What is Agent Key Rotation?
The practice of periodically replacing an AI agent's cryptographic keys to limit the damage from potential key compromise. New keys are issued while old ones are revoked.
WHY IT MATTERS
In security, key rotation is fundamental — the longer a key exists, the more opportunity for compromise. For AI agents with financial authority, regular key rotation limits the window of exposure.
Key rotation for agents involves: generating new keypairs, transferring spending policies to the new key, revoking the old key, and updating any counterparties or contracts that reference the agent's address.
Smart accounts make rotation easier — you can change signing keys without changing the account address. EOAs are harder because the address is derived from the key.
HOW POLICYLAYER USES THIS
PolicyLayer maintains policy continuity during key rotations — spending rules transfer seamlessly to new keys while the rotation event is logged for audit.