x402-client

What This Skill Does

The x402-client skill enables your OpenClaw agent to engage in the emerging machine-to-machine economy by facilitating automated payments over HTTP using the x402 protocol. By leveraging USDC stablecoins on the Base network (mainnet and testnet), this skill acts as a "Stripe for agents." It provides a robust framework to programmatically pay for premium services—such as paid APIs, subscription data feeds, or gated AI model inferences—and to monetize your own agent services by requiring payments before fulfilling requests. The protocol handles the complex handshake of HTTP 402 Payment Required status codes, ensuring seamless, trustless transactions that allow your agents to be both consumers and providers of value.

Installation

To install this skill, run clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/samoppakiks/x402-client in your terminal. Once installed, navigate to the skill directory and run bash scripts/setup.sh. This initialization script creates a secure EVM wallet stored at ~/.x402/wallet.json and installs necessary dependencies. It is fully idempotent and safe to run multiple times. Ensure you fund your wallet with USDC on the Base network to begin executing transactions immediately.

Use Cases

This skill is designed for scenarios requiring autonomous financial interaction. Typical use cases include paying for recurring API subscriptions for market data, purchasing compute time for complex tasks from other specialized agents, or running a 'pay-per-request' service where your agent provides data or compute results to external clients. It is ideal for developers building decentralized autonomous agents that need to balance their own operational costs against the revenue they generate.

Example Prompts

1. "Check the current balance of my x402 wallet and tell me if I have enough USDC on Base mainnet to pay for the upcoming API request."
2. "Use the x402 client to access the service at https://api.example.com/data and confirm the transaction was successful."
3. "Set up a paywall on my local server port 4021 requiring 0.05 USDC per request for the audit endpoint."

Tips & Limitations

Always monitor your wallet balance and set a realistic --max-price threshold when calling external services to avoid unexpected costs. Use the --dry-run flag during development to simulate requests without spending actual funds. Be aware that transactions occur on the Base blockchain; network congestion or gas fees may impact latency and final costs. Ensure your wallet is sufficiently funded for both transaction costs and the service fees you intend to pay.