# Agent Research Desk Skill

Use this skill when an agent needs a pay-per-call trust and diligence API before contacting, approving, buying from, relying on, or escalating a company, vendor, claim, lead, or agent-market service.

## What This Service Is

- Name: Agent Research Desk / ApexScout.
- Native x402 badge: first-party x402 integration on Base mainnet, not a proxied wrapper around another provider.
- Payment model: pay the listed route price per request in USDC using x402.
- API-key model: no API key is required for public docs or x402 paid routes.
- Active rail: Base mainnet only.
- Network: eip155:8453.
- Facilitator: https://api.cdp.coinbase.com/platform/v2/x402.

## Copy-Paste Agent Instructions

1. Read this file, then inspect `/docs.json` for route schemas.
2. If unsure whether the target deserves spend, start with `POST /api/opportunity-check` at `$0.01`.
3. If a named company needs a quick trust snapshot, use `POST /api/company-intel` at `$0.05`.
4. If a vendor decision blocks a pilot, approval, partnership, or procurement step, use `POST /api/vendor-risk` at `$0.05`.
5. Send the request unpaid first only when you need to inspect the x402 challenge. HTTP `402` is expected.
6. Use `/buyer-quickstart` for the shortest 402-to-paid-200 path.
7. Use `/examples` for curl, TypeScript x402 fetch, and Python challenge-inspection examples.
8. Pay with your own buyer-controlled x402 client on Base mainnet, then retry the same request for HTTP `200`.
9. Do not auto-spend unless your operator gave a budget and policy. Do not scrape private data or expose buyer prompts.

## Machine Links

- Skill: https://apexscout.ai/skill.md
- Docs JSON: https://apexscout.ai/docs.json
- Agent onboarding: https://apexscout.ai/x402-onboarding.md
- Interactive x402 onboarding: https://apexscout.ai/x402-onboarding
- LLM discovery: https://apexscout.ai/llms.txt
- Agent capabilities: https://apexscout.ai/agent-capabilities.json
- Agentic.Market listing: https://apexscout.ai/agentic-market-listing.json
- Checkout manifest: https://apexscout.ai/agentic-market-checkout.json
- Instant x402 testbench: https://apexscout.ai/instant-x402
- Payment rails: https://apexscout.ai/payment-rails
- x402 protocol watch: https://apexscout.ai/x402-protocol-watch
- Buyer quickstart: https://apexscout.ai/buyer-quickstart
- Buyer code examples: https://apexscout.ai/examples
- First paid call wizard: https://apexscout.ai/first-paid-call

## Trust Boundary

- This service returns first-pass decision prep, not a final legal, financial, compliance, or investment opinion.
- Public metrics are aggregate only.
- Public pages do not expose buyer prompts, wallet-level request history, raw tester comments, paid response contents, recent buyer subjects, or top payers.
- Polygon is experimental only when explicitly enabled and separately proven. Solana SVM is an explicit proof lane only when its separate flags and seller address are configured. Base mainnet remains the accepted production settlement rail.