Ontario Protocol.
x402 pre-payment decision playbook

Check Base USDC network metadata for OpenAPI tool registries

Network and asset drift can make an otherwise valid payment challenge unusable. This playbook maps the decision to observable Ontario evidence so an agent can fail closed before payment.

Check Base USDC tool registries No-payment first
Decision question: Can OpenAPI tool registries rely on this x402 endpoint without schemas that describe an API but omit payment behavior?

Only after OpenAPI tool registries can inspect scheme, network, asset contract, payTo address, maxAmountRequired, and facilitator support. If the evidence is missing, stale, or contradictory, the agent should fail closed.

Required evidence

  • Confirm the endpoint maps to a real payment resource for registries that need parseable API and payment contracts.
  • Require scheme, network, asset contract, payTo address, maxAmountRequired, and facilitator support.
  • Reject when there is network mismatch, unsupported asset, missing payTo, or price fields that cannot be converted.
  • Link the final decision to a public report, manifest, benchmark row, or policy outcome.

Reject conditions

Reject or send to human review when there is network mismatch, unsupported asset, missing payTo, or price fields that cannot be converted.

Do not let a positive-looking badge or directory row override a stale or contradictory live check.

Agent workflow

  1. Start with the no-payment evidence path.
  2. Run the Ontario verifier or policy endpoint shown below.
  3. Compare live endpoint behavior against manifest and discovery metadata.
  4. Store the report_id or policy decision with the agent's payment log.
  5. Send the payment only when the agent's own policy allows it.

Command or probe

curl https://ontarioprotocol.com/facilitator/supported
# Treat live supported networks/assets as the source of truth before hardcoding.

Primary Ontario surface: /facilitator/supported

Sourceability note

Search Console showed early impressions for Base versus Arbitrum comparison.

KPI: more OpenAPI-backed x402 service profiles.

Trust boundary

Ontario Protocol provides readiness and trust signals based on observable endpoint behavior, manifest metadata, payment challenge behavior, report history, and public evidence. It does not guarantee endpoint safety, service quality, financial outcome, or future behavior.

Compare agent payment rails Run verifier Browse discovery Read trust boundary