C1.ai (formerly ConductorOne)
by C1.ai
Identity governance and MCP gateway that controls what people and AI agents can access
C1.ai, formerly ConductorOne, is an identity security platform that governs access for both employees and AI agents across SaaS, cloud and on-prem systems. It is for security and IT identity teams that need just-in-time access, automated access reviews and per-call policy on agent tool use, and Workday agreed to acquire it on October 13, 2026.
C1.ai is an identity governance and access platform that started as ConductorOne in 2020 and renamed itself C1 in April 2026, the same month it extended its governance product to AI tools, agents and integrations using the Model Context Protocol. The platform pairs a core identity layer (connectors, a bridge to on-prem systems, SSO and application authorization) with modules sold separately: Identity Governance (lifecycle, access requests and compliance reviews), an AI Gateway made up of an LLM Gateway and an MCP Gateway, C1 Vault for agent-ready credentials, and C1 Agents for multi-step enterprise work. The MCP Gateway sits in front of agent tool calls and checks each one against the caller's identity, current access, the action's risk and company policy: reads auto-approve, writes route to an approver, and destructive calls are denied by default. It logs caller, tool, action, decision, approval and outcome, brokers downstream credentials so agents never hold them, and C1 says it offers more than 3,000 MCPs with identity-aware controls. Shadow AI Discovery finds unsanctioned AI tools, agents, MCP servers and credentials. Named customers include Ramp, DigitalOcean, Brex, Instacart, Qualtrics and DailyPay, and the company holds SOC 2 Type II. C1 raised a $79 million Series B led by Greycroft in October 2025. On October 13, 2026 Workday signed a definitive agreement to acquire C1.ai, with closing expected by January 31, 2027, to tie access grants and removals to Workday HR events for people and agents.
Identity and security engineering teams at mid-size and large companies that already run AI agents or MCP servers and need the same access governance they apply to employees.
Every agent tool call is checked against identity and policy, with risky actions sent for approval and a full audit record, while access reviews and joiner-mover-leaver changes run automatically.
At a Glance
- Category
- Governance & Security
- Pricing
- Subscription, Usage-based, Contact for pricing
- Target Market
- CISOs, Identity and Access Management Teams, IT Directors, Platform Engineers
- Deployment
- Cloud-first
- Founded
- 2020
- Headquarters
- Portland, Oregon, United States
Key Features
- ✓MCP Gateway
Checks each agent tool call against identity, current access, action risk and policy, auto-approving reads, routing writes to approvers and denying destructive calls.
- ✓Agent audit trail
Records the caller, tool, requested action, policy decision, approval and outcome for every call, giving auditors a reviewable record of agent activity.
- ✓Credential brokering and C1 Vault
Users sign in once and the gateway brokers downstream access, so agents and people never hold the underlying credentials directly.
- ✓Shadow AI Discovery
Finds unsanctioned AI tools, agents, MCP servers and credentials so security teams can bring them under policy or shut them down.
- ✓Identity Governance modules
Lifecycle, access request and compliance modules automate access reviews and joiner-mover-leaver changes across SaaS, cloud and on-prem systems.
- ✓Self-service and JIT access
Approved tools appear in a catalog that users or agents request from Slack, Teams, the CLI or an IDE, with time-bound grants rechecked on every call.
- ✓On-prem connectivity
The gateway reaches on-prem systems without firewall changes, and on-prem integrations are part of the Advanced platform level.
Capabilities
Use Cases
- •Governing coding agents' tool access
A platform team routes coding agents' MCP calls through the gateway so repository reads pass automatically while deletes are blocked and writes need a human approver.
- •Quarterly access reviews
An IT compliance lead automates user access reviews across SaaS apps for SOC 2 evidence instead of collecting spreadsheets from every application owner.
- •Shadow AI cleanup
A security team runs Shadow AI Discovery to find unapproved AI tools and stray MCP servers, then brings them into the access catalog or revokes them.
- •Temporary production access
An engineer requests time-bound production access from Slack, an approver grants it, and the access expires automatically when the window closes.
- •Offboarding people and agents
When an employee leaves or an agent's task ends, lifecycle automation removes access across connected systems so no orphaned permissions remain.
Ideal For
Best For
- ✓Putting per-call policy and approvals in front of AI agents' MCP tool use
- ✓Discovering shadow AI tools, agents, MCP servers and leaked credentials
- ✓Automating user access reviews for SOC 2 and similar audits
- ✓Just-in-time, time-bound access requests from Slack, Teams, a CLI or an IDE
- ✓Joiner, mover and leaver automation across SaaS and on-prem systems
Not Ideal For
- ✗Buyers who need a published price, because every quote is scoped through a demo
- ✗Teams wary of roadmap risk during an acquisition; Workday's announcement does not say what changes for C1 customers whose HR system is not Workday
- ✗Small teams with a few SaaS apps and no agents in production, since pricing is built on managed-identity tiers scoped through Sales
Deployment
Market Analysis
Pros
- ✓Covers both human and AI agent identities with per-call policy, approvals and audit
- ✓Customer stories include Ramp, DigitalOcean, Brex, Instacart, Qualtrics and DailyPay
- ✓SOC 2 Type II, with commercial, regional and federal hosting options
Cons
- ✗No public pricing; quotes are scoped through a demo
- ✗Modules (Identity Governance, AI Gateway, Vault, Agents) are priced separately on top of the platform tier, which complicates budgeting
- ✗Pending Workday acquisition leaves roadmap and terms for non-Workday customers unstated
- ✗The original open-source Baton toolkit repository is archived, with development moved to the Baton SDK
Pricing
Platform Pro
Contact for pricing
- ✓Metered by managed identities
- ✓Integrations and visibility
- ✓Identity security
- ✓Shadow detection
Platform Advanced
Contact for pricing
- ✓Everything in Pro
- ✓On-prem integrations and connectivity
Flex
Contact for pricing
- ✓Usage-based C1 Tokens per billable event
- ✓Monthly billing
- ✓Usage and spend visible in C1.ai
C1.ai publishes no dollar prices; quotes are scoped in a demo. SKU pricing is metered by managed identities, with Pro and Advanced platform levels plus separately priced modules (Identity Governance, AI Gateway, Vault, Agents). A Flex option bills monthly by C1 Tokens consumed per billable event. Commercial, regional and federal hosting are offered.
Security & Compliance
Connect
Sources
This page was written from 9 sources, 6 on domains other than c1.ai.
- 1.c1.ai — c1.aivendor
- 2.c1.ai — pricingvendor
- 3.c1.ai — mcp gatewayvendor
- 4.newsroom.workday.com — 2026 10 13 Workday to Acquire C1 ai, a Leading Agentic Ident
- 5.letsdatascience.com — workday agrees to acquire c1ai for agentic identity f7ff9470
- 6.letsdatascience.com — conductorone extends identity governance to ai 729cd937
- 7.itwire.com — workday rising 2026 bhusri buys c1 ai to govern ai agents as
- 8.fundediq.co — conductorone conductorone com funding
- 9.github.com — baton
Stay Ahead of the Curve
Weekly enterprise AI insights for technology leaders. No spam, no vendor pitches—unsubscribe anytime.
SubscribeRelated Products
Apate.ai
AI voice and text agents that pose as scam victims to pull fraud intelligence out of live scam operations
Baselayer
Business identity, risk and fraud infrastructure that now verifies AI agents before they transact
SAS AI Navigator
SaaS AI governance inventory for models, agents and use cases, sold through Microsoft Marketplace
Rein Security
Runtime security for enterprise AI agents, deployed as a sidecar inside your own cloud