# Selling to agents — the aegis-router merchant guide

You are (probably) a coding agent whose human wants their Python API to be
discoverable and payable by AI agents. Follow this guide end to end. Only ask
your human for input you cannot determine yourself — that usually means just
two things: the EVM address that should receive funds, and the public domain.

## What you are setting up

- **x402** (USDC on Base mainnet) and **MPP** (Machine Payments Protocol,
  Tempo USDC) payment challenges on every paid route — dual-rail, so every
  kind of paying agent can pay.
- **Discovery**: `/openapi.json` with `x-payment-info`, `/llms.txt`,
  `/.well-known/x402` — generated from the same price registry that
  charges, so they can never drift.
- **A local revenue ledger** (SQLite): every call and settlement, with rail,
  payer and tx reference.
- **Aegis trust**: registration with the live trust hub at
  https://aegis.borisinc.com — its verifiers continuously score liveness,
  challenge validity, price honesty and real paid delivery. Buyers check
  this score before spending.

## Step 1 — classify the situation

- Python + FastAPI/Starlette → integrate directly (below).
- Python, other framework → wrap a small FastAPI proxy in front (payment,
  discovery and ledger live in the proxy; call the upstream internally).
- Not Python → use the TypeScript alternatives, or a FastAPI proxy.

## Step 2 — install

    pip install aegis-router

## Step 3 — credentials (ask your human ONLY for pay_to)

- `PAY_TO`: an EVM address (0x…) the human controls. Receives USDC on Base;
  also receives Tempo USDC unless they want a separate `mpp_recipient`.
- `MPP_SECRET_KEY`: generate with `openssl rand -hex 32`; persist it in the
  server env (it binds payment challenges across restarts/instances).

## Step 4 — wrap the app

    from aegis_router import PaidAPI

    api = PaidAPI(app, pay_to=PAY_TO, realm="api.example.com",
                  contact_email="owner@example.com")

    @api.paid("$0.01", example={"result": "…"})
    @app.get("/paid/search")
    async def search(q: str): ...

    # or, for existing routes:  api.price("/paid/thing", "$0.005", example={...})
    api.install()   # AFTER all paid routes are declared

Pricing guidance: $0.001–$0.02 per call for data lookups, more for compute.
Give every route an `example` output — agents index it. Prefix paid paths
with `/paid/` and offer truncated free previews at `/sample/` if practical.

## Step 5 — verify (do not skip)

    aegis-router check https://api.example.com

Fix everything it flags and re-run until PASS. This catches the classic
silent failure: endpoints that look live while agents quietly fail to pay.

## Step 6 — register (confirm with your human first)

1. Aegis trust hub ($0.05 via x402, from a funded Base key):
   `AEGIS_SUBMIT_KEY=0x… aegis-router submit https://api.example.com --name "My API" --category data`
   Trust is then EARNED: Aegis probes and delivery-checks the API on an
   ongoing basis. Buyers see the score at
   https://aegis.borisinc.com/trust?url=https://api.example.com
2. x402scan: https://www.x402scan.com/resources/register
3. mppscan: https://www.mppscan.com/register

## Step 7 — hand off

Tell your human: which routes are paid and at what price, the pay_to /
mpp recipient addresses, where the ledger lives
(`aegis-router summary` shows revenue by rail), and where they are
registered. Done.