Identifying users

Armature attributes every tool call to an actor — a stable, privacy-preserving identifier for the user or account behind the session.

The default

Out of the box, the SDK derives an actor seed from the request’s authentication, in order:

A configured actorId (if you set one — see below)
The request’s auth info: token, client ID, API key, or principal ID
The Authorization header
"anonymous" as the last resort

The seed is SHA-256 hashed before transmission — raw tokens and header values never leave your server. Two sessions from the same authenticated user hash to the same actor, so per-user views line up without Armature ever seeing the credential.

Custom actor resolution

If your server knows the real user (for example, after validating an OAuth token), resolve the actor yourself so sessions group by your user IDs:

createMcpAnalyticsServer(buildServer, {
  armature: {
    actorId: (context) => context?.authInfo?.principalId ?? "anonymous",
  },
});

instrument_fastmcp(mcp, {
    "armature": {
        # sync or async callable, or a plain string
        "actor_id": lambda context: resolve_user_id(context),
    }
})

config := armatureanalytics.EnvConfig()
config.ActorSeed = func(ctx context.Context) string {
	if user, ok := auth.UserFromContext(ctx); ok {
		return user.ID
	}
	return ""
}

$config = new Config(
    actorId: static fn (array $context): ?string =>
        $context['attributes']['principal_id'] ?? null,
);

Whatever you return is still hashed before it is sent.

Attach a readable identifier

Hashes group sessions; they don’t tell you who a session was. To label sessions with an identifier you choose — an internal user ID, an account slug, an email — set the identifier option (actorIdentifier in TypeScript and PHP, actor_identifier in Python, ActorIdentifier in Go):

createMcpAnalyticsServer(buildServer, {
  armature: {
    actorIdentifier: (context) => lookupUserEmail(context),
  },
});

instrument_fastmcp(mcp, {
    "armature": {
        "actor_identifier": lambda context: resolve_user_email(context),
    }
})

config.ActorIdentifier = func(ctx context.Context) string {
	return userEmail(ctx)
}

$config = new Config(
    actorIdentifier: static fn (array $context): ?string =>
        $context['attributes']['principal_id'] ?? null,
);

The value doubles as the actor seed (hashed into the actor ID) and is sent verbatim in a small identity event whenever it changes, so the dashboard can display it. The SDK doesn’t interpret it — any non-empty string works. Unlike actorId seeds, the identifier is transmitted as-is by design: don’t put anything in it you wouldn’t show in the dashboard.

In the Go official-SDK adapter, install the analytics middleware before your auth middleware if ActorSeed reads values that auth injects into the context — otherwise the actor resolves before auth has run.

Anonymous traffic

Unauthenticated servers still get useful sessions: the actor falls back to anonymous, and session identity (which conversation the calls belong to) is tracked separately via the MCP session ID. You lose per-user grouping, not session replay.

Getting started

Analytics

AI Traffic

Agent Discoverability

Evaluation

SDKs

Armature MCP

Privacy & security

Identifying users

The default

Custom actor resolution

Attach a readable identifier

Anonymous traffic

​The default

​Custom actor resolution

​Attach a readable identifier

​Anonymous traffic

The default

Custom actor resolution

Attach a readable identifier

Anonymous traffic