Okta Agent SSO becomes generally available

What shipped?

Okta Agent SSO became generally available. It is built on Cross App Access, a protocol that lets the identity provider broker connections between apps. Okta includes it in core Okta SSO at no extra cost.

Cross App Access became the MCP Enterprise-Managed Authorization extension. Anthropic, Microsoft and Okta have adopted it.

How does it work?

A person signs in to Okta as usual. When their agent needs to reach another app, Okta issues an ID-JAG for that app. The app's authorization server exchanges it for an access token.

Admins approve which app pairs may connect, centrally. No user sees a consent screen for each pairing. If an admin revokes the pairing, every agent loses that path at once.

Why does it matter?

Before Cross App Access, each agent connection needed user consent. That did not scale. It also left security teams unable to see which agents could reach which apps.

Agent SSO moves that decision to the identity provider. For companies that run Okta, it is the right home for the question "may this agent reach this app?"

What does it not do?

Agent SSO controls the connection. It does not check each action the agent takes once connected. An agent that can reach the CRM can still delete records, unless something else stops it.

Okta for AI Agents, generally available since 29 April 2026, listed Agent Gateway and human-in-the-loop controls as coming after general availability. Until those ship, per-call checks and approvals need another layer.

An agent identity layer runs alongside your identity provider, never instead of it. Agent SSO and an agent identity layer complement each other.

Which scored platforms name Cross App Access?

Aembit names XAA and ID-JAG. Descope shipped Cross App Access support on 1 September 2026. Its ID-JAG tokens preserve the link between agent, user and tenant.

NewCore, Silverfort and the others did not name Cross App Access in the public material we read. See the Enterprise-Managed Authorization tracker.

What should Okta customers do?

Turn on Agent SSO for a few app pairs. It costs nothing extra and gives central control of agent connections.

Then look at what remains: discovery of agents outside Okta, per-call checks and approval for risky actions. Our keep Okta ranking weighs runtime control highest for that reason.

Read our page on what Okta for AI Agents covers and the guide to running an agent identity layer alongside Okta or Entra.

Our read

This is a good release. Including it in core SSO removes the cost barrier. Building on an open standard means other vendors can interoperate.

The open question is timing for Okta's gateway and approval controls. Until they ship, Okta customers who need those controls will look elsewhere for them.