Exabeam launches tool to verify AI agent behaviour before deployment

Exabeam has launched Praxen, an open source reference implementation of a new security discipline called Agent Behaviour Verification (ABV), designed to help organisations confirm that AI agents are correctly configured, authorised and governed before they enter production.

ABV evaluates agents as complete systems rather than as individual code artefacts. It provides a framework for defining an agent's authorised role and then checking whether its implementation, permissions and controls match that role.

The discipline is intended to sit upstream of runtime monitoring, complementing Exabeam's Agent Behaviour Analytics (ABA) capability, which identifies anomalous or risky agent behaviour in live environments.

Praxen operationalises ABV through what Exabeam calls a remit - a policy contract that specifies what an agent is authorised to do, which resources it may access and the boundaries it must operate within.

The tool evaluates whether the agent's tools, configurations, memory, integrations and operating environment align with that remit, then generates reports with specific findings, improvement recommendations and an overall maturity score for the agent's security posture.

"As agents become digital workers, security teams need more than runtime visibility," said Steve Wilson, chief AI officer at Exabeam and founder and co-chair of the OWASP Gen AI Security Project.

"They need confidence that agents have the right permissions, the right controls, and the right boundaries before they enter production. Agent Behavior Verification helps answer a fundamental question: will this agent do its job, and only its job?"

Wilson said while traditional security tools help identify vulnerabilities in software, Praxen evaluates whether an agent's capabilities, permissions, tools, and controls align with the role it was authorised to perform.

This addresses one of the most critical risks introduced by highly autonomous agents and establishes a stronger foundation for ongoing governance throughout the agent lifecycle," he said.

Praxen is built as an agentic coding agent skill and released under the Apache 2.0 licence.