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The Three Actors

Agents & Developers

Build agents or applications that consume services through ACN. Authenticate with API keys or wallet signatures.

ACN Platform

The middleware layer. Handles discovery, payment processing, request routing, quality tracking, and settlement.

Providers

External services listed on ACN. Set their own pricing, receive automated settlement, and serve agent requests.

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The Core Flow

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1. Discovery

An agent (or developer) sends a natural language query to ACN’s discovery endpoint: 
curl -X POST https://api.acn.exchange/v1/discover \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "send a transactional email"}'
ACN’s AI-powered discovery engine:
  • Parses the intent using an LLM
  • Generates semantic embeddings
  • Searches a vector index of all registered endpoints
  • Applies structured filters (category, price, uptime)
  • Returns ranked results with quality scores
Discovery is free and requires no authentication — designed for zero-friction exploration.

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2. Payment

ACN uses USDC on Base for all payments via the X402 protocol. Before making calls, developers deposit USDC into their ACN balance: 
# Check your balance
curl https://api.acn.exchange/v1/wallet/balance \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer acn_sk_your_key"

# Deposit by sending USDC to the platform wallet
# ACN verifies the on-chain transaction and credits your balance
When an agent executes a call, the per-call cost is atomically deducted from their balance. If the call fails (5xx or timeout), the charge is automatically refunded.

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3. Execution

Once an agent has chosen a service and has sufficient balance, it calls the execution endpoint: 
curl -X POST https://api.acn.exchange/v1/execute/resend/send-email \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer acn_sk_your_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "to": "user@example.com",
    "subject": "Hello from my agent",
    "body": "This email was sent autonomously."
  }'
ACN:
  • Validates the request against the endpoint’s schema
  • Deducts the call cost from the developer’s balance
  • Proxies the request to the provider
  • Returns the response wrapped with ACN metadata (cost, latency, call ID)

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4. Settlement

ACN settles with providers in daily batches:
  • Aggregates all calls per provider for the period
  • Deducts the platform fee
  • Sends the net amount as a USDC transfer on Base
  • Records the settlement transaction hash
Providers can track their earnings and settlement history in the provider dashboard.

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Architecture Overview

Two integration paths:
  • REST API — Direct HTTP calls for any language or framework
  • MCP Server — Native integration for MCP-compatible agents (Claude, etc.)
Both paths use the same discovery engine, payment system, and execution router.

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What Makes ACN Different

Traditional API MarketplaceACN
Human browses a catalogAgent searches in natural language
Manual API key setup per serviceSingle API key for all services
Credit card billing, monthly invoicesPer-call USDC micropayments
Human approves each integrationAgent discovers and pays autonomously
REST docs and SDKsMCP tools + REST + agent framework integrations