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This wizard sets up autonomous agent purchasing using the ACP protocol. Your AI agent discovers merchants, opens checkouts, and completes payment — all within spending policies, kill-switches, and approval workflows that you control. Dashboard path: app.getsly.ai/dashboard/onboarding/wizard/agent-commerce Estimated time: ~15 minutes

Who this is for

  • Shopping assistant agents — “find and buy flights under $500”
  • Procurement bots — automated office supplies, recurring stock reorders
  • AI copilots with purchasing authority — subscription management, vendor renewals
  • Research agents — paying for data / compute / API access autonomously

What you’ll have when done

  • A connected payment processor for completing agent purchases
  • A dedicated agent wallet with spending budget
  • Configured spending limits and approval rules
  • A registered agent with Ed25519 credentials
  • A confirmed end-to-end agent purchase test

Steps

1. Connect payment processing (required, ~3 min)

Same as the e-commerce wizard — OAuth to your Stripe or PayPal account. Agents don’t use a separate processor; they settle through your existing merchant infrastructure. API equivalent:
curl https://sandbox.getsly.ai/v1/payment-handlers/connect?processor=stripe \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SLY_API_KEY"

2. Create agent wallet (required, ~3 min)

Dedicated wallet the agent draws from. Kept separate from your main account wallet so agent spending is bounded by wallet balance. Wizard asks you:
  • Wallet name (e.g. shopping-bot-budget)
  • Currency (USDC recommended)
API equivalent:
curl -X POST https://sandbox.getsly.ai/v1/agent-wallets \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SLY_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Shopping Bot Budget",
    "currency": "USDC",
    "parent_account_id": "acc_..."
  }'

3. Fund agent wallet (optional, ~3 min)

Load USDC into the agent’s wallet. In sandbox this is free (faucet); in live it’s funded from your main account wallet or external on-ramp. If you skip: the agent can’t make purchases until you fund the wallet. Dashboard → Agent Wallets → [wallet] → Fund. API equivalent (sandbox):
curl -X POST https://sandbox.getsly.ai/v1/agent-wallets/awl_.../fund \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SLY_API_KEY" \
  -d '{ "amount": "500.00" }'

4. Set agent spending controls (optional, ~4 min)

This is the heart of the template — wallet policies that govern what the agent can and cannot do. Wizard asks you:
  • Per-transaction limit (default $100)
  • Daily spending cap (default $1,000)
  • Approval threshold — amount above which a human must approve (default $500)
  • Allowed merchant categories (e.g. ["saas", "electronics"])
  • Blocked categories (e.g. ["gambling", "crypto_exchanges"])
Beyond the wizard defaults, you can also configure velocity rules, time-of-day restrictions, and per-merchant allowlists. See wallet policies. If you skip: defaults of 100/tx,100/tx, 1,000/day, no approval threshold apply. You can tighten from the dashboard anytime. API equivalent:
curl -X POST https://sandbox.getsly.ai/v1/agent-wallets/awl_.../policy \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SLY_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "global_limits": {
      "per_tx": "100.00",
      "daily": "1000.00",
      "monthly": "10000.00",
      "currency": "USDC"
    },
    "merchant_rules": [
      { "merchant_category": "gambling", "action": "block" }
    ],
    "approval_threshold": {
      "amount": "500.00",
      "approver_role": "admin"
    }
  }'

5. Test agent purchase (optional, ~3 min)

Sly simulates an agent completing a test checkout — including the approval flow if the amount triggers your threshold. Wizard shows you:
  • Real-time view of the agent’s decision-making
  • The spending-policy evaluation (allow / require_approval / block)
  • The full ACP checkout flow
  • Approval notification (if triggered)
If you skip: you can test anytime from the dashboard → Agents → [agent] → Test Purchase.

After the wizard

Your agent is provisioned with Ed25519 credentials. The wizard displays the private key once — save it immediately. See Ed25519 sessions for the challenge-response handshake the agent uses from here on. Give your agent a system prompt that references its Sly tools. If using the MCP server in Claude Desktop or similar, the agent discovers available actions automatically:
You have access to the Sly MCP tools. You can browse merchants, 
open ACP checkouts, and complete purchases. Respect the wallet 
policy — purchases above $500 need human approval.
Monitor agent activity. Dashboard → Agents → [agent] shows:
  • Recent transactions
  • Policy evaluations (allowed / rejected / approvals pending)
  • Current wallet balance and projected runway
  • Kill-switch button (freeze spending instantly)
Go live. Flip to pk_live_* keys. Real money moves; policies still enforce.

Governance features worth turning on before you ship

  • Approval workflows — route large purchases to Slack / email for human confirmation
  • Kill-switch — named operators who can freeze the agent instantly
  • KYA tier upgrade — higher spending caps unlock at Tier 2+ after 30-day history
  • Persistent SSE — the agent receives real-time notifications (task assigned, approval pending, wallet alert)

Troubleshooting

Policy evaluation is rejecting them. Check dashboard → Agent Wallets → [wallet] → Evaluations for the most recent rejections and their reason codes (KYA_LIMIT_EXCEEDED, POLICY_VIOLATION, MERCHANT_BLOCKED, etc.). Adjust the policy or raise the KYA tier.
Check Settings → Integrations → Slack; the Sly app must be connected and the destination channel must exist. Also verify the approver has the right role — only admin and owner see approvals by default.
The wallet balance is separate from the daily cap. You can have 500dailycapbutonly500 daily cap but only 200 in the wallet — that’s the binding constraint. Fund the wallet more generously than the cap.