Autonomous agent payments guide

The @arcenpay/agent SDK enables autonomous programs — LLM agents, background indexers, LangChain/OpenAI/Anthropic agents, and MCP bots — to execute self-sovereign financial transactions without human friction.

Core Payment Capabilities

Arcen Agent supports three complementary autonomous payment protocols:

x402 Micropayments (agent.fetch): Real-time HTTP 402 negotiation for per-prompt, per-search, or per-record API access with zero per-call gas fees via session vouchers.
Agentic Payment Links (agent.payPaymentLink): Autonomous checkout of hosted links with programmatic discovery (/spec), budget verification, and on-chain token settlement.
Verify-Then-Settle Escrow (agent.fetchEscrowed): Commit-reveal escrow for high-value datasets and model weights with automatic cryptographic verification and refund recourse.

Installation & Setup

npm install @arcenpay/agent

BOT Chain (EVM)
Solana
Arc Testnet (EVM)
Stellar (Soroban SAC)

import { ArcenAgent, FileStore } from "@arcenpay/agent";

const agent = new ArcenAgent({
  privateKey: process.env.AGENT_PRIVATE_KEY!,
  chainId: 677, // BOT Chain Mainnet
  rpcUrl: "https://rpc.botchain.ai",
  maxAutoApprove: "0.05", // Auto-approve up to $0.05 per request
  maxDailySpend: 25.00,   // Max $25/day budget
  store: new FileStore("./agent-state.json"),
});

import { ArcenAgent, FileStore } from "@arcenpay/agent";

const agent = new ArcenAgent({
  privateKey: process.env.SOLANA_SECRET_KEY!, // base58 or JSON keypair
  chainId: 9100000, // Solana Mainnet (or 9100001 Solana Devnet)
  maxAutoApprove: "0.05",
  maxDailySpend: 25.00,
  store: new FileStore("./agent-state.json"),
});

import { ArcenAgent, FileStore } from "@arcenpay/agent";

const agent = new ArcenAgent({
  privateKey: process.env.AGENT_PRIVATE_KEY!,
  chainId: 5042002, // Arc Testnet
  maxAutoApprove: "0.05",
  maxDailySpend: 25.00,
  store: new FileStore("./agent-state.json"),
});

import { ArcenAgent, FileStore } from "@arcenpay/agent";

const agent = new ArcenAgent({
  privateKey: process.env.STELLAR_SECRET_KEY!, // S...
  chainId: 9000001, // Stellar Testnet (Stellar Mainnet 9000000 coming soon)
  rpcUrl: "https://soroban-testnet.stellar.org",
  maxAutoApprove: "0.05",
  store: new FileStore("./agent-state.json"),
});

Workflow 1: x402 Micropayments (`agent.fetch`)

Drop-in replacement for global fetch(). Automatically intercepts HTTP 402, evaluates prices against budget guardrails, signs off-chain payment vouchers, and retries the request:

// 1. Pre-fund the agent's on-chain session vault once
const sessionId = await agent.fundSession("10.00"); // $10 USDC

// 2. Query x402 protected resource
const response = await agent.fetch("https://api.marketintel.ai/v1/sentiment", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({ query: "BTC" }),
  maxPrice: "0.02", // Reject if provider asks > $0.02
});

const data = await response.json();
console.log("Intel Payload:", data);

Workflow 2: Paying Payment Links (`agent.payPaymentLink`)

When your agent needs to purchase a subscription add-on, access pack, or dataset:

const linkUrl = "https://app.arcenpay.com/pay/global-crypto-sentiment-q3";

// 1. Inspect without spending
const spec = await agent.resolvePaymentLink(linkUrl);
console.log(`Discovered: "${spec.name}" for $${spec.amount} ${spec.currency}`);

// 2. Pay within guardrails
const receipt = await agent.payPaymentLink(spec.slug, {
  maxPrice: "15.00",
  customerName: "AutoAnalysisBot-v1",
});

console.log("Confirmed! TxHash:", receipt.txHash);

Workflow 3: Verify-Then-Settle Escrow (`agent.fetchEscrowed`)

Protect high-value autonomous purchases against corrupted data:

const { response, payload, verified, commitment, disputeReceipt } = await agent.fetchEscrowed(
  "https://provider.analytics.org/alpha/orderbook",
  {
    escrowMode: "exact_hash",
    maxPrice: "5.00",
  }
);

if (verified) {
  console.log("Deliverable matched cryptographic hash! Funds released.");
} else {
  console.warn("Hash mismatch detected! Automated dispute filed:", disputeReceipt);
}

Safety Guardrails & Calendar Accounting

maxAutoApprove: Per-request price ceiling. Requests above this require explicit overrides or human dispatch.
maxDailySpend: Hard ceiling calculated against a rolling 24-hour UTC calendar.
Reboot Resilience: Always provide store: new FileStore("./state.json") to prevent nonce collisions after process reboots.

Get started

Core concepts

Guides

Integrations

Autonomous agent payments guide

Core Payment Capabilities

Installation & Setup

Workflow 1: x402 Micropayments (`agent.fetch`)

Workflow 2: Paying Payment Links (`agent.payPaymentLink`)

Workflow 3: Verify-Then-Settle Escrow (`agent.fetchEscrowed`)

Safety Guardrails & Calendar Accounting

​Core Payment Capabilities

​Installation & Setup

​Workflow 1: x402 Micropayments (agent.fetch)

​Workflow 2: Paying Payment Links (agent.payPaymentLink)

​Workflow 3: Verify-Then-Settle Escrow (agent.fetchEscrowed)

​Safety Guardrails & Calendar Accounting

Core Payment Capabilities

Installation & Setup

Workflow 1: x402 Micropayments (`agent.fetch`)

Workflow 2: Paying Payment Links (`agent.payPaymentLink`)

Workflow 3: Verify-Then-Settle Escrow (`agent.fetchEscrowed`)

Safety Guardrails & Calendar Accounting