payment-lookup

name	payment-lookup
description	Look up vendor bill payments and verify payment status from the terminal. Use when: 'did we pay', 'payment status', 'check if paid', 'verify payment', 'find invoice', 'bill lookup', 'was this bill paid', 'payment confirmation'. Do NOT use for: approving bills (use approval-dashboard), spend analysis across vendors (use spend-analysis), or uploading receipts (use receipt-compliance).

Non-Negotiables

• Pass --rationale on every command — it is a required field on these agent-tools (a non-empty string, max 1024 chars). With --json, supply it as a "rationale" key in the body. Omitting it returns HTTP 422 (DEVELOPER_INVALID_SCHEMA), in both agent and human modes.
• Always search bills first, then enrich with bills get and bills attachments when available.
• Report exactly what the API returns. Don't infer payment state beyond what the status says.
• When checking whether a payment went out, search with --include_paid to include completed bills.
• Pass --agent for machine-readable JSON output on all commands.
• Bill amounts in search results are numeric dollars. Bill amounts in get responses may be in cents (divide by 100 if values look 100x too large). Transaction amounts are formatted strings ("$135.40"). Reimbursement amounts are in dollars.
• If bills get fails on a search-returned ID, fall back to the search results and note the limitation.

Workflow

Step 1: Search for the bill

ramp bills search --query "<vendor or invoice number>" --include_paid --limit 10 --agent --rationale "Search bills for the user"

The --query flag matches against payee name, invoice number, and payment ID. Partial matches work (e.g., "UPS" matches "UPS Store").

If too many results, narrow with more specific terms. If zero results, try alternate vendor name spellings.

If next_page_cursor is not null, paginate with --page_cursor:

ramp bills search --query "<vendor>" --include_paid --limit 10 \
  --page_cursor "<cursor>" --agent --rationale "Search bills for the user"

Step 2: Drill into details

ramp bills get <bill_id> --agent --rationale "Review bill details"

This returns full payment detail including status, approval history, and metadata.

Use -n (dry run) to preview the request without sending:

ramp bills get <bill_id> --agent -n --rationale "Review bill details"

Step 3: Pull the invoice attachment

ramp bills attachments <bill_id> --agent --rationale "Fetch bill attachments"

Returns invoice files associated with the bill for cross-reference.

If get fails on a bill ID, attachments will likely fail too.

Step 4: Present findings

Summarize clearly:

Bill found: DHL
  Invoice #: 24-165-12
  Amount: $1,287.95 USD
  Payment status: [status from API]
  Approval status: [status from API]
  Memo: Business package shipment and insurance

If the user wanted to confirm a payment went out, state explicitly whether the status confirms payment or not.

Fields Available

From bills search

Field	Description
id	Bill UUID
invoice_number	Vendor invoice number
vendor_name	Payee name
amount	Numeric amount (dollars)
currency	Currency code
due_date	Payment due date (may be null)
payment_status	Payment state (may show "Unknown" for unpaid)
approval_status	Approval state
memo	Bill description

From bills get (when available)

Additional fields beyond search — exact schema depends on bill state. May include payment method, approval chain, and accounting metadata.

Example Session

User: Did we pay DHL this month?

Agent: Let me check.
> ramp bills search --query "DHL" --include_paid --limit 10 --agent --rationale "Search bills for the user"

Found 1 bill:
  DHL — Invoice #24-165-12
  Amount: $1,287.95 USD
  Payment status: PAID
  Approval status: APPROVED
  Memo: Business package shipment and insurance

Let me get full details.
> ramp bills get fe8e01ce-12a4-4512-bd27-da8a7432466d --agent --rationale "Review bill details"

Bill found: DHL
  Invoice #: 24-165-12
  Amount: $1,287.95 USD
  Payment status: PAID
  Payment method: ACH
  Payment date: Mon, 14 Apr 2026
  Approval status: APPROVED

Yes, DHL was paid $1,287.95 via ACH on April 14.

User: What about PwC?

Agent: > ramp bills search --query "PwC" --include_paid --limit 10 --agent

Found 1 bill:
  PwC — Invoice #231458926-12
  Amount: $15,000.00 USD
  Payment status: OPEN
  Approval status: PENDING
  Memo: Consulting Hours

This bill hasn't been paid yet — it's still pending approval.
Want me to pull the invoice attachment?

When NOT to Use

• Approving or rejecting bills — use approval-dashboard
• Analyzing spend across multiple vendors — use spend-analysis
• Uploading receipts — use receipt-compliance

Gotchas

Issue	Fix
Bill amounts may be in cents in get	Divide by 100 if amounts look 100x too large
payment_method only in bills get	Search results don't include payment method — drill into details to find ACH vs check vs wire
Something broken?	ramp feedback "message" to report CLI/API bugs