Skip to content
The Agent Economy

Infrastructure directory

Concept

What is the agent economy

The agent economy is software agents that discover services, pay, prove identity, and act under spend limits on behalf of people or businesses. As of 2026-11-02, this directory records 82 listings in 7 categories, counted from the category files. It does not rank a listing.

Last reviewed 2026-11-02.

Protocols

Protocols lists 9 listings. Shared languages for discovery, tool calls, commerce, and agent to agent work. The protocol compatibility file lists 41 rows from Identity and trust, Payment rails, and Protocols, updated 2026-11-02.

Protocols · Protocol compatibility · Agent payment protocols

Payment rails

Payment rails lists 28 listings. Wallets, stablecoin rails, and pay per call protocols agents use to settle. The agent payment protocols file lists 5 columns, updated 2026-10-26. The agent wallets file lists 13 rows, last checked 2026-11-02. A row is a payment rails listing tagged wallets, plus Shop MCP, Stripe link-cli, Stripe Treasury for agents, and Stabletrust API. Those four are included because their provider pages describe a wallet or a payment account an agent spends from. Rows stay alphabetical.

Payment rails · How AI agents pay · Payment rail picker · Agent wallets compared · Agent payment protocols

Identity and trust

Identity and trust lists 12 listings. Ways to name an agent and check that a request came from it. The Know Your Agent glossary entry was last verified 2026-10-21. Know Your Agent is the check a merchant or service runs before it lets an agent transact. The check asks which agent is acting, on whose behalf, and with what authority. Glossary sources: Beltic press release, 2026-09-30; Skyfire Know Your Agent documentation; Visa Trusted Agent Protocol getting started.

Glossary sources

Identity and trust · Know Your Agent · Agent credentials compared · How do you revoke an AI agent's credentials?

Compute and asset exchanges

Exchanges and markets lists 13 listings. Marketplaces for compute, data, assets, capacity, and agent services. Exchanges with agent access lists 2 listings. Venues that publish an official path for an agent to use the market, such as an MCP server or an agent trading API.

Exchanges and markets · Exchanges with agent access

Governance and spend controls

Governance and mandates lists 8 listings. Spend limits, policy engines, approvals, and checks before an action runs. The spend controls file lists 20 products, last checked 2026-11-02. UNKNOWN means the checked document does not state the control.

Governance and mandates · Agent spend controls compared · Agent spend controls · Can an AI agent raise its own spending limit?

Frameworks

Frameworks and runtimes lists 10 listings. Runtimes and SDKs that execute the agent loop. 9 listings are marked open source.

Frameworks and runtimes · Open source agent frameworks

How this page is built

Category counts are the number of listing records in each category. Dataset counts are the number of rows or columns in the linked files. Last reviewed 2026-11-02, the newest last verified or updated date among those records. This page does not score a listing.

Questions

What is the agent economy?
The agent economy is software agents that discover services, pay, prove identity, and act under spend limits on behalf of people or businesses. As of 2026-11-02, this directory records 82 listings in 7 categories, counted from the category files. It does not rank a listing.
How many listings does the agent economy directory record?
This directory records 82 listings in 7 categories. Protocols lists 9 listings. Payment rails lists 28 listings. Exchanges and markets lists 13 listings. Exchanges with agent access lists 2 listings. Identity and trust lists 12 listings. Governance and mandates lists 8 listings. Frameworks and runtimes lists 10 listings.
Where are payments, protocols, and wallets counted?
Payment rails lists 28 listings. Wallets, stablecoin rails, and pay per call protocols agents use to settle. The agent payment protocols file lists 5 columns, updated 2026-10-26. The agent wallets file lists 13 rows, last checked 2026-11-02. A row is a payment rails listing tagged wallets, plus Shop MCP, Stripe link-cli, Stripe Treasury for agents, and Stabletrust API. Those four are included because their provider pages describe a wallet or a payment account an agent spends from. Rows stay alphabetical. Protocols lists 9 listings. Shared languages for discovery, tool calls, commerce, and agent to agent work. The protocol compatibility file lists 41 rows from Identity and trust, Payment rails, and Protocols, updated 2026-11-02.
Where does this directory record identity and spend limits?
Identity and trust lists 12 listings. Ways to name an agent and check that a request came from it. The Know Your Agent glossary entry was last verified 2026-10-21. Know Your Agent is the check a merchant or service runs before it lets an agent transact. The check asks which agent is acting, on whose behalf, and with what authority. Glossary sources: Beltic press release, 2026-09-30; Skyfire Know Your Agent documentation; Visa Trusted Agent Protocol getting started. Governance and mandates lists 8 listings. Spend limits, policy engines, approvals, and checks before an action runs. The spend controls file lists 20 products, last checked 2026-11-02. UNKNOWN means the checked document does not state the control.
Does this page rank a listing?
No. It counts records already in the directory. Category pages list entries alphabetically. This page does not score a listing.

Related concepts