Workload Identity in Multi System Environments (WIMSE)

WIMSE is an active IETF working group in the Applications and Real-Time area, standardizing how a workload — a running process, container, function or AI agent — gets an identity, proves it, and carries it across trust boundaries at runtime. It produces an architecture document plus a stack of Proposed Standards covering the workload identifier, workload credentials, mutual TLS authentication, Workload Proof Tokens, and workload-to-workload authentication over HTTP Message Signatures. Its charter is deliberately narrow — runtime identity only, explicitly excluding personal identity, static software identity, deployment chains and supply-chain management.