Specification

Six steps between an agent and a completed order.

The protocol exists so an autonomous buyer never has to scrape a menu page, guess at availability, or hold a payment credential it should not have.

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Discover

The agent finds the catalogue

Every merchant publishes a well-known descriptor listing item identifiers, modifiers, prices, availability windows, fulfilment options, and lead times. Identifiers are stable, so an agent can refer to the same item tomorrow.
Quote

It asks what this would cost, right now

A quote binds price, availability, tax, and fulfilment time for a stated period. It carries an expiry, because an agent retrying a stale quote is cheaper for everyone than a refund an hour later.
Authorise

It presents a mandate, not a card

The principal grants the agent a mandate: a spend ceiling per transaction and per period, a category restriction, and an expiry. The mandate is the credential, it is scoped, and it can be revoked mid-flight.
Commit

The order becomes real, or it does not

Commit is atomic against the quote. If stock moved in between, the commit is refused rather than accepted and cancelled later. There is no partially-real order.
Settle

It lands on the same ledger as everything else

Payment runs through the merchant processor and posts to the same ledger and the same deposit as a counter sale, tagged with the agent and the mandate that placed it.
Attest

Everything is attributable afterwards

Which agent, acting for which principal, under which mandate, at what quoted price. Written to the append-only audit trail alongside every other privileged action.

Design commitments

No standing credentials An agent never holds a reusable payment instrument. It holds a scoped, expiring mandate.

Refuse rather than reverse A commit that cannot be honoured fails at commit time instead of becoming a cancellation later.

One ledger Agent revenue is not a separate book. It settles and reconciles exactly like counter revenue.

Attributable by default Every agent action names the agent, the principal, and the mandate, permanently.

Agent Protocol questions

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What is agentic commerce?

Agentic commerce is a purchase completed by an AI agent acting on a person or company's behalf, without that person opening an app or a website. The agent reads a machine-readable catalogue, checks availability, and pays under a mandate granted to it in advance.

Can an AI agent buy from a Prinvia merchant today?

Yes. Agent Commerce publishes catalogue, availability, and payment rails as a structured interface. Merchants choose which items are agent-purchasable and what spending limits apply per counterparty.

How is an agent stopped from overspending?

An agent never holds an open payment credential. It holds a mandate that caps amount per transaction and per period, restricts categories, and expires. Mandates are revocable at any time, including mid-order.

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