@deepfirstsearch/agent-pay

@deepfirstsearch/agent-pay

x402 payments for AI agents (v2, plus v1 for merchants you opt in) where the model proposes and the owner's policy decides.

npm install @deepfirstsearch/agent-pay viem
npx @deepfirstsearch/agent-pay demo   # 10-second offline tour: one honest payment, four attacks refused

Beta, unaudited. Agent Safe is live on Base Sepolia and in a capped mainnet beta; an independent audit is being arranged. Use small amounts and at your own risk.

Project setup. The samples are ESM with top-level await: run npm pkg set type=module in your project (or name the file .ts and run it with npx tsx file.ts). Node 20 or later. Install viem next to the SDK whenever a sample imports it (pnpm doesn't hoist it for you).

import { hexToBytes, type Hex } from "viem";
import { createAgentPay, MerchantRegistry, burnerPayers } from "@deepfirstsearch/agent-pay";

const ownerSeed = hexToBytes(process.env.AGENT_PAY_BURNER_SEED as Hex); // 32 random bytes, never the owner key

const registry = new MerchantRegistry([
  { origin: "https://api.pricing-intel.io", payTo: "0x…", network: "eip155:8453", maxPerTx: 50_000n, pricePin: 10_000n },
]);

const pay = createAgentPay({
  registry,
  policy: { allowedNetworks: ["eip155:8453"], approvalThreshold: 1_000_000n, periodBudget: { amount: 20_000_000n, periodMs: 86_400_000 } },
  payer: burnerPayers(ownerSeed, vaultAddress),      // one payer address per merchant
  session: { readsUntrustedInput: true, accessesSensitiveData: false, canPay: true },
  approve: askHumanViaPasskey,                       // a channel the model cannot write to
  ensureFunded: topUpFromAgentSafe,                  // BudgetVault.fundBurner, bounded on-chain
});

// 1. Seal the plan BEFORE the agent reads anything untrusted.
const plan = pay.commitPlan([{ origin: "https://api.pricing-intel.io", maxSpend: 100_000n }], 10 * 60_000);

// 2. Use it like fetch. A 402 is paid only if every check passes.
const res = await pay.fetch("https://api.pricing-intel.io/v1/prices", {}, { plan });

What it refuses

• A 402 whose payTo, asset, network, EIP-712 domain, scheme or timeout differ from owner configuration.
• Prices above the pinned price, the per-merchant cap, the sealed plan or the period budget.
• Merchants not in the registry; payees suggested by web content (tainted data).
• x402 v1 from any merchant whose registry entry does not set x402Versions: [1, 2] (see below), malformed or oversized headers, and 402s reached through cross-origin redirects.
• An authorization window above 300 s (policy.timeoutBounds), unless that merchant sets maxTimeoutSeconds (10 to 86400) in the registry.

The 402 is read from PAYMENT-REQUIRED, or from X-PAYMENT-REQUIRED when the standard header is absent.

• Retrying a payment: one signature per request, recorded in a hash-chained audit log.

Refusal codes

A refusal throws PaymentDeniedError. Its reasons are human-readable and may be reworded; its codes (one per reason) are stable and machine-readable, code is the primary one, and action says what the agent should do. The same codes are recorded in the payment.denied audit event.

import { PaymentDeniedError } from "@deepfirstsearch/agent-pay";

try {
  await pay.fetch(url, {}, { plan });
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof PaymentDeniedError && e.action === "report") alertOwner(e.code, e.reasons); // possible redirection: never retry
}

code	action	meaning
payee_mismatch	report	the 402's payTo is not the merchant's registered address
network_mismatch	report	an allowed network, but not the merchant's
asset_mismatch	report	asset or EIP-712 domain is not the pinned USDC
scheme_unsupported	report	a scheme or transfer method the SDK does not sign
sanctioned_payee	report	the payee failed sanctions screening (or screening was unavailable)
invalid_402	report	malformed or oversized 402, no options, a non-positive amount, or a cross-origin redirect
price_changed	ask_owner	the price is above the owner's pin (plus tolerance)
human_refused	ask_owner	a human declined the approval (or no approval channel exists)
policy_denied	ask_owner	generic refusal (default when no specific code applies)
unknown_merchant	fix_config	the origin is not in the registry (or is not https)
not_in_plan	fix_config	the merchant is not in the sealed plan
network_not_allowed	fix_config	a network outside allowedNetworks (or an unmapped x402 v1 network)
asset_not_pinned	fix_config	no USDC pinned for the merchant's network
timeout_out_of_bounds	fix_config	maxTimeoutSeconds outside the accepted bounds
version_not_allowed	fix_config	an x402 version not enabled for that merchant
over_cap	ask_owner	above the merchant's maxPerTx
plan_exhausted	retry_later	not enough left in the sealed plan
plan_expired	retry_later	the sealed plan expired; seal a new one
budget_exhausted	retry_later	not enough left in the period budget

Actions: report (possible redirection or tampering: don't retry, report it), ask_owner (only the owner can decide), fix_config (the owner's configuration does not allow it), retry_later (a limit was reached: retry later or ask for a bigger plan), and, for blocks only, resend_same (request the same resource again: the SDK resends the same signed authorization and never signs a new one). With several reasons, code is the most cautious one. REFUSAL_CODES, RefusalCode and RefusalAction are exported.

Block codes

Kill switch, rate limits and settlement problems are not refusals: they throw PaymentBlockedError, which carries a code and an action too (BLOCK_CODES, BlockCode, BlockAction are exported).

code	action	meaning
settlement_pending	resend_same	no receipt confirmed the payment; it may still settle. Request the same resource again: the same authorization is resent, nothing new is signed. Never re-sign
settled_not_delivered	report	it was paid (found on-chain, or the merchant answered a resend with "already used", e.g. 402 payment_invalid / tx_already_used) but the resource was not delivered: never pay again, report it
settlement_unknown	ask_owner	an earlier authorization for this resource expired unconfirmed and nothing can tell whether it executed (no confirmAuthorization, or the RPC failed): nothing new is signed, since that could pay twice. Enable confirmAuthorization, or call pay.forgetUnsettled(url) after checking yourself
rate_limited	retry_later	the payment rate limit was reached
kill_switch	ask_owner	payments are stopped by the owner's kill switch
blocked	ask_owner	generic block (default when no specific code applies)

When a payment is unconfirmed

One signed authorization per resource, and never a second one while the first could still have paid:

• While the authorization is valid, asking for the resource again resends the same proof (settlement_pending → resend_same). Resends are bounded by its validity window (the 402's maxTimeoutSeconds, capped by your timeout bounds).
• Near or just past expiry (until 60 s after validBefore, to cover chain clock skew) nothing is sent or signed: settlement_pending.
• After that, the chain decides (with confirmAuthorization): never used → a new authorization is signed; used → settled_not_delivered, and that resource is not paid again. Without an on-chain check: settlement_unknown, until the owner clears it with pay.forgetUnsettled(url).

Merchants without a standard receipt can say how settlement went with X-Payment-Settled on a 2xx: true (settled) or queued (in flight). The SDK accepts the delivered resource once, without resending or calling the chain, and reports it as res.payment.merchantSettled. The mapping, shared with sellers that render it:

seller says	buyer state
402, no payment yet	challenge (unpaid)
2xx + X-Payment-Settled: queued	delivered, settlement pending (merchantSettled: "queued")
2xx + X-Payment-Settled: true	delivered (merchantSettled: "true")
refusal to a resend saying the proof was already used	settled_not_delivered (report, never re-sign)

x402 v1 merchants (opt-in per merchant)

Some live merchants still speak x402 v1 (Heurist Mesh, for example): the 402 comes as a JSON body, networks have short names ("base"), the price is maxAmountRequired, and the payment goes in X-PAYMENT. v1 is off by default and there is no global switch. Allow it for one merchant in its registry entry:

new MerchantRegistry([
  { origin: "https://mesh.heurist.xyz", payTo: "0xA112c9C8BF655c678c768B6fD42a1C6FbfeD7D60", network: "eip155:8453",
    maxPerTx: 5_000n, pricePin: 1_000n, x402Versions: [1, 2] },   // default [2]; [1] allows only v1
]);

• Without the opt-in, a v1 402 is refused with a reason that names x402Versions; nothing is signed.
• v1 network names map to CAIP-2 through a fixed table only: base → eip155:8453, base-sepolia → eip155:84532. Options on any other network (e.g. solana) are skipped; if none is left, the 402 is refused.
• After that mapping every check above applies unchanged: registered payTo, pinned USDC and EIP-712 domain (never taken from extra), price pin, maxPerTx, plan and period budgets, timeout bounds, allowedNetworks.
• The signed payment is sent as X-PAYMENT ({ x402Version: 1, scheme: "exact", network: "base", payload: { signature, authorization } }, base64 JSON), the receipt is read from X-PAYMENT-RESPONSE with the same checks as v2, and res.payment.settlement.network is reported as CAIP-2. One signature per payment; retries resend the same header; confirmAuthorization works the same.
• A merchant whose payTo changes on every request (Browserbase hands out a fresh deposit address per 402) cannot be paid with a pinned payee and stays refused ("payTo … is not the merchant's registered address").

Guards

• commitPlan (plan-then-execute)
• taint / isTrusted (provenance)
• quarantinedExtract (dual LLM with schema validation)
• spotlight (datamarking)
• requiresHumanForEveryPayment (Rule of Two)
• RateLimiter, KillSwitch
• AuditLog / verifyChain
• screen (optional sanctions screening, fails closed): screen: anyScreen(staticListScreen(list), oracleScreen(publicClient, oracle))
• confirmAuthorization (optional on-chain confirmation when a receipt is unusable): usdcAuthorizationCheck({ "eip155:8453": publicClient })

Test without a chain

@deepfirstsearch/agent-pay/testing exports the offline x402 merchant used by the demo and our own tests. Routes can be honest or hostile (tamper rewrites the 402), and it verifies the EIP-3009 signatures like a facilitator would:

import { startMockServer } from "@deepfirstsearch/agent-pay/testing";

const payTo = "0x1111111111111111111111111111111111111111";
const merchant = await startMockServer({
  "/data": { price: 10_000n, payTo, body: '{"ok":true}' },
  "/evil": { price: 10_000n, payTo, tamper: (r) => ({ ...r, payTo: "0x9999999999999999999999999999999999999999" }) },
});
// merchant.url, merchant.received (payloads it got), await merchant.close()

A route with x402Version: 1 speaks x402 v1 instead (402 in the body, X-PAYMENT, X-PAYMENT-RESPONSE); its payloads land in merchant.receivedV1, and tamperV1 rewrites the whole v1 402 body (to add a Solana option, say).

Owner CLI: vault and budgets in three commands

export AGENT_PAY_BURNER_SEED=0x…   # the same 32-byte seed your agent's SDK uses for payer addresses
npx @deepfirstsearch/agent-pay owner create-vault --keystore ~/.foundry/keystores/owner
npx @deepfirstsearch/agent-pay owner fund   --vault 0x… --amount 5 --keystore ~/.foundry/keystores/owner
npx @deepfirstsearch/agent-pay owner budget --vault 0x… --merchant 0x… --agent 0x… \
    --per-tx 0.05 --per-day 0.50 --keystore ~/.foundry/keystores/owner
npx @deepfirstsearch/agent-pay owner status --vault 0x…

• --network base-sepolia (default) or --network base. On Base mainnet every transaction asks for confirmation and warns that this is an unaudited beta.
• The owner key comes from a Foundry/geth keystore (--keystore, password prompted) or AGENT_PAY_OWNER_KEY; never from arguments.
• budget derives the merchant's payer address from AGENT_PAY_BURNER_SEED, signs the budget, proposes it, and prints the intentId plus a ready-to-paste entry for the MCP server config.
• Also: pause, unpause, revoke --intent, withdraw --amount, flush-fees, and --json for scripts.

The official addresses and ABIs are exported too: AGENT_SAFE.base.factory, BUDGET_VAULT_FULL_ABI, BUDGET_VAULT_FACTORY_ABI, FEE_JAR_ABI.

When a merchant's receipt is missing

Some merchants answer a paid request without a usable receipt (no transaction in PAYMENT-RESPONSE). The SDK then reports the payment as unconfirmed rather than guessing. To let the chain decide, pass confirmAuthorization: on that failure path only, it reads USDC's authorizationState for the exact authorization you signed.

import { createPublicClient, http } from "viem";
import { base } from "viem/chains";
import { createAgentPay, usdcAuthorizationCheck } from "@deepfirstsearch/agent-pay";

const pay = createAgentPay({
  // ...registry, policy, payer, session
  confirmAuthorization: usdcAuthorizationCheck({ "eip155:8453": createPublicClient({ chain: base, transport: http() }) }),
});
// res.payment.confirmedOnChain === true when the receipt was unusable but the authorization was used on-chain.

If the authorization was used but the merchant didn't deliver, you get a clear error and nothing is resent.

Pay real x402 APIs on Base mainnet (2 cents, 1 minute)

examples/real-merchants.ts (in the repository; examples are not shipped in the npm package) pays three public x402 APIs (Blockchain.com, Spraay, CoinGecko) through the SDK, 0.012 USDC per run, then shows an injected 402 for 5 USDC being refused before anything is signed. The payer needs a few cents of USDC on Base and no ETH.

git clone https://github.com/DeepFirstHQ/deepfirstsearch && cd deepfirstsearch/sdk && npm ci
PAYER_KEY=0x… npx tsx examples/real-merchants.ts   # a throwaway key, never a wallet that matters

Thirty merchants, each tested with a real payment, have a step-by-step guide at deepfirstsearch.com/developers.

Try the whole loop on Base Sepolia (free, about 1 hour)

examples/sepolia-live.ts runs a real x402 payment end to end with your own testnet keys: it creates a vault, signs a budget, waits out the timelock, then an agent pays a local x402 endpoint and the public facilitator settles it on-chain.

• Make two fresh testnet-only keys (owner and agent), e.g. cast wallet new, and any merchant address.
• Fund the owner with Base Sepolia ETH (the Coinbase CDP faucet) and at least 0.2 test USDC (Circle faucet, Base Sepolia).
• Run it:

git clone https://github.com/DeepFirstHQ/deepfirstsearch && cd deepfirstsearch/sdk && npm ci
export OWNER_PK=0x… AGENT_PK=0x… MERCHANT=0x… BURNER_SEED=0x$(openssl rand -hex 32) \
       FACTORY=0xf245d3cb8700a804432ea50b253a923b4b32c0c7 STATE_FILE=./sepolia-state.json
npx tsx examples/sepolia-live.ts setup   # vault + funding + signed budget; the agent gets gas from the owner
# wait for the 1 h timelock printed by setup
npx tsx examples/sepolia-live.ts pay     # prints the settlement transaction

Never reuse these keys on mainnet.

Deployments

Network	BudgetVaultFactory	FeeJar	Status
Base Sepolia (84532)	0xf245d3cb8700a804432ea50b253a923b4b32c0c7	0x4ae59cf9462d1601de4fc5aa4538d376e93a79f2	v0.4, testnet
Base (8453)	0xDe17e1B889efa4671852e0b268e100967A7a257E	0xa375245D25bdB557801Ad07A50c19b3442cA3Ae4	v0.4, unaudited beta: small amounts only

Full list and transactions: docs/DEPLOYMENTS.md. Questions or bugs: open an issue; security reports go through SECURITY.md.

Signing a budget (owner side)

The owner, never the agent, signs one budget per merchant. The budget names the agent key, the merchant and the only payer address the vault may top up:

import { hexToBytes, type Hex } from "viem";
import { burnerAddress, signIntent } from "@deepfirstsearch/agent-pay";

const ownerSeed = hexToBytes(process.env.AGENT_PAY_BURNER_SEED as Hex); // the same seed the agent's payment process uses

const intent = {
  agent: agentAddress,
  counterparty: merchant.payTo,
  burner: burnerAddress({ ownerSeed, vault, chainId: 8453, counterparty: merchant.payTo }),
  token: USDC,
  maxPerTx: 50_000n,          // 0.05 USDC
  maxPerPeriod: 500_000n,     // 0.50 USDC per day
  trancheCap: 100_000n,       // the payer never holds more than 0.10 USDC
  period: 86_400,
  validAfter: 0n,
  expiry: BigInt(Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) + 30 * 86_400),
  nonce: BigInt(Date.now()),
};
const signature = await signIntent(owner, vault, 8453, intent);
// Anyone can relay it: vault.proposeIntent(intent, signature). It activates after the vault's timelock.

Who holds what:

• Owner key: only the owner (ideally a Safe or hardware wallet). It signs budgets and can pause, revoke and withdraw. Never on the agent's machine.
• Agent key and burner seed: the payment process that runs the SDK. Run it apart from the model (a separate process or service): the model only asks for a URL, and the SDK decides. The burner seed must be its own random secret, never the owner key.
• If the payment process is compromised, the loss is bounded: the agent key can only top up the signed payers within maxPerTx, maxPerPeriod and trancheCap, and each payer never holds more than trancheCap. Revoke the intent and rotate the seed (epoch).

Funding payers from Agent Safe

vaultFunder({ agent, publicClient, vault, usdc, intents, tranche, dataSuffix }) returns an ensureFunded hook that tops up each merchant's payer from the BudgetVault right before a payment. The vault enforces every limit on-chain, and each top-up counts as one transaction: keep tranche at or below both the intent's trancheCap and its maxPerTx, or fundBurner reverts with OverPerTx/OverTranche. dataSuffix appends your Base Builder Code (ERC-8021 attribution) to those transactions.

Privacy level 1: exchange-funded payers

createFundingService({ registry, payerFor, withdraw, limits }) runs in the owner's process and holds the exchange credentials. The agent uses remoteFunder(url, token) as its ensureFunded hook and can only ask "top up the payer for merchant X". The service derives the payer address itself and applies a per-top-up limit and a daily limit. On-chain, the public sees "exchange → fresh payer" instead of "your vault → fresh payer". The exchange and lawful authorities can still see it. You provide withdraw(to, amount) for your exchange's API.

Operational notes

• Keep the agent machine's clock synced (NTP): facilitators check authorization validity windows against wall-clock time.

Privacy, honestly

• Each merchant sees a different payer address.
• Vault → payer funding is public on-chain; exchange-funded payers (level 1) and a third-party compliant pool (level 2) are next.
• Facilitators see your IP and timing; use a proxy.
• ERC-5564 stealth helpers are included for payee-side privacy.

Develop

npm ci
npm test        # includes an anvil end-to-end test when Foundry and ../contracts/out exist
npm run demo
npm run build