01
Authenticate the agent
A revocable API credential resolves to exactly one agent and organisation. The request body cannot choose another identity.
One boundary between an agent’s intent and execution.
CAPYN turns organisational intent into a machine-enforceable mandate, evaluates every requested action, pauses the ones that need a person and records what happened.
The authority lifecycle
Clear boundaries from identity to evidence.
Each layer has one job. Payment adapters cannot decide policy, and the frontend never becomes the security boundary.
02
Load its active mandate
Versioned, time-bounded authority defines capabilities and policy. Missing or expired authority closes the request.
03
Evaluate every gate
Capability, vendor, per-action limit, daily and monthly budgets, agent state and expiry are evaluated deterministically.
04
Pause exact requests
Threshold crossings create one request-specific approval. A human decision does not create blanket future permission.
05
Execute once
Only valid allowed or approved authorizations reach an executor. Replay resolves to the original result rather than moving value twice.
06
Retain the evidence
Each transition is written to an append-oriented audit stream with the actor, entity, timestamp and safe metadata.
Policy model / seeded mandate
Authority people can read and machines can enforce.
A mandate names the allowed capabilities and carries the policies that narrow them. CAPYN evaluates the same contract for every request.
procurement-agent / active mandate
spend.computespend.apitransfer.wallet denied
Valid until 30 Sep 2026
RuleConfigurationEnforcement
Capability
The requested capability must exist on the active mandate.
Vendor allowlist
Unknown vendors are denied before execution.
Per transaction
Approval never overrides the hard ceiling.
Daily budget
Live reservations count toward the projected spend.
Monthly budget
The same currency and calendar window are evaluated.
Approval threshold
Requests from $100.01–$150 pause for human review.
Agent + mandate state
Suspension, revocation or expiry closes authority immediately.
Hard failures always win.
An approval threshold cannot rescue an ungranted capability, unknown vendor or exceeded hard limit. Approval is a pause inside the permitted envelope—not an escape hatch around it.
All hard rules pass and no human review is required.
REQUIRE_APPROVAL
Hard rules pass, but this exact request crosses the review threshold.
DENY
One or more hard rules fail, or CAPYN cannot establish authority.
Concurrent spend stays inside the budget.
PostgreSQL authorization and approval operations use serializable transactions, a per-agent advisory lock and projected spend that includes live reservations.
Settlement is an adapter, not a policy decision.
The v0.1 executor simulates payment. Solana/USDC, x402, Stripe or another rail can be added behind the same one-time execution contract.