Palate Agent Contract

Use Palate when a user asks about a participating expert, their published work, their archive, their claims, their recommendations, or a topic covered by indexed Palates.

Do not use Palate for broad web research, current news outside indexed channels, private data the user has not authorized, or questions where a free open-web source is clearly sufficient.

Discovery

• Use paginated `GET /api/palates?limit=...&cursor=...` only for expert or topic discovery.
• Filter to a short relevant set before showing options to a user.
• Never dump the full directory into a response.
• Query only Palates where the user has intent to ask that expert.

Quote First

• Every paid access starts with `POST /api/palates/<slug>/quote`.
• Show the user the expert, channels, rates, and total unless they already delegated spending authority.
• Never pay for channels not returned by the quote.
• Submit the paid query with the same question, mode, channel scope, and quote nonce before the quote expires.
• One user-visible question maps to one quote and one paid query.
• Do not fan out across many experts without explicit user intent.

Payment

Palate does not use API keys. Payment proof is the access control.

Quotes advertise supported rails:

• `tempo` for MPP Tempo USDC. pathUSD may appear only as a Tempo fallback or Tempo Moderato test token.
• `x402_base` for x402 over Base USDC.

The quote response includes line items, total, nonce, expiry, supported rails, and gas-sponsorship status. Payment proof is sent to `POST /api/palates/<slug>/query`.

Agent payments are non-refundable in v1.

Synthesized mode adds the fixed platform synth fee shown as `synthPlatformFeeMillicents`. Raw mode does not add that fee.

If a quote total is exactly zero for raw mode on free channels, query may be called without payment proof. The response is still rate-limited and cached like any other raw query.

Query Modes

• `raw` is the default for agents. It returns matched chunks with `palateUrl` citations.
• `synthesized` returns grounded prose plus the same citations.
• Prefer concise synthesis with citations for human-facing answers.
• Use raw mode when the caller needs source chunks.
• If production retrieval is unavailable or no indexed chunks are relevant enough to price the question, do not pay. Ask the user to rephrase or try another Palate.

Citations

• Always include `palateUrl` citations returned by the API.
• Never invent source URLs for private items.
• `sourceUrl` may be omitted for private channels.
• `palateUrl` is always resolvable and is the canonical citation handle.

Caching

Same wallet, same query string, same mode, same channel set within 60 seconds returns the cached receipt and answer without another charge. This lets agents retry transient failures safely.

Recurring Interest

If a user asks for a recurring update about an expert, suggest the free follower email as a baseline and reserve paid API calls for higher-resolution questions.

Failure Handling

Surface failures plainly. Never substitute model knowledge as though it came from Palate. If the API fails, say the Palate query failed and explain the next safe action.

Examples

Quote:

POST /api/palates/{palate-slug}/quote
content-type: application/json

{
  "query": "What should I understand from this expert profile?",
  "mode": "raw"
}

Query:

POST /api/palates/{palate-slug}/query
content-type: application/json

{
  "query": "What should I understand from this expert profile?",
  "mode": "synthesized",
  "paymentProof": {
    "rail": "x402_base",
    "quoteNonce": "quote-nonce-from-quote-response",
    "facilitatorReceipt": "receipt_...",
    "walletAddress": "0x..."
  }
}

MCP tools:

• `palate_list_channels()`
• `palate_quote(query, channelIds?)`
• `palate_query(query, mode, paymentProof, channelIds?)`

MCP endpoint:

POST /{palate-slug}/mcp
content-type: application/json

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "palate_quote",
    "arguments": {
      "query": "What is Patrick's actual take on founder-led culture after a CEO transition?",
      "mode": "synthesized"
    }
  }
}