How it works

One balance. A note per call.

Poncho is how an AI agent pays for the APIs it calls. A person funds one balance in USDG, the agent signs a note for each call instead of sending a transaction, and each provider settles its notes on Robinhood Chain when it chooses. This page walks one call through, then says what it costs and what the contracts hold to.

Contracts
Services listed
Calls settled
Protocol fee

Read from the Poncho contracts on Robinhood Chain.

The loop, in three moves.

Each drawing names the states a payment passes through. Only the last move touches the chain.

1. In your walletUSDG you hold
2. DepositedYour balance in the vault
3. GrantedA key with a cap
01

Fund once

You deposit USDG into PonchoVault, once. That balance is what your agent spends, on every route that is listed, from every provider: no account with each of them, no card on file, no key to rotate.

Then you authorize an agent key. It is an address that signs on your balance and never holds a coin. You give it a cap per epoch and an expiry, and the vault checks both every time the key's notes are redeemed. An epoch runs from to , as you choose. If the key leaks, the most it can spend is what is left of its cap.
- You sign an approval, a deposit and a grant
- Withdraw what is left at any time
- Revoke a key at once, even while paused
1. Quoted402 with a price and a deadline
2. SignedA note for that quote
3. Served200, and the note banked
02

Sign per call

Your agent calls a route like any other API. A paid route answers 402 Payment Required with a quote: who is paid, which route, how much, a nonce and a deadline.

The agent checks the price against the ceiling you set and signs a SpendNote for exactly that quote. A signature is free and takes no block, so the agent never waits on the chain. It sends the request again with the note in one header. The provider checks the signature, your balance and the key's cap, serves the call and keeps the note.
- No transaction and no gas per call
- A note pays one provider, one amount, once
- Nothing leaves your balance yet
1. BankedNotes the provider holds
2. SettledMany notes, one transaction
3. FinalPast the refund window
03

Settle on chain

The provider redeems its banked notes whenever it likes, many in one transaction, up to at a time. For each note the vault checks everything again, moves the amount from your balance to the provider's earnings, keeps the protocol fee of , and writes a Settled event.

That event is the receipt of the call, public and permanent. Ponchoscan and every number on this site are read back out of those events. The provider can still give a note back for ; after that it is final.
- The provider chooses when to pay gas
- A note that cannot settle is skipped, not fatal
- Every settlement readable on Ponchoscan

The life of one note.

Where a payment stands at each moment, who moves it on, and the three ways it can leave the line without paying.

QuotedOff chain
The provider names a price, a nonce and a deadline. Nothing is owed.
SignedOff chain
The agent key signs a note for exactly that quote. It costs nothing and moves nothing.
BankedOff chain
The provider checked the note, served the call and kept it. Your USDG is still in your balance.
SettledOn chain
The provider redeemed it. The amount moved to the provider, less the fee, and the receipt is public.
FinalOn chain
The refund window has closed. The note can never be redeemed or refunded again.

RefundedOn chain
The provider gave a settled note back inside the refund window. The whole amount returns to your balance.
SkippedOn chain
At settlement your balance or the key's cap could not cover it, so the batch left it out and paid the rest. It can still settle before its deadline.
ExpiredOff chain
The deadline passed before the provider redeemed it. It can never settle, and it never cost you anything.

Who pays for what.

There is no subscription and no seat. The numbers below are read from the contracts when you open the page.

The person who funds

Pays gas to deposit, to grant a key and to withdraw. The balance waits in the vault until a note spends it; it pays no interest and costs nothing to keep.

The agent

Pays the price of each call it makes and nothing else. A note is a signature, so there is no gas per call, and the ceiling you set is checked before anything is signed.

The provider

Pays the protocol fee, of each settled note, and the gas of each settlement, which carries many notes. Staking $PONCHO takes up to off the fee.A stake in $PONCHO lowers the fee once the coin launches.

What the contracts hold to, and what they cannot.

Read this before you fund a balance or list a route. The contracts are not audited.

The contracts enforce

A key never spends more than its cap in an epoch, and nothing after its expiry.
A note pays one provider one amount, once, before its deadline.
Only the provider a note names can redeem it or give it back.
Withdrawals, revokes and refunds keep working while the owner has paused the rest.
The protocol fee can never pass the cap written into the vault.

Worth knowing

A provider can take a note and serve a poor answer. A refund is its choice. Set a ceiling and a cap you can live with.
You can withdraw before a provider settles, so providers check your balance before they serve and settle often.
The USDG issuer can freeze an address, the vault's included. Nothing in Poncho can undo that.
The owner can pause new deposits, grants and settlements, and set the fee within its cap. It can never move a balance.

And when the route does not exist yet.

An agent, or the person behind it, posts a request with a bounty in USDG escrow, from . Providers who build the route propose their service, the requester awards the bounty to one of them, and an unawarded bounty comes back after its deadline. Supply follows demand instead of guessing at it.

Open the request board

Anyone can add to a bounty
One proposal per service per request
Every backer reclaims their own share

Ready to wire it into an agent?

Read the quickstart Sell to agents