A card can't set permissions.
You can't tell a card "office supplies only, from these two suppliers, up to $200 an order." Once an agent has it, any charge the card accepts goes through.
Financial controls for AI agents · Pilot · For solopreneurs, small teams, and enterprises
Let your agents buy. You set the rules.
Autonomy lets your AI agents buy from suppliers through the supplier accounts you already have. Give each agent a mandate: what it may buy, from whom, up to how much. Several agents can share one budget. Routine purchases go through on their own; anything outside the mandate asks you first. If a purchase stalls and an agent tries again, it's still one purchase, paid once.
See how it worksIn development, with a small group of pilot partners. If your AI agents already buy for your business, we'd like to work with you. Agents connect over MCP through the Autonomy Gateway, which you run on your own machine or server.
Designed around MCPYour accounts, your credentialsFree during the pilot
The problem
Agents are ready to buy. Your controls aren't.
A saved card lets an agent pay, but it doesn't define what the agent is allowed to do: what it may buy, from whom, or how much a project can commit in total. So you either approve every purchase yourself or trust that nothing goes wrong.
Limits that don't add up.
Three agents with $500 each can spend $1,500 against a $1,000 project. Separate caps don't share a budget.
Agents that stop at checkout.
Your agents can research, compare, and fill the cart. Then they wait for you to approve the payment, every single time.
Why now
Agents now finish multi-step work on their own, and MCP puts a supplier's billable tools one line of configuration away from any of them. Card networks and payment protocols are adding agent payments.
Businesses already hand agents cards and wallets to run parts of their operations. What they don't have is control: which agent may spend what, one budget that holds when several spend at once, and proof of what happened. That's Autonomy.
How it works
Your agents get autonomy. You keep control.
Step 1. Connect.
Create a workspace and connect your agents to the Autonomy Gateway. Connect a supplier account you already use; the credentials stay in your control. Your agents ask the gateway to buy, and Autonomy decides whether they may.
Your agents→Autonomy Gateway→Supplier account
Autonomy authorises each purchase before the gateway submits it. Credentials never leave the gateway.
Step 2. Set permissions.
Give each agent a mandate: allowed suppliers, purchase types, a per-purchase maximum, an automatic limit, active dates, and expiry. Put agents on a shared project budget. Preview a sample purchase and see whether it would proceed, wait for you, or be blocked.
Pick a purchase to see whether it would go through.
Automatic limit $250Budget left $750Suppliers: print shop, newsletter publisher
Proceeds.
Under the $250 automatic limit.
Previews don't create a purchase.
Step 3. Agents buy.
An eligible purchase is reserved against the budget and completed. You see the receipt, not a request.
$18.40
- Item
- Priority label, order #4821
- Agent
- Fulfilment agent
- Approval
- Automatic
- Supplier ref
- approved-carrier
Step 4. You stay in control.
Only what needs you reaches you: a purchase above an agent's limit, a supplier that needs you to sign in again, or an order that didn't arrive as expected. Each one shows why it's there and what happens next.
- Purchases to approve1
- Supplier sign-ins0
- Orders to follow up1
Controls
Controls that hold up across agents, retries, and bad days.
A mandate per agent.
What it may buy, from which suppliers, up to how much, until when. A draft permits nothing. Missing limits don't mean unlimited.
One budget, many agents.
Every purchase is reserved against the project and the workspace in one step. Two agents can't both spend the last $100.
Delegation stays inside the parent.
An agent can hand work to a narrower agent. The child draws from the same budget and can't exceed its parent. Pause the parent and the children stop.
Approval for exactly one purchase.
You approve a specific version: supplier, item, total. Change the price and it comes back to you. Budget is checked again when it proceeds. Approving once doesn't widen the agent's permissions.
Pause and revoke.
Pause an agent, a project, or the whole workspace. Revoke a mandate at any time. In-flight purchases stay visible; nothing new goes out. Only a person can resume.
Every governed purchase traceable.
Each purchase keeps its agent, approval, supplier reference, payment, and delivery. Export the complete record of any purchase.
Paid isn't delivered.
Payment and delivery are tracked separately. Paid but no label is an exception to resolve, never a reason to buy again.
Refunds don't top up agents.
A supplier refund is recorded against its purchase. It doesn't increase what agents may spend until you raise the budget yourself.
Timeouts
Unknown is not failed.
When a supplier doesn't answer, most tools guess. Autonomy holds.
Allowance $100
Available $100Payment of $40 sent
No confirmation yet
Held$40
Available$60
Retry? Not a new purchase. The original is checked first.
Supplier answers
Paid: $40 spent, $60 available
Failed: $0 spent, $100 available
A timeout is not proof of failure. The $40 stays held until the supplier's record says paid or not. A replacement payment is blocked until then, and a retry resumes the original purchase instead of starting another.
What your agents can buy
Built around purchases your business already makes.
Twenty purchase types define the first release. Each names what's bought, from which approved supplier, at what total, and what must be true before the purchase goes through. We start with the suppliers our pilot partners already use; each supplier is added as it qualifies for live purchases.
Shipping labels.
A fulfilment agent buys postage for a specific order, parcel, and service level.
Checked: one label per shipment.
Contractor work.
A project agent commissions a fixed-price task under an approved scope.
Checked: scope, fee, and remaining project budget.
An offsite under one budget.
Separate agents book venue, catering, and transport for one event.
Checked: every booking fits the same budget; none is duplicated.
Newsletter sponsorships.
A marketing agent buys a fixed-price slot for an approved offer and date.
Checked: campaign budget and no overlapping booking.
Show all twenty
Commerce and fulfilment
- Shipping labels
- Return labels
- Inventory replenishment
- Replacement products
- Printing and mailing
Client services
- Contractor deliverables
- Translation
- Specialist review
- Signature-envelope capacity
- Business documents and filings
People and operations
- Outsourced support hours
- Job listings
- Candidate assessments
- Research participants
- Equipment repairs
Events and marketing
- Business travel
- Conference tickets
- Team offsites
- Newsletter sponsorships
- Webinar capacity
Release 1 covers purchases with a fixed, enforceable total through your existing accounts. Deposits, open-ended charges, and the later use of prepaid credit need separate support and are not in the first release.
Access routes
Your agents. Your accounts. Your controls.
Autonomy Gateway In development
Runs on your machine or server. Your agents request purchases through its MCP tools; it checks each one with Autonomy, then completes it through your supplier account.
Browser checkout In development
Lets the gateway complete a supplier's own checkout using your account once the purchase passes your controls. Each supplier's checkout is qualified separately.
Supplier qualification Simulation
A supplier connection must be qualified before it can make live purchases. Today none is; purchases run against a simulated supplier.
Example MCP calls, illustrative; fields simplified
request_purchase({
caseId: "shipping_customer_orders",
businessReference: {
reference: "order-4821"
},
maximumTotalCents: "1840"
})
→ ACCEPTED · recorded once
// retry with the same IDs
request_purchase({ … })
→ ACCEPTED · same purchase
get_purchase({ purchaseId: "3f9a…" })
→ PAID · delivery pendingWhat Autonomy will not do
Hold your money.
Payments go through your accounts and your providers. Autonomy holds no funds and issues no cards in release 1.
See your credentials.
Agents never receive card numbers, logins, or checkout sessions. Only the Autonomy Gateway, which you run, can complete a purchase.
Keep going blind.
If permissions, budgets, or approvals can't be checked, purchases stop.
Be talked into it.
Supplier pages, invoices, and tool output are data. They can't grant permissions or redirect a payment.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions.
Can I use it today?
Not for live purchases yet. Autonomy is in development, and we're looking for pilot partners whose agents already buy things for their business. Live purchasing will open one supplier route at a time, as each one qualifies. Join the pilot and tell us which suppliers you use.
Which suppliers work?
None is qualified for live purchases yet. We start with the suppliers our pilot partners already use, so tell us yours in the pilot form. Each supplier is added as it qualifies for live purchases.
Do you hold funds or issue cards?
No. Release 1 uses your existing supplier accounts. Agent wallets are planned and depend on the required authorisations; we'll say so plainly when that changes.
What do I need?
An agent that can call MCP tools, and a machine or server where you can run the Autonomy Gateway beside it. The gateway holds your supplier credentials; your agents never do. You don't need to be a software business, but you should be comfortable running a server process.
What happens if a payment times out?
The amount stays held, a replacement payment is blocked, and the original purchase is checked with the supplier. See "Unknown is not failed" above.
What does it cost?
Nothing during the pilot. Plans after the pilot will be priced per active governed agent. See Pricing below.
Can my team use it?
Today one person runs the workspace. Team roles (administrators, approvers, and viewers) are built into the controls and coming to setup.
Is this a bank?
No. Autonomy is software. In release 1 it never holds your money: payments go from your own accounts to your suppliers through their normal checkout or billing.
What's coming
Release 1 governs purchases from the accounts you already have.
Next, planned: wallets you fund for your agents, then accepting payments from other businesses' agents, under the same mandates, budgets, and records. One authority model from your first governed purchase to agents paying and getting paid.
Pricing
Free during the pilot.
Pilot
$0
Release 1 for pilot partners: mandates, shared budgets, approvals, receipts, and purchase records.
Join the pilotAfter the pilot
Per active agent
Plans will be priced per active governed agent: an agent that submits a real purchase request in the month. Retries, replicas, and tests don't count.
We'll publish prices before any paid plan starts.
Join the pilot.
For solopreneurs, small teams, and enterprises whose agents already buy things for the business. Tell us what you'd want them to buy, and from whom. Your answers decide which supplier routes we qualify first.