# Agent Research Desk x402 Agent Onboarding

Agent Research Desk is a pay-per-call trust and diligence API for AI agents. It helps agents make first-pass decisions before they contact, approve, buy from, rely on, or escalate a company, vendor, claim, lead, or agent-market service.

This file is written for buyer agents, coding agents, MCP clients, and x402-capable wallets that need to understand the service without reading the full public site.

## Current Production Payment Setup

- Live service: https://apexscout.ai
- Copy-paste skill: https://apexscout.ai/skill.md
- Active payment mode: x402 paid mode.
- Native x402 badge: first-party x402 integration, not a proxied wrapper.
- Active production settlement rail: Base mainnet.
- Network: eip155:8453.
- Facilitator: https://api.cdp.coinbase.com/platform/v2/x402.
- Seller wallet: redacted-public-proof, last6 b0231D.
- Payment config rule: do not change rails, facilitator, seller wallet, endpoint paths, or listed prices unless a separate proof run is approved.
- Privacy rule: public pages do not expose buyer prompts, wallet-level request history, paid response contents, top payers, or raw tester comments.

## Fastest Safe Test Path

1. Read `/docs.json` or `/agent-capabilities.json`.
2. If the target may not deserve spend yet, 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 is blocking a pilot, approval, partnership, or procurement step, use `POST /api/vendor-risk` at `$0.05`.
5. Only use `POST /api/deep-diligence` at `$0.50` when missing evidence could change a real decision.
6. Send the route unpaid first if you need to inspect the payment challenge. HTTP `402` is expected.
7. Pay the listed route price with your buyer-controlled x402 client on Base mainnet.
8. Retry the exact same POST and expect HTTP `200` with structured JSON.

## Route Ladder

| Route | Price | Use this when | Do not use this when |
| --- | ---: | --- | --- |
| /api/opportunity-check | $0.01 | Use this when you are unsure whether a target or claim deserves more paid work. | Do not use this when you already know the blocker and need a company snapshot, vendor review, claim check, lead brief, or premium diligence map. |
| /api/research-brief | $0.05 | Use this when the buyer needs general structured research and the next step is still open-ended. | Do not use this when one company, one vendor, one claim, or one lead is already the clear focus. |
| /api/company-intel | $0.05 | Use this for a quick company snapshot before outreach, approval, or a deeper trust review. | Do not use this when the blocker is a single claim, a vendor-control question, or a decision that hinges on missing proof. |
| /api/company-watch | $0.20 | Use this when one named company matters enough to keep monitoring between outreach, approval, partnership, or trust decisions. | Do not use this when you only need a one-time company snapshot or when one single claim is already the only blocker. |
| /api/source-check | $0.05 | Use this when one claim or source is the blocker and you want the cheapest focused check first. | Do not use this when you need a broader company, vendor, lead, or general research view. |
| /api/vendor-risk | $0.05 | Use this before a pilot, procurement review, partnership decision, or vendor approval. | Do not use this when you only need a cheap initial screen or when one source claim is the only blocker. |
| /api/deep-diligence | $0.50 | Use this when missing evidence could change a real decision and the buyer needs a structured verification map. | Do not use this as legal diligence, investment diligence, compliance approval, or a claim that external facts were independently verified. |
| /api/lead-brief | $0.05 | Use this before outreach when the buyer wants a tighter account view and a clearer first message. | Do not use this when the main question is vendor approval, claim verification, or broader market research. |
| /api/agentic-market-brief | $0.25 | Use this when you need a fast market map for Agentic.Market, x402 services, or a new paid agent offer. | Do not use this as proof that an upstream paid call has succeeded, or as permission for autonomous spending without wallet auth and a budget cap. |
| /api/agentic-service-scorecard | $0.05 | Use this to evaluate one x402 service against current Agentic.Market gaps. | Do not use this as proof of paid settlement or as a replacement for live buyer feedback. |
| /api/agentic-route-forge | $0.25 | Use this when you need a concrete x402 route spec from an idea. | Do not use this to execute paid upstream calls or to deploy code automatically. |
| /api/agentic-market-watch | $0.01 | Use this when you need a category watchlist, movement signal, and pricing read. | Do not use this as a claim of revenue or paid demand without settlement telemetry. |
| /api/agentic-launch-plan | $0.50 | Use this to plan a safe x402 service launch. | Do not use this as confirmation that the service is discoverable before one paid settlement has completed. |
| /api/agent-revenue-audit | $5.00 | Use this when the buyer wants monetization help for their own agent, API, x402 service, or paid route. | Do not use this for investment, legal, tax, lending, compliance, trading, guaranteed revenue claims, automatic outreach, or external paid calls. |

## Copy-Paste Test Payloads

### Opportunity Check

```bash
curl -i -X POST https://apexscout.ai/api/opportunity-check \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{
  "subject": "Agent trust scoring for crypto vendors",
  "buyer": "Crypto fund operator",
  "marketType": "vendor",
  "geography": "United States",
  "goal": "Decide whether this topic is strong enough to package into a deeper diligence offer.",
  "knownSignals": [
    "Operators keep asking for a faster first-pass trust screen before pilots",
    "Funds want a lightweight way to compare agent vendors before deeper diligence"
  ],
  "constraints": [
    "Keep the first offer lightweight",
    "Do not assume the buyer already trusts agent vendors"
  ]
}'
```

### Company Intel

```bash
curl -i -X POST https://apexscout.ai/api/company-intel \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{
  "companyName": "Alpine Foods",
  "website": "https://example.com",
  "industry": "Food distribution",
  "geography": "United States",
  "researchFocus": "growth",
  "knownClaims": [
    "Regional specialty food distributor",
    "Expanding private-label program"
  ],
  "knownSignals": [
    "Hiring for operations and sales",
    "Launching new product categories"
  ],
  "questions": [
    "How concentrated is demand around a few buyers?",
    "What trust signals matter most to partners?"
  ]
}'
```

### Vendor Risk

```bash
curl -i -X POST https://apexscout.ai/api/vendor-risk \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{
  "vendorName": "Northwind AI",
  "website": "https://example.com",
  "serviceCategory": "AI workflow automation",
  "useCase": "Automate intake triage and case routing for an operations team.",
  "dataSensitivity": "high",
  "criticality": "high",
  "geography": "United States",
  "knownControls": [
    "SOC 2 Type II claimed",
    "SSO and role-based access controls"
  ],
  "knownConcerns": [
    "No published uptime history",
    "Third-party model dependency"
  ],
  "questions": [
    "What is the rollback plan if the workflow misroutes tasks?"
  ]
}'
```

## Full Buyer Code Examples

- Public examples page: https://apexscout.ai/examples
- Examples JSON: https://apexscout.ai/api/examples
- Buyer quickstart: https://apexscout.ai/buyer-quickstart
- Buyer quickstart JSON: https://apexscout.ai/api/buyer-quickstart
- First paid call wizard: https://apexscout.ai/first-paid-call

### TypeScript paid retry with @x402/fetch

```ts
import { wrapFetchWithPaymentFromConfig, decodePaymentResponseHeader } from "@x402/fetch";
import { ExactEvmScheme } from "@x402/evm";
import { privateKeyToAccount } from "viem/accounts";

const baseUrl = "https://apexscout.ai";
const payload = {
    "subject": "Agent trust scoring for crypto vendors",
    "buyer": "Crypto fund operator",
    "marketType": "vendor",
    "geography": "United States",
    "goal": "Decide whether this topic is strong enough to package into a deeper diligence offer.",
    "knownSignals": [
      "Operators keep asking for a faster first-pass trust screen before pilots",
      "Funds want a lightweight way to compare agent vendors before deeper diligence"
    ],
    "constraints": [
      "Keep the first offer lightweight",
      "Do not assume the buyer already trusts agent vendors"
    ]
  };

const account = privateKeyToAccount(process.env.EVM_PRIVATE_KEY as `0x${string}`);
const fetchWithPayment = wrapFetchWithPaymentFromConfig(fetch, {
  schemes: [{ network: "eip155:8453", client: new ExactEvmScheme(account) }],
});

const response = await fetchWithPayment(`${baseUrl}/api/opportunity-check`, {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "content-type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify(payload),
});

const paymentResponse = response.headers.get("PAYMENT-RESPONSE");
console.log(response.status); // 200 after payment
console.log(await response.json());
if (paymentResponse) console.log(decodePaymentResponseHeader(paymentResponse));
```

### Python unpaid challenge inspection

```py
import requests

base_url = "https://apexscout.ai"
payload = {
  "subject": "Agent trust scoring for crypto vendors",
  "buyer": "Crypto fund operator",
  "marketType": "vendor",
  "geography": "United States",
  "goal": "Decide whether this topic is strong enough to package into a deeper diligence offer.",
  "knownSignals": [
    "Operators keep asking for a faster first-pass trust screen before pilots",
    "Funds want a lightweight way to compare agent vendors before deeper diligence"
  ],
  "constraints": [
    "Keep the first offer lightweight",
    "Do not assume the buyer already trusts agent vendors"
  ]
}

response = requests.post(f"{base_url}/api/opportunity-check", json=payload)
print(response.status_code)
print(response.json())

if response.status_code == 402:
    print('Expected x402 challenge. Configure your Python x402 client, pay the listed route price, then retry the same POST.')
```

## What A Buyer Agent Should Do After 402

- Treat HTTP `402` as the normal x402 challenge, not as a broken service.
- Read the returned payment requirements and route guidance.
- If the route is too expensive for the decision, route down to `/api/opportunity-check`.
- If the response would change a real next action, pay the listed route price and retry.
- Record the route, price, subject, confidence, and whether the call was worth it in your own private buyer logs.

## Source Attribution Boundary

- Outputs are first-pass decision prep.
- Deep Diligence is a decision-prep map, not a final legal, financial, compliance, or investment opinion.
- Recommended sources are sources to verify unless the response explicitly says a supplied source was reviewed.
- Do not treat recommended verification sources as independently checked facts.

## Zero-Contact Discovery Boundary

- Zero-contact live mode is active.
- Do not post, DM, email, manually message people, scrape, or run third-party discovery.
- Prefer inbound discovery, official directory listings already submitted, `/x402-proof`, `/buyer-agent-challenge`, `/mcp-tool-pack`, `/public-agent`, and `/docs.json`.
- Source-tagged links remain historical measurement tools only and are not a recommendation to send messages.

## Useful Links

- Copy-paste skill: https://apexscout.ai/skill.md
- Docs JSON: https://apexscout.ai/docs.json
- Agent capabilities: https://apexscout.ai/agent-capabilities.json
- Agent guide: https://apexscout.ai/agents
- Interactive x402 onboarding: https://apexscout.ai/x402-onboarding
- Instant x402 testbench: https://apexscout.ai/instant-x402
- Checkout kit: https://apexscout.ai/checkout
- 402 rescue page: https://apexscout.ai/402-rescue
- 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
- Public dashboard: https://apexscout.ai/dashboard
- Agentic.Market listing: https://apexscout.ai/agentic-market-listing.json