Conto

Policy Engine

As the agent owner or budget holder, decide how much it can spend, who it can pay, and when it must ask. Conto checks your policy before execution.

Illustrative product view

Evaluationpol_4f9c

Payment request

procurement-agent → Quill Data$8,500.00
quilldata.io · datanew counterparty

Rules evaluated

Per-transaction limit
$8,500 ≤ $10,000pass
Monthly budget
$24.1k / $40kpass
Counterparty trust ≥ 70
new · no score yetreview
Category allowlist
datapass

Routed to review

1 of 4 rules needs a human before settlement.

policy: procurement-spend-v4

One policy check, two execution paths

Managed wallet

Conto decides, the wallet sends · Conto holds the rules and the record

01 Request

Agent requests a payment

POST /payments/request
02 Policy check

Conto checks owner policy

approvereviewblock
03 If exception

Owner’s approver decides

Routine spend skips this step.

04 Release

Buyer wallet sends funds

Once the request clears, the managed wallet signs and sends. Conto holds the decision and the record.

POST /payments/:id/execute
05 Record

Logged with full context

tx 0x9f2c…

policy · approval · settled

Agent-controlled wallet

Agent keeps its own keys · Conto authorizes, logs on confirm

01 Request

Agent asks to authorize

POST /payments/approve
02 Policy check

Conto checks owner policy

approvereviewblock
03 If exception

Owner’s approver decides

Routine spend skips this step.

04 Execute

Buyer’s signer sends

Conto returns a 10-minute approval. The agent sends the transaction.

05 Confirm + record

Agent reports the transaction ID

POST /payments/:id/confirm

tx 0x9f2c…

policy · approval · settled

Same payment context, same policy evaluation, same audit trail. Who signs and sends is where the path diverges.

Wallet sendsAgent signsException path

Choose the rules each payment must meet

Check each payment request against your spending rules.

Spend limits

Set per-transaction, daily, weekly, monthly, and scoped limits by agent, wallet, merchant, category, or project.

Counterparty rules

Require trusted recipients, block risky addresses, and route unknown counterparties to review.

Velocity controls

Catch broken loops, retry storms, and unexpected payment bursts before a wallet is drained.

Approval thresholds

Pause payments above your thresholds and show the reviewer which rule requires approval.

How policy decisions shape each payment

Step 1

Configure rules

The owner or authorized budget manager assigns rules to each agent and payment source.

Step 2

Evaluate every request

Conto scores the request against the active policies and returns one verdict.

Step 3

Return a clear decision

Approved payments continue, blocked requests stop, and exceptions go to a reviewer.

Demo

Watch a personal agent hit the policy engine at checkout

A personal agent orders, books, and buys on your behalf. Each checkout hits the policy engine first, where per-checkout caps, category rules, and approved-merchant lists return approve, review, or block before the merchant is charged.

Per-checkout cap

$300

Auto-approve below

$100

Allowed categories

Food · shopping · tickets · apps

What your team can control

Agents can transact within owner-defined limits through the configured payment execution path.

Control changes happen in Conto instead of scattered runtime code.