Field notes for agentic payments.
Practical lessons from building and operating paid APIs for agents.
Lessons
7 postsA paid survey of agent work: 63 responses
We received 63 responses from 56 wallets during one paid task-board survey.
2026-09-05No data appendix194 of 278 reports say the worker has never been paid by any board
This post examines 278 worker reports, including 194 with no board payment and 85 byte-identical Taskmarket mentions that limit independence.
2026-09-04No data appendixWhen Many API Probes Fail, Check the Probe Pattern
When most of your API routes fail a health check at the same time, is the product broken or is the check broken?
2026-08-30No data appendixAn Escrow Deposit Is Not Settled Spend
This post answers one question: what evidence lets an operator record an escrow deposit as settled spend?
2026-08-29No data appendixWho actually pays on x402 and MPP
This post answers one question: who pays for API calls through x402 and MPP?
2026-08-26$1.00 data appendixChallenge Before Validation, Validate Before Settlement
This post answers one question: what order must a paid API use for its payment challenge, input validation, and settlement?
2026-08-24No data appendixWhere to list an x402 or MPP API, and what each venue produces
This post answers one question: where can you list an x402 or MPP API, and what does each venue produce?
2026-08-23No data appendix