Yes. Give agent permissions and approvals an end date, and renew them on purpose, with evidence and a named person deciding. Standing access that nobody revisits grows quietly, and agents are easy to forget because they have no manager, no desk and no leaving date.
What can expire
Two things should carry timers, and they work differently.
A permission grant is access an agent holds: a role, a token scope, a tool in its allowlist. An approval is a one off decision to let a specific action proceed. Grants need review dates. Approvals need to be consumed or expire quickly, so that a yes given for one deletion cannot be reused for another.
Why one off approvals must be narrow
OWASP's guidance on excessive agency asks for human approval of high impact actions. An approval that applies to a class of actions for a week is far weaker than one tied to a single action. Tie each approval to the exact tool, target and parameters the person saw, and let it lapse after use or after a short window.
Suggested review windows
These are starting points to adapt, not rules from a standard.
| Agent scope | Grant review | Renewal needs |
|---|---|---|
| Read only on non sensitive data | Longer, such as every six months | Sponsor confirms still in use |
| Read on sensitive data | Shorter, such as quarterly | Sponsor and data owner |
| Write access to internal systems | Shorter again | Sponsor, owner, usage review |
| Production write, deletion or spend | Shortest, with single action approvals | Security review as well |
| Pilot or experiment | Fixed end date, such as thirty days | Explicit promotion decision |
How to make renewal meaningful
Renewal fails when it is a button that says continue. Make it a decision with evidence.
- Show the sponsor what the agent actually did in the period: tools called, targets, failures and blocked attempts.
- Show permissions that were granted but never used. Unused access is the easiest thing to remove.
- Ask one question: what breaks if we let this expire? If the answer is nothing, let it expire.
- Require a reason in writing for each renewal.
- Default to expiry. If nobody responds, access ends and the agent stops.
Handle the failure case
Expiry will break a working agent at some point. Plan for it: send reminders to the sponsor well ahead, make renewal quick for healthy agents, and give a short grace path with extra logging rather than an instant shutdown for low risk agents. For high risk agents, accept the interruption. That is the point.
Link it to offboarding
When a sponsor changes role, treat it as a trigger to reassign or expire the agent's grants. An agent with no accountable human should not keep access.
Safeguard's policies and guardrails and agent identity features support scoping and review of what agents can reach. You can also run a free scan at https://gold.safeguard.sh/scan.
Quick check
Does a long running agent need an expiry too?
Yes. Long running agents are exactly the ones whose access drifts. Review them on a schedule.
Should a one off approval be reusable?
No. Tie it to the specific action and let it lapse after use or a short window.
Sources
Last reviewed: 19 October 2026.
