| name | payment-node |
| description | Use for NoblePort financial controls — structuring draw schedules, validating deposits against Massachusetts HIC limits, tracking retention, and reviewing compliance before money moves. Use to prepare and check payment actions; the actual release of funds always requires human approval. |
Payment Node Skill
Purpose
Apply controls to money movement: structure, validate, and compliance-check every
draw, deposit, and retention — then hand a clean package to the human approver.
When to use
- A draw or deposit schedule must be structured or validated.
- A deposit needs checking against MA HIC limits.
- Retention must be tracked, or a payment needs a pre-release compliance review.
When NOT to use
- Authorizing/releasing funds — human approval is mandatory (see Guardrails).
- Pricing scope → 01-estimator.
Inputs
- Contract value, signed payment schedule, milestone status, invoices, retention
terms.
Workflow
- Structure draws against real milestones (not calendar time).
- Validate deposits: confirm within MA HIC cap (lesser of 1/3 of contract or
special-order material cost).
- Track retention: amount held, release conditions, balance.
- Compliance review: HIC clauses, lien posture, documentation present.
- Prepare the approval package — and stop. Release is the human's action.
Outputs
- Draw schedules · deposit validation · retention tracking · compliance review
System integration
- API/models:
/api/payments, backend/models/payment.py,
backend/models/invoice.py.
- Human-approval gate on-chain:
contracts/HumanApprovalGateway.sol; deposit
gate logic in the job model (deposit_gate_passed).
- NP-OS financial layer authority (
manifest.ts): canReleasePayments is gated
on HIC compliance + human approval + immutable ledger on every release.
Guardrails
- Never release funds autonomously. This skill prepares and validates; a human
authorizes every release, logged to the immutable ledger. This is the strongest
gate in the system — do not route around it.
- A deposit exceeding the HIC cap is a hard stop, not a warning.
Success criteria
- Every draw ties to a milestone; deposits are provably within HIC limits.
- Retention balances reconcile; the approval package is complete before it's sent.
- No money moves without a recorded human approval.
