Agent-filed briefs
An authorised system submits a brief and settles the routing charge without creating a manual billing relationship first.
Direction · Machine Payments Protocol
Governed machine payments for AI-mediated research workflows.
True Primary is shaping its machine-side surface around the Machine Payments Protocol so authorised agents can file briefs, retrieve evidence, and handle metered research actions with policy-bound, receipt-backed exchange.
Designed to be machine‑readable · policy‑bound · receipt‑backed · audit‑ready
Why this matters now
As more work moves through AI interfaces and software agents.
The hard problem is no longer only retrieval or orchestration. It is how a machine-side action is allowed, constrained, paid for, and recorded without turning the workflow back into manual billing pages and account setup.
MPP is the open protocol model for that. True Primary is shaping its machine-side surface around MPP for the traffic that will sit underneath the human research workflow.
Worked exchange · target stateMPP · 402 → 200
> POST /briefs HTTP/1.1
> Host: api.trueprimary.com
> Content-Type: application/json
>
> {
> "question":
> "chargeback pricing in LATAM"
> }
< HTTP/1.1 402 Payment Required
< WWW-Authenticate: Payment
< id="q-7c19",
< realm="api.trueprimary.com",
< method="evm", intent="charge",
< amount="500.00", currency="USDC",
< payee="trueprimary.eth"
··· authorised within policy ···
> POST /briefs HTTP/1.1
> Authorization: Payment
> credential="0x4b9e0e2c…d31a"
> Content-Type: application/json
>
> {
> "question":
> "chargeback pricing in LATAM"
> }
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< Payment-Receipt: tx="0x4b9e0e2c…d31a"
<
< {
< "brief_id": "BR-Q4N",
< "status": "in scope"
< }Architecture
Four layers. Each carries one responsibility.
Principal and policy at the top. Agent or application underneath. MPP carries the challenge, settlement, and receipt. The True Primary resource sits at the bottom, with verifiable receipts attached to every paid action.
Architecture · target stateReceipt-backed
- 01Layer 1 of 4
Principal · policy
Who may spend, on what, under which budget. The policy travels with every request.
- 02Layer 2 of 4
Agent · application
An autonomous workflow, an internal service, or a human-in-the-loop request issued under the policy.
- 03Layer 3 of 4
MPP · challenge, settlement, receipt
402 Payment Required → authorisation → receipt-bearing response. Verifiable end to end.
- 04Layer 4 of 4
True Primary resource · audit
Brief intake, transcript summary access, library query. Each paid action linked back to a receipt.
Machine-readablePolicy-boundReceipt-backedAudit-ready
The exchange
Four steps, one round trip.
- 01
Client requests a paid resource
An agent, application, or human asks for something the API offers. A transcript summary, a synthesis, a metered library query.
- 02
Server returns a payment challenge
402 Payment Required. The challenge describes accepted methods, the price, and the receipt format.
- 03
Client fulfils the challenge
Inside the policy and limits delegated to the principal. The protocol does not care which payment rail; it cares that the proof is verifiable.
- 04
Server verifies and returns the resource
Plus a Payment-Receipt header. The whole transaction concludes inside a single round trip, machine-readable end to end.
Where MPP fits at True Primary
The human side stays human. MPP runs underneath it.
Briefs, source routing, expert interactions, and transcript-backed evidence remain a human workflow. MPP fits in the layer underneath: the machine-side traffic that files a brief on behalf of an authorised agent, retrieves a paid transcript summary, or runs a metered library query.
Per-transcript access
A downstream system requests a single transcript summary or piece of synthesis and receives a receipt-backed response.
Metered library queries
Short, machine-side synthesis queries can be priced at the request level instead of via surrounding account complexity.
Compliance by receipt
Every machine-side paid action ties back to a receipt-bearing event and an auditable workflow.
Governance and delegated authority
Not autonomous spending. Delegated authority with limits.
Principal and policy
Who may spend, on what, under which budget. The principal sets the policy; the agent operates within it.
Receipt-backed
Every machine-side paid action carries a receipt linked to a brief, a source, and a caveat.
Audit-ready
The audit trail is the protocol, not a screenshot. Every receipt is independently verifiable.
Open standard
MPP is being proposed as an internet standard. We are committing to an open base, not a proprietary billing layer locked to one vendor.
What is real today
Briefs reach us through /access today.
MPP-aware intake is on the build path. Our protocol recipient is trueprimary.eth.
Today
Briefs reach True Primary through /access. Engagements run through True Primary's operating systems.
Build path
MPP-aware brief intake, transcript-summary access, and metered library queries are being scoped against the protocol.
Pilot scope
We are scoping integrations with teams designing agents on top of research. Talk to us about your principal, policy, and limits.
Building agents on top of True Primary?
If you are designing machine-side flows that need policy-bound, receipt-backed exchange, bring us your principal, policy, and limits — pilot scoping is open now.