SmallStep
Smallstep operates the world's first Device Identity Platform. It issues hardware-backed, short-lived X.509 and SSH certificates that cryptographically prove what is acting and from where — for devices, humans, workloads, AI agents, and MCP toolchains. Smallstep co-developed ACME Device Attestation (ACME DA) with Google through the IETF, using TPM and Secure Enclave co-processors to bind non-exportable credentials to specific devices at issuance. Its OpenAPI-conformant Platform API (gateway.smallstep.com) manages device inventory, PKI (certificate authorities and provisioners), certificate issuance and revocation, credentials, and protected resources such as Wi-Fi, VPN, and SSO. Smallstep also maintains the widely used open-source step CLI and step-ca certificate authority.
Real signal across most facets with visible, nameable gaps — the contract exists but is thin, or the portal is good while governance and commercial terms are absent.
API Evangelist profiles SmallStep the way a machine reads it — 11 machine-readable artifacts across 6 APIs, pulled from the provider's own public surface and indexed so a developer, an analyst, or an AI agent can evaluate it against every other provider on the network.
Every provider in the network is reduced to the same set of machine-readable artifacts — OpenAPI contracts, event specifications, GraphQL schemas, runnable collections, pricing and rate-limit signals, security posture, OAuth scopes, and the agent surfaces (MCP servers and skills) that let software drive the API on its own. We profile them because the interface is the part of a company you can actually inspect: it is a truer signal of what a provider does than any marketing page. From those artifacts we compute the Kin Score — SmallStep scores 58.5/100 (developing), with a separate agent-readiness read of 66/100 (agent native). The full breakdown is below, followed by every artifact we hold — each card links through to its machine-readable definition on apis.io.
Kin Score
This is the API Evangelist rating — a single, repeatable read computed from the artifacts on this page. Green fill is points earned; the red track is points possible, so every bar shows earned-versus-possible at a glance.
Kin Score
How this is scored →scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5
How we profile SmallStep
Each block below is one kind of artifact we hold for SmallStep. For each we say what it is and why it earns a place in the profile, then list every one we've indexed — capped at two rows, scroll within the panel for the rest.
APIs 6
Each API is captured as its own OpenAPI definition — every operation, parameter, and response. This is the single most useful machine-readable description of what an API does, and it's what lets us score, lint, mock, and generate against it without asking the provider for anything.
Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.
SmallStep Authentication API
Create API tokens
SmallStep Certificates API
Query certificates and their statuses issued by authorities
SmallStep Credentials API
Manage credentials
SmallStep Device Inventory API
Manage your device inventory
SmallStep PKI Architecture API
Manage certificate authorities and provisioners
SmallStep Protect API
Manage access to protected resources
Event Specifications 1
Not every API is request/response. AsyncAPI describes the event-driven and streaming side — the webhooks and channels — so the asynchronous half of the interface is documented the same way the synchronous half is.
AsyncAPI definitions for this provider's event-driven and streaming APIs.
Smallstep Webhooks
ASYNCAPISecurity Posture 3
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals — the evidence that a provider takes security seriously enough to document it. We profile it because you can't govern what you can't see.
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.
Agentic Access 1
An x-agentic-access contract marks which operations are safe for an agent to run on its own and which need a human in the loop. It is the difference between an API an agent can use and one it can use safely.
Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.
Resources
Every other property we hold for SmallStep — documentation, portals, status pages, policies, and corporate surface — grouped by the job it does, following the integrator's arc from getting started to running in production.
Get Started 3
Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call
Documentation 2
Reference material describing how the API behaves
Agent Surfaces 5
MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs
Design & Contract 6
Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events
Build 4
SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with
Access & Security 5
Authentication, authorization, and security posture
Operate 3
Status, limits, changes, and where to get help
Commercial 3
Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use
Company 2
The organization behind the API
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