Questions

Frequently asked questions

For buyers, their assistants, and developers evaluating the protocol.

Can an AI assistant pay directly?
No — and that is deliberate. The assistant scopes the work and receives a signed quote plus a payment link. Only a human opening that link in a browser can confirm and pay. There is no API, key or credential that lets a machine complete payment; the database enforces it, not just the interface.
What stops the price changing between quote and payment?
Every quote is signed with a server-held key (HMAC-SHA256) over its line items, total and expiry. The signature is verified when the payment page loads and again at checkout. A tampered quote cannot be paid — it fails verification.
How long is a quote valid?
30 minutes. An expired quote never silently refreshes — the payment page shows the buyer exactly what changed and asks them to request a fresh quote from their assistant. New scope, new quote, and the old one is kept, marked as superseded.
What does my assistant need to integrate?
Two POST calls: /api/public/scope then /api/public/quote. No account, no API key. It gets back a signed token and a pay_url to hand to you. The same operations are also available as MCP tools. See the protocol spec.
Who can see what I scoped?
The quote carries line items, total, expiry and the label your assistant gave itself. Anyone holding the payment link can view that quote — so treat the link like a ticket. Card details are entered directly with the payment provider and never touch this service.
What does the audit trail record?
Every transition: session opened, scope changed, quote issued, quote superseded, payment link opened, human confirmed, paid. Each event is stamped with its actor — machine, human or system — so you can see the exact moment responsibility moved from the assistant to a person.
Is this autonomous agent spending?
No. It is the opposite position: agentic commerce needs a clean, auditable seam where a human takes over. We build that seam. Autonomous payment is a non-goal, not a roadmap item.
Can I sell my own services through this?
Yes. The catalog is a configurable price list — swap in your own services and the protocol is unchanged. Partner platforms that have already priced work on their side can hand us a single custom-amount line and we gate payment on exactly that amount.
What happens after I pay?
The payment page confirms immediately, and the receipt becomes available at a stable URL your assistant can poll. The vendor sees the paid order in their console with the full handoff trail.
Who runs payments?
Card payments are processed by Stripe. During early access checkout runs in test mode; live card processing activates per vendor once they complete payment onboarding.

Something else? Send an inquiry and a human will reply.