Short-lived credential
Also called ephemeral credential, temporary credential, temporary security credentials
A key or token that stops working by itself after minutes or hours, so a stolen or forgotten copy is soon useless.
A password or an API key usually works until someone changes it. A short-lived credential carries its own end: it is issued for a set time, often minutes or hours, and after that the system no longer accepts it.
That changes what a leak costs. A long-lived key copied from a laptop is useful to a thief for as long as nobody notices. A token that has already expired is worth nothing.
It also clears up after forgetful teams. AI agents are created for a task and abandoned when the task is done. If an agent's access ends with the job, an agent everyone forgot about holds nothing that still works.
For example
An agent running a weekend data migration is issued access that expires on Sunday night. On Monday there is nothing left to revoke.
Put it to use
Where you'll meet short-lived credential in ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, how to use it there, and the mix-up most people make.
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