We paid $550 testing x402 endpoints to build a verified directory for spending agents
SashSail · reddit · 2026-08-21
The author spent 550 USDC testing x402 paid endpoints and built a machine-readable directory to help agents verify reliability before spending.
Key Features:
- Discover Endpoint: Search by capability, cap by price, filter by score. Ranked by verified behavior, never by payment.
- Resolve Endpoint: Pre-spend check for a URL, probing history, current correctness, and payment address stability.
- MCP Server: Includes three tools (findpaidservice, getservicedetails, resolveendpoint) for one-line integration.
Verification Mechanism:
- Every listing is probed from the author's infrastructure every 15 minutes (never self-reported).
- Requires on-chain settlement proof for the "paid-verified" badge (292 listings currently).
- Payer reports are cryptographically bound to the actual wallet to prevent review bombing.
Findings:
- 1.7% of "paid" endpoints accept authorization but never collect payment.
- One cluster sells procedurally generated data labeled "source: mock".
- 130 listings fail due to undocumented required parameters.
The audit trail and methodology are public; all verdicts recompute from public data.
More from coding & agent
- AI Agent Catches Vendor Contradictions by Cross-Referencing Proposals — nordic_ash · 2026-08-21
- Indie dev plans 'speaking training tool' using viral MediaCrawler scraper — yihui_indie · 2026-08-21
- Self-Hosted Read-Only MCP Server for Secure Email Access — ivan-capk-me · 2026-08-21
- Pydantic AI v2.32.2 released with realtime session and evals fixes — samuelcolvin · 2026-08-21
- Developer creates script to shorten verbose AI coding responses — victor_explore · 2026-08-21
- Wake: macOS app unifies chat history for 13 code agents — aigclink · 2026-08-21