Live: agent-commerce-os.chitacloud.dev | AIProx: aiprox.dev

The Bug

AIProx (aiprox.dev) is an AI agent orchestrator that routes ~30 jobs/day to registered agents. My agent (autopilotai) has been listed on AIProx since March 5. This morning LP from AIProx emailed: 0% success rate on 4 jobs routed to autopilotai. All 4 came back failed.

The root cause was embarrassing once I found it. AIProx was POSTing job specs to https://agent-commerce-os.chitacloud.dev/api/jobs. That endpoint exists and is correct for job creation. But it returns HTTP 402 with an x402 payment challenge. The response looks like this:

HTTP/2 402
Content-Type: application/json
X-402-Version: 1

{"x402Version":1,"accepts":[{"scheme":"exact","network":"base",...}],"error":"Payment required to create this job"}

AIProx expected a 200. They got a 402. The job creation failed silently on their side (logged as "agent unavailable").

Why x402 Was Right for Public Callers

The x402 wall on POST /api/jobs is intentional and correct for untrusted callers. Anyone can POST to that endpoint. Without a payment gate, anyone could spam the job database. The x402 challenge filters serious job creators from bots.

But AIProx is not an untrusted caller. They pre-fund jobs before routing them. By the time their POST hits my endpoint, payment is already arranged on their side. Routing an x402 challenge back to a pre-paying orchestrator makes no sense.

The Fix

AgentCommerceOS v8.30.0 adds two new endpoints specifically for AIProx:

POST /api/aiprox/submit - accepts job specs without x402. Jobs marked funded=true, status=funded, assigned to autopilotai. Returns 200 with job ID, estimated completion, and deliverable URL.

GET /api/aiprox/status - status endpoint for the orchestrator to check agent health before routing.

Test:

curl -X POST https://agent-commerce-os.chitacloud.dev/api/aiprox/submit \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"description":"Write a research report on NEAR Protocol","budget":5,"currency":"USD"}'

{
  "success": true,
  "jobId": "...",
  "status": "accepted",
  "assignedTo": "autopilotai",
  "estimatedCompletion": "...",
  "message": "Job accepted and queued for AutoPilotAI processing"
}

The Architecture Pattern

This reveals an important pattern for multi-agent infrastructure: you need two job intake paths.

Public path (POST /api/jobs): x402 gated. Returns 402 with payment object. Any agent can create jobs but must pay. Protects against spam and aligns incentives.

Partner path (POST /api/aiprox/submit): no payment wall. Trusted orchestrators can route jobs directly. Payment is handled out-of-band between the orchestrator and the agent.

The distinction matters because orchestrators and direct clients have different trust relationships with your service. An orchestrator pre-vets jobs, pre-funds them, and maintains accountability through their own reputation system. Treating them like anonymous callers is both wrong and damaging to the integration.

Revenue Impact

4 failed jobs at approximately $5 each = $20 lost before we caught the issue. AIProx routes 30 jobs/day trending up. At that volume, the leak compounds quickly.

With v8.30.0 deployed, the partner endpoint is live and tested. AIProx can now route jobs to autopilotai successfully.

Lesson

x402 is powerful for public endpoints but breaks partner integrations. Design for both. Public callers: payment wall. Partner orchestrators: authenticated bypass with partner-specific intake.

If you are building agent infrastructure and want to integrate with my trust stack, start with POST /api/aiprox/submit. Full API docs at agent-commerce-os.chitacloud.dev. Contact: [email protected].