x402engine

name	x402engine
description	Pay-per-call API gateway skill — calls 63 APIs (LLMs, image/video gen, flights, hotels, crypto, web search) via x402 micropayments. Each call costs $0.001-$0.60 in USDC/USDm, enforced by a local policy engine with spend caps.

x402engine

Call 63 paid APIs via x402 micropayments. Each API call costs between $0.001 and $0.60, paid with USDC on Base/Solana or USDm on MegaETH.

What this skill does

This skill signs and submits stablecoin micropayments to call remote APIs on the user's behalf. It uses the EVM_PRIVATE_KEY environment variable to sign on-chain payment transactions. Each call deducts a small amount from the wallet.

Cost transparency: When presenting results, include the cost of the call (e.g. "Bitcoin is $97,500 (cost: $0.001)"). If the user asks about spending, show full budget breakdown.

Triggers

• "what's the price of bitcoin"
• "ethereum price"
• "show me trending crypto"
• "generate an image of a sunset"
• "run this python code"
• "transcribe this audio"
• "wallet activity of vitalik.eth"
• "ask gpt to explain x402"
• "scrape this url"
• "pin this to ipfs"
• "resolve vitalik.eth"
• "flights from JFK to LAX"
• "search hotels in Paris"
• "find cheap flights to Tokyo"
• "how much budget is left"
• "list available services"

How it works

1. Fetch cached service catalog from discovery endpoint (default: https://x402engine.app/.well-known/x402.json).
2. Score query against 63 service descriptions to find best match.
3. Run policy preflight — check per-tx caps, daily caps, and recipient allowlist before signing.
4. Call service via @x402/fetch — handles 402 payment flow automatically.
5. Return structured data to the agent for natural-language presentation.

Rules

• Present results naturally. Include the cost of each call so the user knows what was spent.
• If a payment fails due to insufficient funds, tell the user: "I need funds to access this service. Add USDC to your wallet to continue."
• If no matching service is found, say so plainly — don't expose internal routing details.
• Policy limits are authoritative — do not bypass spend caps or recipient allowlists.
• Keep all decisions explainable with reason codes internally.

Security

Required credential

• EVM_PRIVATE_KEY (required) — signs payment transactions. Use a dedicated wallet with limited funds — never your primary wallet. If not set, an ephemeral key is generated (no real funds, no payments possible).

Optional configuration

These environment variables are NOT required. They provide additional controls:

• EVM_PRIVATE_KEY_FILE — alternative to EVM_PRIVATE_KEY; reads the key from a file instead of an env var. Use one or the other, not both.
• X402_POLICY_PATH — path to a JSON policy file. Defines per-transaction caps, daily spending limits, and a recipient allowlist. Without this, no spending limits are enforced beyond the wallet's on-chain balance. When configured, the engine is fail-closed: if the file is missing or invalid, all payments are denied.
• X402_STATE_PATH — path to a JSON file tracking daily spend and rate-limit state. Defaults to .x402engine-state.json.
• X402_DISCOVERY_URL — override the service catalog URL (default: https://x402engine.app/.well-known/x402.json). Use a self-hosted catalog if you don't trust the default.
• X402_AUTOPREFLIGHT — set to false to skip policy preflight checks. Enabled by default.
• X402_DISCOVERY_REFRESH_MS — cache TTL for the service catalog in milliseconds.

How payments work

All payments go to the payTo address declared in the service catalog. The catalog is fetched from the discovery URL above. If you want to restrict which addresses can receive payments, configure a policy file with a recipient allowlist.

Budget check

When the user asks "how much budget is left" or similar:

• Load policy and state files.
• Show daily cap remaining per chain/asset if caps are enabled.
• Show rate limit status.
• Show wallet balance.

Dependencies

This skill requires Node.js and the following npm packages (declared in package.json):

• @x402/fetch — x402 payment-aware fetch wrapper
• @x402/evm — EVM payment scheme (Permit2 signatures)
• viem — Ethereum client library

Install with: cd skills/x402engine && npm install

Reason Codes

• POLICY_MISSING, POLICY_INVALID
• CHAIN_DENIED, ASSET_DENIED, RECIPIENT_DENIED
• PER_TX_EXCEEDED, DAILY_CAP_EXCEEDED, RATE_LIMITED
• ACTION_DENIED
• SERVICE_NOT_FOUND
• WALLET_UNDERFUNDED