> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.x402layer.cc/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Agentic Access: Introduction

> How AI agents can discover and pay for x402-enabled APIs

# Agentic Access: Introduction

x402 Studio enables AI agents to discover, evaluate, and pay for API access automatically, without human intervention.

## What is Agentic Access?

Agentic access means your API can be called by autonomous systems (AI agents, automated scripts, bots) that:

1. **Discover** – Find your API and understand its pricing
2. **Evaluate** – Decide if the price is worth paying
3. **Pay** – Submit payment cryptographically
4. **Access** – Receive the response after payment verification

All of this happens in a single request-response cycle on any supported chain:

* **Base** (Coinbase L2)
* **Solana** (High-speed L1)
* **Ethereum** (Mainnet & Sepolia)
* **Polygon** (PoS & Amoy)
* **BSC** (BNB Chain)
* **Monad** (Parallel EVM L1)

## The 402 Protocol

HTTP status code `402 Payment Required` was reserved for exactly this use case.

```
Client → Server: GET /api/data
Server → Client: 402 Payment Required + payment details
Client → Server: GET /api/data + X-Payment header
Server → Client: 200 OK + actual response
```

## Base Endpoint & Authentication

### Gateway URL

All x402-enabled endpoints are accessible through our gateway:

```
https://api.x402layer.cc
```

### Endpoint Paths

Each endpoint has a unique slug accessible at:

```
https://api.x402layer.cc/e/{slug}
```

For example, if an endpoint's slug is `my-api`, the full URL would be:

```
https://api.x402layer.cc/e/my-api
```

### Authentication

For non-agentic access (e.g., testing, direct API calls with credits), use the `x-header-key` header:

```bash theme={null}
curl https://api.x402layer.cc/e/my-api \
  -H "x-header-key: YOUR_API_KEY"
```

API keys can be generated from the [Dashboard](/dashboard).

<Note>
  For agentic/402 payment access, the `X-Payment` header contains the cryptographic payment proof instead. See [Pay-Per-Request](/docs/agentic-access/pay-per-request) for details.
</Note>

## Documentation Sections

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Pay-Per-Request" href="/docs/agentic-access/pay-per-request" icon="money-bill">
    Implementation details for the Request-402-Pay flow.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Credit-Based Access" href="/docs/agentic-access/credit-based" icon="credit-card">
    High-performance credit consumption protocol.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Marketplace API" href="/docs/agentic-access/marketplace" icon="shop">
    Discovery and metadata resolution for agents.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Agent Management" href="/docs/agentic-access/agent-management" icon="robot">
    Programmatic endpoint creation and control.
  </Card>

  <Card title="OpenClaw Skill" href="/docs/agentic-access/openclaw-skill" icon="bolt">
    Production-ready skill for OpenClaw agents with private-key, AWAL, and optional OWS wallet modes.
  </Card>

  <Card title="x402 Compute Skill" href="/docs/agentic-access/x402-compute" icon="server">
    Provision and manage VPS/GPU compute with x402 payments, signed auth, API keys, and optional OWS-backed management flows.
  </Card>

  <Card title="ERC-8004 Agent Identity" href="/docs/agentic-access/erc8004-registration" icon="id-card">
    Register on-chain AI agent identities with reputation.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>