How purchases are kept safe

Letting an agent buy domains should never mean handing it an open wallet. These are the controls that sit between an agent and a charge.

Scoped API keys

Every API key can be limited. scope=read keys can look but not change anything. allow_purchase=false keys can manage DNS but cannot spend money. A key can also be limited to a list of domains, so an agent working on one site cannot touch the others.

Monthly spend caps

A person sets a monthly cap in USD and the agent works inside it:

Set it: PUT /api/v1/account/spend-cap with {"monthly_spend_cap_usd": 50}, or null to remove it. This needs a signed-in session or an unrestricted key, so a scoped agent key cannot raise its own cap.
Check it: GET /api/v1/account/spend-cap shows the cap, what was spent this calendar month (UTC) and what is left.
Hit it: any order that would take the month over the cap is refused with HTTP 403, a message showing the cap, the spend so far and the order price, and no charge.

Dry runs before anything is charged

Orders, renewals and DNS changes accept dry_run=true (or the X-Dry-Run: 1 header). A dry run returns the live quote, the renewal price and any blockers, and never creates an order or charges anything. Even a no-purchase key can dry-run.

Live, price-locked quotes

Prices are live quotes from the registry, not placeholders. An order locks its price for a set window and shows the year-one and renewal price, so there are no surprise renewals. Our agent policy asks agents to show the quote to their human and get a yes before paying.

No double charges

Pass an idempotency_key and retries return the same order instead of a second one. Identical requests within 15 minutes are de-duplicated even without a key.

Payments a human stays in control of

Agents can pay in USDC or USDT from their own wallet (x402 or a plain transfer) or from a prepaid balance. Card payments, including Stripe Link, are approved by a person: the agent hands over the checkout link and the human confirms the spend.

A server that cannot buy

Directories and cautious users can connect to https://stabledomains.net/api/mcp/discover. It searches, quotes and manages DNS for domains you own, but has no order, payment, renewal or transfer tools. Purchases return a checkout link for a person to finish.

Signed webhooks

Account webhooks are signed with HMAC-SHA256 (X-StableDomains-Signature), carry a stable delivery id for de-duplication, and retry for 24 hours, so you can audit every registration, renewal and DNS change.

WHOIS privacy by default

Free WHOIS privacy is applied automatically where the registry allows it, so registrant details are redacted in public WHOIS and RDAP.

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