pay

name	pay
description	Authorize agent payments via Machine Payments Protocol (MPP). Handles microtransactions, API purchases, service subscriptions within budget governance. Triggered by pay, purchase, buy, transaction, payment, MPP, commerce.

/pay — Agent Commerce via Machine Payments Protocol

Purpose

Authorizes payments from an agent to external services using the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP). Integrates with workspace budget enforcement and governance gates to ensure agents spend within approved limits.

Usage

/pay <amount> <currency> --to <service> --for <reason> [--recurring <interval>]

Arguments

Arg	Required	Default	Description
amount	Yes	—	Payment amount (supports micro: 0.001)
currency	Yes	USD	Currency code or USDC for stablecoins
--to	Yes	—	Service endpoint or provider name
--for	Yes	—	Human-readable reason (logged to budget)
--recurring	No	one-time	Interval: hourly, daily, weekly, monthly
--max	No	from budget	Maximum per-transaction limit override
--approve	No	auto	Force approval: auto (within threshold) or manual

Workflow

1. Check budget — Query workspace budget from company.yaml
   • Calculate remaining budget for this agent/project/goal
   • If over budget → hard stop, return error, notify orchestrator
2. Check governance — Evaluate payment against approval thresholds
   • Under agent threshold → auto-approve
   • Under project threshold → log + proceed
   • Over threshold → queue for human approval, pause until resolved
3. Construct payment request — Build MPP-compatible payment intent
4. Authorize — Send payment via configured payment adapter (Stripe MPP, etc.)
5. Log — Record transaction in budget ledger:

   - timestamp: 2026-03-20T14:32:00Z
     agent: prospector
     amount: 0.50
     currency: USD
     to: browserbase
     for: "3 browser sessions for lead scraping"
     task_id: task-042
     status: completed
   

6. Report — Return confirmation with remaining budget

Examples

# Pay for API access
/pay 0.50 USD --to browserbase --for "browser sessions for lead scraping"

# Subscribe to data feed
/pay 29.99 USD --to "linkedin-enrichment" --for "lead enrichment API" --recurring monthly

# Microtransaction for compute
/pay 0.003 USD --to "compute-provider" --for "10min GPU for analysis"

# Payment requiring approval (over threshold)
/pay 500 USD --to "data-vendor" --for "Q1 industry report" --approve manual

Governance Integration

Payment thresholds are defined in company.yaml:

governance:
  payment_thresholds:
    auto_approve: 10.00        # Agent pays without asking
    notify: 50.00              # Agent pays, human notified
    require_approval: 100.00   # Human must approve first
    hard_ceiling: 1000.00      # Never exceed without board override

Budget Ledger

All payments are logged to .canopy/budget-ledger.jsonl (append-only):

{"ts":"2026-03-20T14:32:00Z","agent":"prospector","amount":0.50,"to":"browserbase","task":"task-042"}
{"ts":"2026-03-20T14:35:00Z","agent":"closer","amount":29.99,"to":"linkedin","task":"task-043"}

The /budget skill reads this ledger for spend dashboards and forecasting.

Dependencies

• company.yaml with budget and governance config
• Payment adapter configured in engine/ (Stripe MPP, etc.)
• /budget skill for spend tracking and reporting
• /approve skill for governance gate integration