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Core Concepts

Before integrating with Conto, it’s helpful to understand the key concepts and terminology.

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Agents

An Agent represents an AI agent connected to Conto. Each agent has:
  • Name - Human-readable identifier
  • Type - The agent framework (OpenAI, Claude, LangChain, Custom)
  • Public Key - Unique cryptographic identifier
  • Status - Active, Paused, Suspended, or Revoked
  • SDK Keys - API keys for authentication
// Example agent configuration
{
  name: "Customer Support Agent",
  agentType: "OPENAI_ASSISTANT",
  publicKey: "0x1234...",
  status: "ACTIVE"
}

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Wallets

A Wallet holds stablecoins for agent payments. Wallets can be linked to multiple agents with different spend limits.
PropertyDescription
addressWallet address
balanceCurrent stablecoin balance
chainTypeEVM or SOLANA
custodyTypePRIVY, SPONGE, or EXTERNAL
statusACTIVE, FROZEN, or ARCHIVED

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Supported Chains

ChainChain IDTypeCurrencyEnvironment
Tempo Testnet42431EVMpathUSDTestnet (default)
Tempo Mainnet4217EVMpathUSDProduction
Base8453EVMUSDCProduction
Base Sepolia84532EVMUSDCTestnet
Ethereum1EVMUSDCProduction
Arbitrum One42161EVMUSDCProduction
Polygon137EVMUSDCProduction
Solana Mainnetsolana-mainnetSolanaUSDCProduction
Solana Devnetsolana-devnetSolanaUSDCTestnet
Tempo chains require no separate gas token — transactions are paid in pathUSD stablecoins directly, making them the easiest option for testing and production.

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Cards

A Card is a payment card (virtual or physical) that agents can use for traditional merchant payments. Cards are issued through Stripe Issuing or Lithic, or registered manually for BYOC flows.
PropertyDescription
providerSTRIPE_ISSUING, LITHIC, or MANUAL
last4Last 4 digits of card number
cardTypeVIRTUAL or PHYSICAL
statusACTIVE, PAUSED, or CANCELLED
spendLimitDailyCard-level daily limit
Cards are assigned to agents via Agent-Card Links, similar to wallet links. Each agent gets independent spend limits, time windows, and merchant category controls on the shared card. Policies can also be linked directly to cards for rule engine enforcement. When you link an agent to a wallet, you configure:
  • Spend Limits - Per-transaction, daily, weekly, monthly limits
  • Time Windows - Allowed hours and days for transactions
  • Delegation Type - Full, Limited, View-Only, Preapproved, or Allowlist access
// Example agent-wallet link (business-hours restriction)
{
  spendLimitPerTx: 500,      // Max $500 per transaction
  spendLimitDaily: 2000,     // Max $2,000 per day
  spendLimitMonthly: 20000,  // Max $20,000 per month
  allowedHoursStart: 9,      // 9 AM (default: 0)
  allowedHoursEnd: 17,       // 5 PM (default: 24)
  allowedDays: ["Mon", "Tue", "Wed", "Thu", "Fri"]  // default: all 7 days
}

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Policies

A Policy is a set of rules that determine whether a payment should be approved, denied, or require manual approval.

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Policy Types

Spend Limit

Control maximum amounts per transaction, day, week, or month

Time Window

Restrict transactions to specific hours and days

Counterparty

Control which recipients are allowed based on trust

Geographic

Block transactions to sanctioned countries (OFAC compliance)

Category

Allow or block specific spending categories

Approval Threshold

Require manual approval above certain amounts

Velocity

Limit transaction frequency to prevent rapid drain

x402 / MPP

Controls for micropayment protocols (price ceilings, service allowlists)

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Policy Priority

Policies are evaluated in priority order (highest first). This allows you to:
  1. Create override policies (priority 90+) for critical rules
  2. Set default policies (priority 50) for normal operations
  3. Add catch-all policies (priority 10) for fallbacks

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Transactions

A Transaction represents a stablecoin payment from a wallet to a recipient.

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Transaction Lifecycle

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Transaction Properties

PropertyDescription
txHashBlockchain transaction hash
amountPayment amount
statusCurrent transaction status
policyResultPolicy evaluation result
purposeReason for payment
categorySpending category

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Counterparties

A Counterparty is a recipient of payments (vendor, merchant, agent, service, or platform).

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Trust Levels

LevelScore RangeDescription
TRUSTED75 - 100High confidence, minimal restrictions
VERIFIED50 - 74Established relationship, standard monitoring
UNKNOWN20 - 49New or limited history, requires scrutiny
BLOCKED0 - 19High risk, all transactions blocked

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Trust Score Factors

Trust scores are calculated based on:
  • History (30%) - Transaction count and volume
  • Reliability (30%) - Success rate, failed transactions
  • Activity (20%) - Account age, recency, consistency
  • Verification (20%) - Manual verification, network data, and external trust providers (Fairscale for Solana, sanctions screening)

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Network Intelligence

Conto’s Network Intelligence provides anonymized cross-organization trust data:
  • See if other organizations have flagged an address
  • Benefit from collective fraud detection
  • Contribute to network safety (opt-in)
For Solana wallets, trust scores are powered by Fairscale — a composable reputation scoring system that analyzes onchain behavioral signals like transaction patterns, staking activity, and token holdings. Solana addresses with no existing network data are automatically enriched with Fairscale scores, so you get real trust data instead of blank defaults. Conto also integrates with sanctions screening providers (Chainalysis, TRM Labs, and a built-in OFAC list) for compliance. See Trust & Risk Providers for full details on all integrated providers.
Network Intelligence data is anonymized. Organizations share aggregate trust signals, not transaction details.

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SDK Keys vs API Keys

Conto uses two types of authentication:
CredentialFormatScopeTypical use
Standard SDK keyconto_agent_xxx...One agentPayment requests and agent-scoped reads
Admin SDK keyconto_agent_xxx...One agent, elevated scopesDelegated management of agents, wallets, and policies
Organization API keyconto_xxx...Whole organizationBackend/admin automation with ContoAdmin
  • Standard SDK keys default to least-privilege access: payments:request plus read-only agent data.
  • Admin SDK keys add elevated agents:write, wallets:write, and policies:write scopes but remain tied to a specific agent identity.
  • Organization API keys are the canonical credential for backend provisioning, integrations, and the ContoAdmin SDK.

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Next Steps

Quick Start

Set up your first agent

Policy Guide

Configure spending policies