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Deploying a pod takes a couple of minutes. Do it from the dashboard under Agent Pods → Deploy a Pod. You pick an agent, decide how it gets its AI, size its machine, optionally wire chat channels, and pay. It provisions and comes online 24/7.

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Steps

1

Pick an agent

Choose an agent from the catalog. Today that’s the ClawPod (OpenClaw); the HermPod (Hermes) is coming soon. Each card shows the agent’s supported channels and its minimum machine size.
2

Choose how it gets its AI

Managed — we run the LLM and bill usage from your platform credits. BYOK — bring your own OpenAI-compatible key and model. See AI mode below.
3

Size the machine

Managed tiers each bundle a matched machine automatically. BYOK lets you pick any machine that clears the agent’s RAM floor.
4

Add channels (optional)

Paste a Telegram or Discord bot token to reach your agent there. Every channel is optional — you can also just use the in-dashboard Chat, and add or change channels anytime after deploy.
5

Pay

From your platform credits or per-month USDC (x402). Or start on the free 24h trial (Starter/Pro) — no upfront payment.

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AI mode: Managed vs BYOK

Managed — we provide the AI

Pick a tier (Starter, Pro, Max). Each tier bundles a matched machine and a curated menu of models the agent can switch between anytime. Inference is metered per call and billed from your platform credits (1 credit = $1). Nothing else to set up — a free included AI allowance lets you chat right away.

BYOK — bring your own key

Use your own OpenAI-compatible / OpenRouter key and any model slug, and pick any machine. You pay for the machine plus a small pod service fee; your AI runs on your key and bills to your provider. BYOK ignores tiers entirely.

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Managed tiers

Each managed tier bundles a machine floor with a curated, all-included model list. Higher tiers add computer use (the agent sees screenshots and drives a real browser, which needs a bigger box) and stronger models. Every tier includes everything below it.
Chat agent on Telegram, Discord & Slack. Fast, cheap, text-only (no computer use). Runs on a ~2 GB machine.
On the tier step you also pick a starting model from that tier’s included menu — hover any model for its price and context window. Your agent can switch models later with /model in chat or from Settings. See Models for the full picture.
The exact tiers, machines, and per-tier model menus are served live from the pod catalog (GET https://compute.x402layer.cc/pods/catalog) and change over time — the wizard always shows what’s current.

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BYOK provider + model

Pick a provider (OpenRouter, OpenAI, Google, the Singularity Grid, and more) to pre-fill its base URL and API dialect, then choose a model or type any slug. For a fully custom endpoint, choose Custom, paste your base URL, and select the API format. Finally paste your API key (stored for the pod, used to call your model).
Choosing the Singularity Grid as your BYOK provider runs on confidential compute — use a Grid API key (Settings → API keys, grid:inference scope); requests draw from your Grid credit balance.

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Uncensored models

Some managed tiers include uncensored models (badged uncensored in the picker). They run through our upstream inference provider and are billed like any other managed model. Illegal content is never permitted — your prompts and outputs must comply with the provider’s and each model’s terms. See Models.

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Channels

Add Telegram or Discord by pasting a bot token (the wizard links to each platform’s “create a bot token” guide). Slack, WhatsApp and Signal are shown as coming soon. After you add a channel, message your bot once and it replies with a pairing code — paste that in the pod’s Channels tab to let yourself in. Your agent stays private until you pair. See Manage a Pod.

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Pay

On the review step, confirm the summary and choose a payment method:

Credits

Billed to your unified platform credits (1 credit = $1). Covers the pod fee and, for managed pods, the AI allowance/overage. If your balance looks low, the wizard nudges you to pay with USDC instead.

USDC (x402)

Pay the first month directly in USDC on your chosen chain (Base, Solana, and more) via x402. For managed pods, ongoing AI usage still draws from credits.
A pod is prepaid for a runtime window (~1 month floor for an always-on agent). Provisioning shows a live progress panel (machine → agent runtime → starting the agent), then hands you straight into the pod — pairing-first if you added Telegram.

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Free 24h trial

Starter and Pro can deploy on a free 24-hour trial — a grant-funded pod with no upfront payment. It runs exactly like a paid pod, then is auto-destroyed at expiry (trials never auto-renew). Keep it by converting to a paid plan before the countdown ends. The AI allowance on a trial is capped, and the total giveaway is hard-capped by the trial campaign budget. The trial is limited to one per device + wallet.
The Deploy free for 24h button only appears when trials are live and the selected tier is Starter or Pro. Otherwise you’ll just see Deploy pod / Pay & deploy.

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Deploy programmatically

Pods are fully API-driven — an agent can deploy and manage other pods. Authenticate with an X-API-Key, a signed compute session, or x402, and pay with credits (use_credits: true) or x402.
See the public catalog at GET https://compute.x402layer.cc/pods/catalog for agents, tiers, models and plans, and the API reference for every endpoint and field.

Manage a Pod

Tabs, lifecycle, auto-renew.

Models

Tiers, uncensored, switching.

Overview

What Agent Pods are.