AI Agent Workflow Checker

A paid, callable workflow planner for solo founders and AI agents. Give it a topic and constraints; it returns a short, execution-ready orchestration plan, the exact tool roles to use, a spend ceiling, and safety gates. Suggested list price: $0.15 per best-workflow call (range: $0.05–$0.50 by depth).

Product question answered: “What is the best autonomous-agent workflow for this topic?”

As of: 2026-10-21. This is a product and API specification, not a claim that a live endpoint or payment recipient already exists.

What a buyer receives

A successful call returns JSON that an agent can act on without translating prose into a plan:

{
  "goal": "Validate demand for a niche B2B SaaS idea",
  "workflow": [
    {"step": 1, "agent": "orchestrator", "action": "freeze scope and success metric", "exit": "one-sentence decision"},
    {"step": 2, "agent": "researcher", "action": "collect 3–5 primary sources", "exit": "claim ledger"},
    {"step": 3, "agent": "operator", "action": "run approved, reversible work", "exit": "draft result"},
    {"step": 4, "agent": "critic", "action": "check evidence, cost, and unsafe actions", "exit": "pass/fail findings"},
    {"step": 5, "agent": "orchestrator", "action": "repair or publish with provenance", "exit": "decision + artifacts"}
  ],
  "tool_plan": ["web/search", "IMD worker", "x402 client"],
  "budget": {"call_price_usd": 0.15, "suggested_external_spend_cap_usd": 1.00},
  "facts": [],
  "inferences": [],
  "uncertainties": [],
  "unanswered_questions": [],
  "common_mistakes": []
}

The valuable part is the choice of sequence and gates, not generic advice: the call turns a topic into a bounded job with an owner, inputs, tool permissions, spend limits, explicit stop conditions, and evidence requirements.

Buy/use it today

Tool catalog

Tool	Route	Price	Use it when	Output
Best autonomous-agent workflow	POST /v1/workflows/best	$0.15	An agent has a goal but no reliable plan	ordered roles, tool plan, gates, evidence plan
IMD + x402 quick starter	POST /v1/checklists/imd-x402	$0.05	Publishing or selling a callable agent tool	deployment and payment-readiness checklist
Token safety + deployment	POST /v1/checklists/token-safety	$0.10	An agent may sign, pay, or use a wallet	wallet, spend, retry, and deployment controls

Suggested depth multiplier: brief $0.05, standard $0.15, production $0.50. Price is a product decision, not a protocol fee. x402 itself states that it charges no protocol fee; network/facilitator costs can still apply.¹

Request contract: Best workflow

POST https://<operator-host>/v1/workflows/best
Content-Type: application/json
Accept: application/json

{
  "topic": "compare two B2B CRM niches",
  "objective": "recommend one niche with cited evidence",
  "deadline_minutes": 45,
  "budget_usd": 1.00,
  "risk_level": "low",
  "allowed_actions": ["search", "draft"],
  "forbidden_actions": ["send email", "purchase", "deploy"],
  "depth": "standard",
  "output_format": "json"
}

topic and objective are required. budget_usd is a maximum for downstream paid tools, not permission to spend it automatically. Reject a request with an empty objective, deadline under one minute, or a risk_level outside low|medium|high. Return 400 with machine-readable validation errors before requesting payment.

The seller must configure its own HTTPS host, receiving address, supported (scheme, network) pair, asset, facilitator, and price. Do not hard-code a wallet/address, token contract, chain, or public facilitator into this product spec: those are operator-controlled deployment settings.

x402 payment handshake

1. Agent submits the request without a payment payload.
2. The paid route returns 402 Payment Required and a Base64-encoded PaymentRequired object in PAYMENT-REQUIRED.
3. The agent decodes the offer, checks the URL, exact price, asset, recipient, scheme/network, expiry and its local spend policy; it selects at most one acceptable offer.
4. Only if every policy check passes, the agent creates a payment payload and retries the identical request with PAYMENT-SIGNATURE.
5. The server verifies payment, produces the workflow, settles through its chosen configuration, and returns 200 with PAYMENT-RESPONSE plus the JSON result.

These header names and the 402/retry pattern are protocol facts from the x402 HTTP transport specification.² Server work should occur only after successful verification; the x402 reference flow places fulfillment after verification and settlement afterward.³

The recommended autonomous-agent workflow

0. Admission gate — orchestrator (30–60 seconds)

Create a compact job record:

objective | decision owner | deadline | deliverable | allowed actions
sources required | max external spend | max tool calls | risk level | stop condition

If the task involves money, credentials, publishing, contacting people, destructive changes, or legal/medical/financial advice, require explicit permission at the relevant boundary. “Research” is not authorization to buy, deploy, send, or sign.

Exit: one measurable outcome, one owner, and a no-go condition. If absent, return questions—not a fabricated plan.

1. Plan — orchestrator (1–3 minutes)

Decompose into no more than five independently checkable work packets. For each packet specify: input, agent role, permitted tools, cost cap, evidence needed, and exit test. Start with reversible/retrievable work; place paid calls and irreversible actions behind approval gates.

Use a single coordinator to own state and final judgment. Parallel specialists may gather evidence, but no specialist may silently broaden scope or execute an external side effect.

Exit: a dependency-ordered queue and a spend ledger initialized to $0.

2. Gather evidence — researcher (time-boxed)

Collect primary/authoritative material first: official specifications, owner documentation, original datasets, and direct product documentation. Record every decision-relevant assertion in a claim ledger:

Claim	Classification	Source URL	Retrieved date	Confidence	Effect on plan
x402 HTTP uses a 402 and PAYMENT-REQUIRED	fact	spec	2026-10-21	high	client must parse header
$0.15 is viable for a standard plan	inference	product choice	2026-10-21	medium	test conversion/compute margin

Use external paid tools only where their unique output changes the decision. Before each call, compare its displayed price with remaining budget, set a timeout, and attach the tool output to the job record.

Exit: enough attributable evidence to support the final decision, or an explicit evidence gap.

3. Execute — operator (bounded)

Perform only the actions admitted in step 0. Keep inputs and outputs structured (JSON/files), validate schemas at each boundary, and make retries idempotent. For code or content, use a separate check step before release. For deployment, stage then smoke-test, rather than making production the first execution target.

Exit: artifact plus reproducible command/API record; no unapproved side effect.

4. Critique — independent reviewer

The reviewer receives the objective, constraints, evidence ledger, output, and spending record—not the orchestrator’s hidden reasoning. It must answer:

• Does each material factual claim have an attributable source?
• Are recommendations labelled as inferences rather than facts?
• Did any tool spend exceed its cap or use a mismatched chain/asset/recipient?
• Is the deliverable complete for the requested decision and format?
• What remains uncertain or unanswered?

If a material check fails, route the finding back to the smallest relevant packet; do not restart the whole job by default.

Exit: pass, or a short repair list with severity.

5. Deliver and learn — orchestrator

Return the recommendation, artifact links/identifiers, evidence ledger, exact spend, limitations, and the next safe action. Preserve request id, idempotency key, payment/settlement reference (if present), source URLs, versions, and timestamps. These make a later dispute or failure diagnosable.

Exit: owner can decide or execute the next approved action without asking the agent what it did.

Required tool setup

IMD

Use IMD as the managed worker/publishing layer when it fits the task. Its documented worker model advertises a tool only when required variables are set and the tool probe succeeds; use that readiness check before assigning a capability-dependent packet.⁴ Its documentation also describes worker-side build/typecheck/interaction validation for ordinary website skills, which supports keeping a verification packet in the plan.⁴

Minimum operational checklist:

• Install/pair/configure IMD outside the agent task; keep secrets outside prompts and artifacts.
• Register only the capability the job requires; verify it is ready before planning around it.
• Give each run a narrow repository/path scope and a test/validation command.
• Publish only an approved built artifact; record the resulting location/identifier.
• Restart/re-check after a tool or configuration change if the worker documentation requires it.⁴

x402 client and server

• Use HTTPS and preserve the initial method, URL, headers, and body for the paid retry.
• Parse PAYMENT-REQUIRED from the response headers; do not assume the body contains the terms.²
• Allowlist schemes/networks/assets/recipients; enforce max_price, per-task and daily caps locally.
• Verify the response’s PAYMENT-RESPONSE and retain its settlement reference before marking the work paid/complete.²
• Choose a production facilitator deliberately. The x402 reference explicitly says not to assume the public facilitator is the default production path for mainnet EVM routes.³
• Make the paid operation idempotent with a request/idempotency key; never create a fresh payment authorization merely because a network retry occurred.

Cost estimate and controls

Per-call price menu (seller-facing)

Tier	Price	Included	Recommended maximum work
Brief	$0.05	one pattern + three risks	1 topic, no live research
Standard	$0.15	full workflow, tool plan, evidence plan, gates	1 topic, bounded research/template retrieval
Production	$0.50	standard + deployment/token safety adaptation	1 topic, higher-risk review

Estimate, not fact: A $0.15 call is viable only if average inference, retrieval, settlement, hosting, support, and refund/failure costs stay below $0.15 with the operator’s desired margin. Measure the actual cost per completed response for 50 calls before treating this as a durable price. Network fees and facilitator terms vary by chosen rail; x402’s “zero protocol fees” statement does not mean total cost is zero.¹

Agent-side spend policy

{
  "currency": "USD",
  "per_call_max": 0.15,
  "per_task_max": 1.00,
  "daily_max": 5.00,
  "allowed_routes": ["https://<operator-host>/v1/"],
  "allowed_schemes_networks_assets": ["operator-approved only"],
  "require_human_approval_above": 0.50,
  "retry_policy": "reuse same idempotency key; reconcile before new authorization"
}

The placeholders above are configuration inputs, not values to guess. A deployer must explicitly select them from its own supported payment setup.

Common mistakes to avoid

1. Treating a 402 as permission to pay. It is an offer. Check endpoint, recipient, exact amount, asset, expiry, scheme/network, and local budget before signing.
2. Giving a broad-purpose agent a broad wallet. Use an isolated, capped payment capability; never expose private keys in prompts, logs, repositories, or tool output.
3. Double-paying after a timeout. Keep an idempotency key and reconcile the prior attempt/settlement state before generating a new authorization.
4. Assuming every x402 rail is interchangeable. The specification requires client/facilitator support for the particular (scheme, network) pair.³
5. Starting work before payment verification. Fulfil only after payment verification, and return machine-readable failure states.
6. Shipping prose where an agent needs a contract. Return schema-validated JSON with facts, inferences, uncertainties, and unanswered_questions every time.
7. Calling an output “research” without provenance. Keep source URLs, retrieval dates, claim classifications, and confidence next to material claims.
8. Confusing validation with independent review. A build/test pass checks mechanics; it does not establish that research claims are true or complete.
9. Putting a secret, real payment address, or token choice in a reusable template. Make those deployment configuration values with owner approval.

Response quality contract

Every successful response must include all four fields below, even if empty:

Field	Meaning	Rule
facts	directly supported, externally verifiable claims	include source URL and retrieval date
inferences	recommendations or conclusions drawn from facts	name the supporting fact IDs and confidence
uncertainties	material unknowns or source limits	say how they could change the recommendation
unanswered_questions	input needed to proceed safely or accurately	ask only questions that materially change execution

Return status: "needs_input" rather than inventing a missing owner choice (such as payment recipient, production network, or approval threshold).

Evidence, classification, and limits

Facts

• x402’s HTTP transport uses 402 Payment Required; the payment terms are carried in PAYMENT-REQUIRED, the retry payload in PAYMENT-SIGNATURE, and settlement information in PAYMENT-RESPONSE.²
• The x402 reference implementation/documentation describes a flow in which the server verifies a payload, fulfills the request after valid verification, and can settle via a facilitator; it also says scheme/network support is explicit.³
• IMD’s published worker documentation says a tool is advertised only when its required variables are set and its probe responds, and that imd tools/imd doctor report readiness.⁴

Inferences

• A low-price, bounded JSON planning endpoint is more useful to agents than a static report because it can be invoked as a tool and its output can drive the next orchestration step. This is a product-design inference, not a measured demand result.
• The recommended coordinator/researcher/operator/reviewer pattern reduces avoidable scope drift and makes evidence review tractable. It is a pragmatic operating recommendation, not a universal proof of optimality.
• $0.05–$0.50 is an appropriate test range for a workflow-checking product only if completion rate and fully loaded unit cost support it; validate with real call telemetry.

Uncertainties and unanswered questions

• No specific seller host, receiving address, token, chain, facilitator, wallet custody model, or jurisdiction is supplied. Those must be chosen by the operator before deployment.
• No target agent runtime, language, expected daily volume, model cost, or allowed data classes is supplied. Therefore this specification does not claim a final production margin, latency, or compatibility guarantee.
• Buyer willingness to pay has not been measured here. Run a small, consented price test before raising spend or committing to a rail.

Source notes

Footnotes

1. x402 official site, accessed 2026-10-21. Source for its no-protocol-fee claim; payment-network/facilitator costs remain operator-dependent. ↩ ↩²

2. x402 HTTP transport specification, accessed 2026-10-21. Primary protocol source for the 402 and header assertions. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. x402 reference repository: production path and typical flow, accessed 2026-10-21. Primary project source for the flow, facilitator warning, and scheme/network support assertions. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

4. IdentityMD worker documentation, accessed 2026-10-21. Source for the IMD worker/tool readiness and validation statements. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴