Crow — Agent Payment Service
Crow gives your AI agent a wallet to pay for APIs and services autonomously — within spending rules set by the wallet owner. All interaction is via curl / HTTP requests to https://api.crowpay.ai.
Two payment methods:
- x402 (USDC on Base) — for APIs that return HTTP 402 Payment Required
- Credit card (Stripe) — for merchants, subscriptions, API credits
Dashboard: https://crowpay.ai/dashboard
When to Use This Skill
- Agent gets an HTTP
402 Payment Requiredresponse - Agent needs to pay for an API, buy credits, or pay a merchant
- User wants to set up an agent wallet with spending rules
- User asks about CrowPay, Crow, or agent payments
- User wants their agent to buy something on the internet
Setup — Get a Wallet and API Key
curl -X POST https://api.crowpay.ai/setup \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{}'
Response:
{
"apiKey": "crow_sk_abc123...",
"walletAddress": "0x1234...abcd",
"claimUrl": "https://crowpay.ai/claim/xyz789",
"fundingInstructions": "Send USDC on Base to 0x1234...abcd"
}
Three things to do after setup:
- Save the
apiKeyimmediately — it is shown only once and cannot be retrieved later - Tell the user to visit the
claimUrlto create their account and set spending rules - Fund the wallet: send USDC on Base to
walletAddress, or add a credit card in the dashboard
All subsequent requests need this header:
X-API-Key: crow_sk_abc123...
Decision Tree
Agent needs to pay for something?
│
├── Got an HTTP 402 from an API? (x402 / USDC)
│ │
│ └── curl POST /authorize ← pass the full 402 response body
│ ├── 200 → Got signed payload. Retry original request with payment-signature header.
│ ├── 202 → Needs human approval. Poll GET /authorize/status every 3s.
│ └── 403 → Spending rules blocked it. Tell the user.
│
└── Paying a merchant with credit card?
│
└── curl POST /authorize/card ← pass amount, merchant, reason
├── 200 → Got sptToken. Use it to pay via Stripe.
├── 202 → Needs human approval. Poll GET /authorize/status every 3s.
└── 403 → Spending rules blocked it. Tell the user.
Endpoints
POST /setup — Create wallet + API key
No auth required.
curl -X POST https://api.crowpay.ai/setup \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"network": "eip155:8453"}'
network is optional (defaults to Base mainnet). Response contains apiKey, walletAddress, claimUrl.
POST /authorize — Pay for an x402 API (USDC)
When you hit an API and get a 402 Payment Required response, forward the entire response body to Crow:
curl -X POST https://api.crowpay.ai/authorize \
-H "X-API-Key: crow_sk_abc123..." \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"paymentRequired": {
"x402Version": 2,
"resource": {"url": "https://api.example.com/v1/data"},
"accepts": [{
"scheme": "exact",
"network": "eip155:8453",
"amount": "1000000",
"asset": "0x833589fCD6eDb6E08f4c7C32D4f71b54bdA02913",
"payTo": "0xRecipientAddress",
"maxTimeoutSeconds": 60,
"extra": {"name": "USDC", "version": "2"}
}]
},
"merchant": "ExampleAPI",
"reason": "Fetching data for user task",
"platform": "Claude MCP",
"service": "Premium data API"
}'
Required fields:
paymentRequired— the full 402 response body from the APImerchant— name of the service (wallet owner sees this)reason— why the payment is needed (wallet owner sees this)
Optional context fields (recommended):
platform— which agent/platform is making the request (e.g. "Claude MCP", "LangChain")service— what service/product the payment is for (e.g. "Weather API call", "Premium data")
200 → Auto-approved. Response is a signed payment payload. To retry the original request:
# Base64-encode the entire response and put it in the payment-signature header
PAYMENT=$(echo -n '<full JSON response>' | base64 -w0)
curl https://api.example.com/v1/data -H "payment-signature: $PAYMENT"
202 → Needs human approval. Response contains approvalId. Poll for status (see below).
403 → Denied. Spending rules blocked it. Do not retry with same params.
See references/x402-flow.md for the complete end-to-end walkthrough.
POST /authorize/card — Pay a merchant with credit card
curl -X POST https://api.crowpay.ai/authorize/card \
-H "X-API-Key: crow_sk_abc123..." \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"amountCents": 1000,
"merchant": "OpenAI",
"reason": "GPT-4 API credits",
"platform": "Claude MCP",
"service": "GPT-4 API credits"
}'
Required fields:
amountCents— amount in cents (1000= $10.00)merchant— merchant namereason— why the payment is needed
Optional fields:
currency— defaults to"usd"paymentMethodId— specific card to use (uses default card if omitted)merchantStripeAccount— Stripe Connect account ID if applicableplatform— which agent/platform is making the request (e.g. "Claude MCP", "LangChain")service— what service/product the payment is for (e.g. "GPT-4 credits", "API subscription")
200 → Auto-approved:
{"approved": true, "sptToken": "spt_...", "transactionId": "..."}
Use the sptToken to pay the merchant. Expires in 1 hour.
202 → Needs human approval. Poll for status.
403 → Denied. Spending rules blocked it.
See references/card-payments.md for full details.
GET /authorize/status — Poll for approval
curl "https://api.crowpay.ai/authorize/status?id=APPROVAL_ID" \
-H "X-API-Key: crow_sk_abc123..."
Poll every 3 seconds. Do not poll faster.
| Status in response | What to do |
|---|---|
"pending" |
Keep polling |
"signing" |
Keep polling (approved, generating payload) |
Response has payload field |
Done — use the signed payload to pay |
Response has sptToken field |
Done — use token for card payment |
"denied" |
Stop. Owner rejected the payment. |
"timeout" |
Stop. Approval window expired. |
"failed" |
Stop. Error during signing. |
POST /settle — Report x402 settlement
After the x402 facilitator settles your payment on-chain, report it. Idempotent — safe to call multiple times.
curl -X POST https://api.crowpay.ai/settle \
-H "X-API-Key: crow_sk_abc123..." \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"transactionId": "...", "txHash": "0x..."}'
Not needed for card payments (Stripe webhooks handle this automatically).
Key Numbers
| Type | Format | Example | Dollar value |
|---|---|---|---|
| USDC (x402) | Atomic units, 6 decimals | 1000000 |
$1.00 |
| USDC (x402) | Atomic units, 6 decimals | 100000 |
$0.10 |
| Card | Cents | 100 |
$1.00 |
| Card | Cents | 1000 |
$10.00 |
- Network: Base mainnet (
eip155:8453) - USDC contract:
0x833589fCD6eDb6E08f4c7C32D4f71b54bdA02913
Default Spending Rules
Auto-created when wallet is claimed:
- Per-transaction limit: $25
- Daily limit: $50
- Auto-approve threshold: $5 (above this → human must approve)
Owners customize these in the dashboard.
References
For deeper walkthroughs with complete curl examples and all edge cases:
references/api-reference.md— Complete API reference: every endpoint, every field, every response code with curl examplesreferences/x402-flow.md— End-to-end 402 payment walkthrough with curlreferences/card-payments.md— Credit card payment walkthrough with curlreferences/error-handling.md— All error codes, retry strategy, polling best practices
Finding Services to Pay For
Use Nightmarket to discover paid APIs your agent can call. Every Nightmarket service uses x402 — Crow handles the payments automatically.
Install the Nightmarket skill:
npx skills add https://github.com/Fallomai/skills --skill nightmarket