Skip to content
The Agent Economy

Infrastructure directory

Glossary

Approval channel

Approval channel: An approval channel is the path that carries human approval for an agent action. The I-HITL paper says that path must end at a trusted entity the agent cannot reach. The directory source for this term is I-HITL: Inalienable Human-in-the-Loop.

Last verified 2026-11-02

Sources

Can an AI agent raise its own spending limit?

Listings

Directory listings whose sources describe this mechanism.

Listings in alphabetical order
NameStatusCategoryOpen sourceMechanism
Agent VaultLivePayment railsNo

Self Labs product that gives an agent mock card and login tokens. A proxy checks the account holder's rules, then types the real value into the merchant page. The agent does not hold the card number.

cards, spend-limits, checkout

Agentcard opencommerceLivePayment railsNo

Commerce SDK that gives an agent one buy tool for catalog search, cart, checkout, and order tracking across online stores. The shopper approves each payment with a passkey on a link that lasts about 15 minutes, and Agentcard then places the order with the shopper's saved card.

cards, checkout, spend-limits

Circle Agent WalletsLivePayment railsNo

Circle CLI wallet for agents. Spending policies cap USDC transfers per transaction and over a day, week, or month, and can allow or block recipient addresses. Policies apply to mainnet agent wallets.

wallets

Coinbase Agentic WalletLivePayment railsNo

Coinbase wallet for agents. The Agentic Wallet CLI (awal) holds USDC and can send, trade, and pay x402 services under configurable caps per session and per transaction. Keys stay in Coinbase infrastructure. The MCP (npx @coinbase/payments-mcp) lets agents discover and pay for services only, and cannot send or trade.

wallets, stablecoins, http-402, spend-limits

Ledger Agent IntentBetaGovernance and mandatesNo

Beta approval layer where an agent proposes an Ethereum or Solana send, or an Ethereum swap, and a person approves or rejects it on a Ledger signer. The agent does not hold the wallet keys.

approvals, signers, intents

Machine Payments ProtocolLivePayment railsYes

Open HTTP 402 protocol, co-authored by Stripe and Tempo, so an agent can authorize payment for an API with a card or a stablecoin and receive a receipt.

http-402, cards, stablecoins

MetaMask Agent WalletLivePayment railsNo

Agent wallet CLI for sending tokens and paying x402 requests. Guard Mode can enforce address and recipient allowlists and a rolling 24 hour outflow limit, and it asks for 2FA outside that policy.

wallets, spend-limits, http-402

NeverminedLivePayment railsNo

Payments facilitator that verifies and settles x402 and MPP charges against a payment plan, with metering and delegated card spending.

http-402, metering, cards

Stripe link-cliLivePayment railsYes

CLI for an agent to request a card purchase or a Machine Payments Protocol charge. Link returns a one time payment credential. Since 26 October 2026, a funded Link balance lets the agent skip approval for purchases under a per purchase limit the user sets, first in Instinct.

cards, spend-limits, http-402

Tempo WalletLivePayment railsNo

Wallet and CLI that let an agent discover paid services, preview MPP terms, and pay under a max spend cap.

wallets, http-402, spend-limits

Visa Intelligent CommerceLivePayment railsNo

Visa APIs for an agent to act on a consumer authorized purchase instruction. The consumer authenticates, for example with a Visa Payment Passkey, the instruction holds up to 10 mandates with spend parameters, and the agent draws a tokenized Visa credential against a mandate for each purchase.

cards, spend-limits, mcp

Questions

What is Approval channel?
An approval channel is the path that carries human approval for an agent action. The I-HITL paper says that path must end at a trusted entity the agent cannot reach.
Which listings use Approval channel?
Agent Vault, Agentcard opencommerce, Circle Agent Wallets, Coinbase Agentic Wallet, Ledger Agent Intent, Machine Payments Protocol, MetaMask Agent Wallet, Nevermined, Stripe link-cli, Tempo Wallet, Visa Intelligent Commerce.
When was Approval channel last verified?
Last verified 2026-11-02.

Related terms