Ontario Protocol.
x402 pre-payment decision playbook

Validate a service listing for security reviewers

The service needs a listing payload that agents and directories can parse. This playbook maps the decision to observable Ontario evidence so an agent can fail closed before payment.

Validate listing security teams No-payment first
Decision question: Can security reviewers rely on this x402 endpoint without trust language that outruns observable evidence?

Only after security reviewers can inspect normalized listing payload, endpoint URL, owner contact, category, price, and report link. 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 reviewers checking payment, metadata, and replay boundaries.
  • Require normalized listing payload, endpoint URL, owner contact, category, price, and report link.
  • Reject when there is missing endpoint URL, vague category, impossible price, or no route to a readiness report.
  • 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 missing endpoint URL, vague category, impossible price, or no route to a readiness report.

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 -X POST https://ontarioprotocol.com/api/x402/list-service/validate \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name":"Example API","endpoint_url":"https://example.com/api/paid-endpoint","category":"data"}'

Primary Ontario surface: /api/x402/list-service/validate

Sourceability note

Service profile and listing surfaces are already visible in Search Console.

KPI: more report and methodology page inspections.

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.

Use the service listing quickstart Run verifier Browse discovery Read trust boundary