Web Bot Auth for store owners.
Questions
Do I have to change my website?
Visa says not much: its announcement describes minimal changes to merchant websites and checkout pages. In practice the verification belongs at your CDN or bot protection layer, so the useful step is asking that provider whether it checks these signatures and what it does with a request that passes.
Is this the same as Web Bot Auth?
It is built on the same foundation. Cloudflare describes both Visa’s protocol and Mastercard Agent Pay as using Web Bot Auth as their agent authentication layer. What Visa adds is the commerce context carried with the signature: what the agent intends to do, whether the shopper is known to you, and optional payment information.
Can I rely on it today?
Treat it as arriving rather than arrived. As of 13 October 2026 Visa’s developer page says the product is in the process of development and deployment and may not be available in all markets. Keep your existing bot protection and add verified agents as a narrow exception when your provider supports it.
Does it replace my bot protection?
No. It gives your bot protection a better question to ask. A signed request from a registered agent can be admitted narrowly while every other rule still applies to everything else.