AssayThe spending brain
for research agents.
Assay gives an AI agent a budget and a conscience. It scores every paid source for value-of-information, buys only what moves the answer forward — and shows you exactly why it refused the rest.
Four steps between a question and a receipt.
Discover
The agent reads free abstracts from creator sources — never the paywalled content.
Score
Each source gets a value-of-information score: relevance × novelty × expected gain vs price.
Buy or refuse
Worth it? The payment stage runs x402 when configured; hosted demo/test events remain explicitly labelled. Not worth it? Logged with a rationale.
Prove
Every record states whether it is a demo event, payment intent, or Arc testnet x402 settlement; every refusal has an explanation.
Any agent can spend money.
Trust comes from restraint.
The Wall of No
Most demos brag about what an agent buys. Assay showcases what it refuses — every declined source, with the metrics and reasoning that killed it. That's the audit trail your budget deserves.
Per-use payment path
Publish a source behind an x402 endpoint, set a price, and connect a wallet. With a funded Arc testnet paymaster, x402 can settle testnet USDC; otherwise Assay records an honestly labelled demo/payment event.
The ledger doesn't lie
The ledger separates demo/test events from Arc testnet x402 proofs. Totals, provenance, and buy/skip ratios stay visible in the console.
Real integration, explicit provenance.
Watch an agent spend a nickel
like it's a million dollars.
Give it a research task, a $0.05 budget, and watch every buy, skip, and cache-hit happen live.
Launch the Console