May 19, 2026
UUIDs are out, word salad is in
Show HN: Id-agent – Token efficient UUID alternative for AI agents
This AI ID trick promises fewer mix-ups, but commenters smell chaos and edge-case energy
TLDR: A new tool wants to replace messy random ID strings with short word-based names that AI can read more easily. Commenters were split between “smart and useful” and “this is hilariously niche,” with extra drama over security worries, copycat accusations, and demands for proof.
A tiny coding tool on Hacker News somehow turned into a full-blown comment-section soap opera. The pitch is simple enough for non-coders: instead of giving AI systems long, ugly ID strings like random number soup, id-agent uses short chains of real words. The creator says these are cheaper for AI to read, easier for humans to remember, and less likely to get mangled by chatbots. In other words: fewer robot brain-farts, more memorable labels like "storm-delta-stone."
But the crowd was very ready to litigate this. One camp basically said, “Cute idea, but is this solving a real problem or just polishing a microscopic corner of the internet?” That was the vibe behind the “edge optimization” criticism: nice craftsmanship, maybe niche obsession. Another commenter immediately hit the panic button with a darker twist — if your IDs are made of words, could they accidentally look like instructions and mess with an AI prompt? Suddenly, the humble ID generator had a whiff of prompt-injection paranoia.
Then came the classic internet side-eyes. Someone asked if this is just a remake of an older idea, humanhash, which is basically the online equivalent of yelling “REPOST?” across the room. Others wanted receipts: show actual tests, compare how often models mess these IDs up, and prove the savings are worth the fuss. And of course, a practical soul wandered in with the most relatable comment of all: "cool, but where’s the Python version?"
Key Points
- •Id-agent is presented as a word-based identifier library optimized for AI agent and LLM context-window use.
- •The article claims id-agent IDs use fewer tokens than UUID v4 while offering configurable entropy levels from about 12 to 192 bits.
- •The default id-agent format uses 8 words for roughly 96 bits of entropy, while a 5-word option provides about 60 bits.
- •The library includes random generation, deterministic generation from input via HMAC-SHA256, parsing, validation, and alias mapping features.
- •The project uses a word list designed so each word is one token under the o200k_base tokenizer and validates inputs with Zod.