When an AI coding agent is granted a permanent API token that never expires, the organization loses any real control over when the agent can touch production databases or internal services. A single compromised secret can let the agent run arbitrary queries, exfiltrate data, or corrupt critical workloads, and the breach often goes unnoticed because there is no record of what the agent did.
Just-in-time access limits that exposure by issuing credentials only at the moment an operation is needed, and revoking them immediately after. The model works well for human engineers, but AI agents typically run unattended scripts that hold long-lived secrets, making the problem harder to solve.
In many teams the current workflow looks like this: an engineer creates an Okta-issued service account, copies its token into a CI secret store, and the AI agent reads the token on every run. The token is static, the agent can connect directly to the target database, and no central component records which queries were executed. The organization gains convenience at the cost of unlimited blast radius.
Just-in-time access for AI coding agents
The missing piece is a control point that sits between the Okta identity and the infrastructure the agent reaches. The control point must be able to verify the Okta token, decide whether the request should be allowed at that moment, and enforce the decision before any traffic reaches the target.
That control point is hoop.dev. It acts as an identity-aware proxy that intercepts every connection attempt, applies policy, and only then forwards traffic to the backend service. Because the enforcement happens in the data path, the agent never talks directly to the database or service; it must pass through the gateway first.
How the gateway enforces just-in-time access
Setup: The AI agent authenticates to Okta and receives an OIDC or SAML token that represents a non-human identity. That token tells the system who the request is and whether it is allowed to start. The token itself does not grant any rights to the target infrastructure.
The data path: hoop.dev receives the token, validates it against the Okta issuer, and extracts group membership or custom claims. It then consults a policy that defines when the identity may access a particular resource. If the policy requires an explicit approval or a time-bound grant, hoop.dev can trigger an approval workflow or check a just-in-time grant that was created moments earlier.
Enforcement outcomes: When the policy permits the request, hoop.dev creates a short-lived credential for the target, forwards the connection, and records the entire session. If the policy denies the request, hoop.dev blocks the connection before any command reaches the backend. Because hoop.dev is the only point that can create or forward credentials, every successful access is automatically audited, and every denied request is provably blocked.