design system

Brand

The permission layer between agents and action.

BehalfID is permission infrastructure. The brand reflects what the product does: define a boundary, verify each action against it, and log the decision. Restraint over decoration. One accent color. No metaphors that hide what is happening.

Mission

Give every agent a verifiable passport so its action is checked before it runs — not after.

Principles

01

Fail closed.

If the answer isn't yes, the action doesn't run. The brand reflects this: no soft suggestions, no marketing maybes.

02

Show the boundary.

Every layout makes the decision moment visible. Where possible, render the verify call, the decision, and the audit event.

03

One color is enough.

Indigo for the brand, status colors only when a decision must be read. Everything else is grayscale.

04

Truth, not theater.

Don't draw confidence we haven't shipped. Site Guard says "preview" because it's a preview. Action Gateway says "MVP" because it is one.

05

Developer-readable.

Pages, ads, and the console all sit comfortably next to the SDK call. JSON, code, and prose share the same monospace and cadence.

06

Structural, not skeuomorphic.

Hairlines and grids do the work that gradients and shadows would do elsewhere. Borders are 1px. Type does the heavy lifting.

Logo

The logo is the wordmark “BehalfID” with ID in indigo. The mark is a square monogram derived from two rounded bars — neutral and accent — read as identity (II).

BehalfID
Primary lockupon --bg #000000
BehalfID
Panel surfaceon --panel #0a0a0a
BehalfID
Light surfaceon warm white
BehalfID
Inverse on accent--accent #6366F1

Voice

Plain. Technical. Active. Address the developer in second person; describe the system in third person. Never personify the agent — it acts on behalf of someone, it doesn't decide.

Tone
Use"Verify every action before it runs."
Avoid"Empower your agents with frictionless trust."
Status
Use"Denied. No active purchase permission."
Avoid"Oops! Something went wrong with this request."
Scope
Use"Site Guard preview — design pattern, not a CDN."
Avoid"Site Guard, the world's first AI gateway."
Errors
Use"Action blocked by BehalfID: amount exceeds limit."
Avoid"403 forbidden"
Marketing
Use"Add a decision point before the agent acts."
Avoid"Trust the future. We've got this."

Glossary — say it the same way every time

These are product nouns. Don't substitute synonyms. The console says “permission,” the docs say “permission,” the marketing site says “permission.”

passport

The set of permissions attached to one agent. Plural is OK ("passport links"). Never "credentials."

permission

One rule. Has action, resource/vendor, optional amount, optional expiry. Never "policy" or "scope."

verify

The act of asking BehalfID whether a specific action is allowed. Never "authorize" — authorization is what calling code does after.

decision

The result of verify: allowed, denied, or needs_approval. Never "response" in user-facing copy.

fail closed

If verify fails or returns not-allowed, the action does not run. Default behavior.

native agent / connected agent

Native = identity created in BehalfID. Connected = manual record of an external agent (Ollie, ChatGPT, Claude, Zapier). Provider fields are metadata, not authentication.

Action Gateway

The execution path BehalfID controls end-to-end. MVP: safe public web reads.

Site Guard

The website-owner pattern for enforcing AI access at middleware/proxy/worker boundaries. Currently a preview, not a CDN.

What we don't do

No emoji in product chrome.

Status is conveyed by border color, label, and decision text. No traffic lights, no checkmarks. Marketing pages may use ▪ as a list bullet — and that's it.

No gradient backgrounds on cards.

One subtle radial behind the hero is fine. Cards stay flat. Gradient noise reads as marketing fluff and undermines the 'this is infrastructure' pitch.

No personification of agents.

Agents don't think, want, or trust. They request actions. Permissions allow or deny those actions. Keep grammar in that frame.

No claims we haven't shipped.

"Preview," "planned," and "MVP" are honest words. They appear in marketing because they appear in the product.