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Chowkidaar
Live on Hedera testnetSee the latest receipts

You only pay for what works

Chowkidaar sits between autonomous AI agents and paid APIs. If a service times out, crashes, or returns the wrong shape, the agent is refunded on-chain from the merchant's bonded USDC. No tickets, no humans in the loop.

Create an agent

2% per call. Test USDC is free.

Payment to a bonded merchant

Paid by the agent for one call
0.102USDC
Delivered
  1. Agent paid
    0.102 USDC over x402 from the demo agent
  2. Limits checked
    Under the per-payment cap and today's budget
  3. Delivered on time
    Valid JSON that matches the merchant's schema
  4. Merchant paid
    0.1 USDC to a bonded merchant, 0.002 USDC fee
Merchant bond

Every merchant posts a bond before it can take payments.

Built on
  • Hedera
  • x402
  • World ID
  • Arkiv

How it works

A checkpoint between your agent and every API it pays

  1. Your agent

    Calls a merchant through Chowkidaar with its key and pays the price plus 2%.

  2. Chowkidaar

    Checks the caps, budget and merchant score, pays the merchant, then checks the answer.

  3. Merchant API

    Answers as usual. Good data goes straight back to your agent.

  4. Call fails? The agent gets +0.1 USDC back from the merchant's bond.

Limits

Rules you set for each agent

Every payment is checked against them before any money moves. Anything above your approval line waits for you.

  • A cap per payment and a budget per day
  • A minimum merchant score from its public record
  • Merchants you pick and nobody else
Example agent limits: 0.50 USDC per payment, 5 USDC per day, approval asked above 0.25 USDC, minimum merchant score 60, two merchants allowed.
A call to a merchant returned HTTP 500. 0.12 USDC was taken from its bond, and 0.1 USDC went back to the agent.

Bonds

Merchants post a bond. Failures come out of it.

A merchant locks USDC before it can take payments. When a call fails a check, your agent gets the price back and the merchant pays a 20% penalty.

Server errors
The API answers with an error status or drops the connection.
Timeouts
No answer inside the merchant's time limit, at most 30 seconds.
Bad data
An empty body, or JSON that doesn't match the merchant's published schema.

List your API as a merchant

Receipts

Every call gets a receipt

Each one is written to Hedera, so anyone can check it.

Updates liveSee all receipts

Developers

Works with any x402 client

Point your client at the gateway and send your agent's key. The merchant's API doesn't change.

Read the API docsRead the source on GitHub
import { x402Client } from "@x402/core/client"; import { wrapFetchWithPayment } from "@x402/fetch"; import { ExactHederaScheme } from "@x402/hedera/exact/client"; import { createClientHederaSigner } from "@x402/hedera"; const signer = createClientHederaSigner(AGENT_ID, agentKey, { network: "hedera:testnet", }); const pay = wrapFetchWithPayment(fetch, x402Client.fromConfig({ schemes: [{ network: "hedera:*", client: new ExactHederaScheme(signer) }], })); // 200 is the data. 502 means the refund is already on its way. const res = await pay("https://api.chowkidaar.sahils.space/v1/call/<merchant>", { method: "POST", headers: { "x-agent-key": AGENT_KEY }, body: "{}", });

Questions

Good to know

Something else? Read the docs.

What happens if a merchant fails?

If the call errors, times out or returns bad data, your agent gets the price back from the merchant's bond in one Hedera transfer. The merchant also pays a penalty of 20% of the price from its bond.

Who holds the money?

Each agent pays from its own Hedera account. If Chowkidaar creates the wallet, the gateway keeps its key; you can also bring your own account. Merchant bonds sit in a vault account the gateway runs.

What does it cost?

2% per call, on top of the merchant's price. If a call fails because of our error, the fee is refunded too.

Do I need crypto?

No. Chowkidaar runs on Hedera testnet with test USDC. Create an agent, we make its wallet, and you can add test USDC from the agent's page.

Can I use it with Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor?

Yes. The Chowkidaar MCP server gives any MCP client tools to ask for a service, list merchants, check the wallet and read receipts, all inside the limits you set.

Give your first agent a budget

Sign in with World ID and set its limits. It can pay for its first call in a few minutes.

Create an agent