C1 is an AI-native identity security platform that governs access for human users, non-human identities (NHIs) and AI agents. Headquartered in San Francisco and led by co-founder and CEO Alex Bovee, the company describes C1 as the control plane for the agentic enterprise: a single system for seeing, granting, enforcing and reviewing access across applications, infrastructure, AI tools and MCP connections. Built on identity governance foundations such as access requests, access reviews and automated provisioning, C1 added AI access management, an agentic vault, runtime governance for agent tool calls and identity risk remediation during 2026. This overview explains how the platform works and what it covers, based on C1’s public product information and announcements.
At A Glance
| Vendor | C1, San Francisco |
|---|---|
| Category | Identity governance, just-in-time access, NHI security, AI agent access management |
| Identities covered | Employees, contractors, service accounts, workloads, integrations, AI tools, personal AI assistants and enterprise AI agents |
| Deployment | SaaS, with a headless, API-first identity infrastructure layer |
| Agentic AI | AI Access Management, Agentic Vault, agent runtime governance through an identity-aware AI gateway, shadow AI discovery, C1 Autonomous Worker |
| Customers | Ramp, Zscaler, Instacart and Brex, among others |
What The Platform Does
Identity Governance
C1’s core governance capabilities cover the full access lifecycle:
| Access requests | Users request access through Slack, the C1 web app or other channels, with approvals routed by policy |
|---|---|
| Just-in-time access | Time-bound grants that expire automatically, reducing standing privileges |
| Access reviews | Automated user access reviews and certifications for compliance programmes |
| Provisioning and deprovisioning | Automated changes to accounts and entitlements in connected applications |
| Policy-based auto-approval | Low-risk requests can be approved automatically, while sensitive ones go to a human approver |
Connectors
C1 connects to applications and infrastructure through a large library of connectors, so that access can be discovered and changed directly in each system. The platform is designed to connect to SaaS applications, cloud platforms, internal systems and API services, and now MCP servers.
Headless Identity Infrastructure
Launched in May 2026, C1 Headless Identity Infrastructure is a single programmable layer that exposes C1’s identity data, policy and workflows through APIs. It allows organisations and agents to build on C1 governance without relying only on the C1 interface.
AI Access Management
AI Access Management, announced in March 2026, extends identity governance to AI tools, personal assistants and enterprise agents. Its main capabilities include:
| Self-service AI tool provisioning | Employees request access to AI tools and are provisioned within seconds, either through policy-based auto-approval or a routed human approval |
|---|---|
| Agent identity management | AI agents are treated as first-class identities with their own credentials, policies, lifecycle states and owners, covering both personal assistants and standalone enterprise agents |
| MCP connection governance | Visibility and policy over the MCP connections that AI tools and agents use to reach enterprise systems |
C1 positions this as making the governed path to AI adoption faster than the ungoverned path.
The Agentic Control Plane
In late July 2026, C1 released four capabilities that together form what it calls the Agentic Control Plane.
Shadow AI Discovery
C1 discovers unsanctioned AI agents, copilots and connected tools operating in the environment, so that they can be inventoried and assigned to a business owner and a control owner.
Agentic Vault
Agentic Vault stores secrets and credentials for agents and gives each agent short-lived, scoped credentials instead of the underlying keys. Agents receive only what a specific task needs, for only as long as they need it.
Agent Runtime Governance
Every call an agent makes is routed through C1’s identity-aware AI gateway. Each agent is scoped to the tools its job requires, and tool calls are evaluated against policy at runtime. C1 also audits agent activity to check that access policies match each agent’s business intent.
Agentic Security And Intelligence
Agentic security and intelligence builds a complete identity inventory and detects risky conditions across people, service accounts, other NHIs and AI agents, such as unowned service accounts, stale access and agents nobody owns. Each finding is turned into a remediation, which is routed through C1 governance workflows or the tools the security team already uses, and every fix is governed and auditable.
C1 Autonomous Worker
C1 Autonomous Worker (C1AW), launched in June 2026, is an AI agent built specifically for identity governance work. Security teams can assign it tasks such as compliance scanning and access management. C1AW connects to the C1 control plane and works within the same guardrails and policies as the rest of the platform, drawing context through C1’s APIs and MCP servers. Every action it takes is attributed in the C1 audit trail and can be reviewed like any other access event. C1AW is available to all C1 customers and is enabled by default when the C1 Slack app is installed.
How The Architecture Works
| Component | What it does |
|---|---|
| Control plane | C1 runs as SaaS and holds identity data, access policy, workflows and the audit trail for human, non-human and agent identities in one system. |
| Connector layer | Connectors read and write access in each target system, enabling discovery, provisioning, revocation and reviews. |
| AI gateway | For AI agents, an identity-aware gateway sits in the path of agent tool calls, applying per-agent tool scopes and runtime policy. |
| Vault | Agentic Vault holds underlying secrets and issues scoped, short-lived credentials to agents. |
| Programmable access | Headless Identity Infrastructure and MCP servers expose C1 capabilities to other systems and agents, including C1’s own Autonomous Worker. |
Integrations
| Area | Documented coverage |
|---|---|
| Collaboration | Slack for access requests, approvals and C1 Autonomous Worker |
| Applications and infrastructure | SaaS applications, cloud platforms, internal systems and API services through C1 connectors |
| AI tools and agents | AI tools, personal assistants, enterprise agents and agents from platforms such as Salesforce and ServiceNow, plus coding agents |
| MCP | Governance of MCP connections and MCP servers |
Use Cases And Industries
C1 publishes use cases for automating access reviews and compliance, just-in-time access to reduce standing privileges, self-service access requests, governing NHIs such as service accounts and workloads, controlled rollout of AI tools to employees, discovering shadow AI, securing agent credentials and governing agent tool calls at runtime. Its customers are concentrated among technology and fast-growing digital businesses, including Ramp, Zscaler, Instacart and Brex.