​

Architecture Patterns

These are the core integration patterns teams implement with Conto in production. Use them as canonical reference diagrams when you are designing a new agent payment workflow or documenting an existing one.

​

1. Managed Wallet Execution

Use this pattern when Conto should both evaluate policy and execute through a managed wallet.

• Best for: teams that want fewer moving parts and Conto-managed execution.
• Common controls: spend limits, approval thresholds, trust rules, time windows.

​

2. External Wallet Approval + Confirm

Use this pattern when your agent already controls its own wallet or transfer tools and Conto acts as the policy gate.

• Best for: OpenClaw and Hermes agents that already have wallet tools.
• Canonical flow: approve -> transfer -> confirm.

​

3. x402 API Control Loop

Use this pattern when an API returns 402 Payment Required and each paid call is a separate machine payment event.

• Best for: pay-per-use APIs and machine commerce with explicit per-call pricing.
• Core controls: price ceilings, service allowlists, endpoint velocity, service budgets.
• Record with the same stable paymentId and a confirmed txHash. When configured policies depend on facilitator or scheme, include those fields during pre-authorization so evaluation has the required context.

​

4. MPP Session Lifecycle

Use this pattern when an agent will make repeated requests to the same service and wants a session budget instead of separate onchain settlement for each call.

• Best for: chat, streaming, iterative processing, or high-frequency service calls.
• Core controls: session budget, max concurrent sessions, max duration, and service allowlists.
• Use one stable sessionId for a session intent from pre-authorization through recording. Receipt status, challenge binding, and settlement amount are validated before spend is recorded, and batchItems contribute their individual call counts to velocity and analytics.

​

5. Human Approval Workflow

Approval workflows sit in front of execution and resolve high-risk or policy-triggered payments before money moves.

• Best for: large payments, new recipients, low-trust counterparties, and finance review.
• Supports multi-approver, role-based, specific-approver, and sequential workflows.

​

6. Trust Scoring Feedback Loop

Trust scoring uses a feedback loop that continuously changes how counterparties are evaluated.

• Best for: vendor controls, trust-based approvals, network-aware risk gating.
• Related docs: /guides/trust-scoring, /integrations/trust-providers

​

Which Pattern Should You Start With?

​

Related Guides