A card can't enforce your rules.
You can't tell a card "office supplies only, from these two suppliers, up to $200 an order." Once an agent has it, any charge the card accepts goes through.
Financial controls for AI agents · Pilot · For solopreneurs, small teams, and enterprises
Let your agents buy. You set the rules.
Autonomy lets your AI agents buy from suppliers through the cards and accounts you already have. Give each agent a mandate: what it may buy, from whom, up to how much. Several agents can share one budget. Routine purchases go through on their own; anything outside the mandate asks you first. If a purchase stalls and an agent tries again, it's still one purchase, paid once.
See how it worksIn development, with a small group of pilot partners. If your AI agents already buy for your business, we'd like to work with you. Agents connect over MCP through the Autonomy Gateway, which you run on your own machine or server.
Designed around MCPYour accounts, your credentialsFree during the pilot
The problem
Agents are ready to buy. Your controls aren't.
A saved card lets an agent pay, but it doesn't define what the agent is allowed to do: what it may buy, from whom, or how much a project can commit in total. So you either approve every purchase yourself or trust that nothing goes wrong.
Limits that don't add up.
Three agents with $500 each can spend $1,500 against a $1,000 project. Separate caps don't share a budget.
Agents that stop at checkout.
Your agents can research, compare and fill the cart. Then they wait for you to approve the payment, every single time.
Why now
Agents now finish multi-step work on their own, and MCP puts a supplier's billable tools one line of configuration away from any of them. Card networks and payment protocols are adding agent payments.
People are already handing agents wallets and cards to run parts of a business. What a small business still lacks is the layer that says which agent may spend what, holds the line when three of them spend at once, and proves what happened. That's Autonomy.
How it works
Set it up once. Then only the exceptions.
Step 1. Connect.
Create a workspace and install the Autonomy Gateway on your machine or server, beside your agents. Connect a supplier account you already use; its credentials live on the gateway. Your agents ask the gateway to buy, and Autonomy decides whether they may.
Your agents→Autonomy Gateway (yours)→Supplier account
Autonomy authorises each purchase before the gateway submits it. Credentials never leave the gateway.
Step 2. Set the rules.
Give each agent a mandate: allowed suppliers, purchase types, a per-purchase maximum, an automatic limit, active dates and expiry. Put agents on a shared project budget. Preview a sample purchase and see whether it would proceed, wait for you, or be blocked.
Sample purchase against Marketing agent's rules
Automatic limit $250Available $750Approved carrier, approved publisher
Proceeds.
Within automatic limit; $750 available.
A preview creates no purchase and makes no promise about a later quote or budget.
Step 3. Agents buy.
An eligible purchase is reserved against the budget and completed. You see the receipt, not a request.
Receipt · Paid
$18.40
- Item
- Priority label, order #4821
- Agent
- Fulfilment agent
- Mandate
- version 3
- Supplier ref
- approved-carrier
Example values, not a customer result.
Step 4. You get the exceptions.
One inbox, three queues: a purchase to approve, a supplier login to complete, an outcome to resolve. Each item says why it's there and what happens next.
- Purchase to approve1
- Supplier login to complete0
- Outcome to resolve1
Example values, not a customer result.
Controls
Rules that hold up across agents, retries and bad days.
A mandate per agent.
What it may buy, from which suppliers, up to how much, until when. A draft permits nothing. Missing limits don't mean unlimited.
One budget, many agents.
Every purchase is reserved against the project and the workspace in one step. Two agents can't both spend the last $100.
Delegation stays inside the parent.
An agent can hand work to a narrower agent. The child draws from the same budget and can't exceed its parent. Pause the parent and the children stop.
Approval for exactly one purchase.
You approve a specific version: supplier, item, total. Change the price and it comes back to you. Budget is checked again when it proceeds. Approving once doesn't widen the rule.
Pause and revoke.
Stop an agent, a project, a connection or the whole workspace. In-flight purchases stay visible; nothing new goes out. Only a person can resume.
Every governed purchase traceable.
Each purchase keeps its agent, mandate version, approval, supplier reference and outcome. Export the complete record of any purchase.
Proof before payment.
Where a purchase depends on a business fact, such as an approved return case or the approved document version, Autonomy checks the source you named. An agent saying so isn't enough.
Paid isn't delivered.
Payment and delivery are tracked separately. Paid but no label is an exception to resolve, never a reason to buy again.
Refunds don't top up agents.
A supplier refund is recorded against its purchase. It doesn't increase what agents may spend until you raise the budget yourself.
Timeouts
Unknown is not failed.
When a supplier doesn't answer, most tools guess. Autonomy holds.
Allowance $100
Available $100Payment of $40 sent
No confirmation yet
Held$40
Available$60
Retry? Not a new purchase. The original is checked first.
Supplier answers
Paid: $40 spent, $60 available
Failed: $0 spent, $100 available
A timeout is not proof of failure. The $40 stays held until the supplier's record says paid or not. A replacement payment is blocked until then, and a retry resumes the original purchase instead of starting another.
What your agents can buy
Built around purchases your business already makes.
Twenty purchase types define the first release. Each names what's bought, from which approved supplier, at what total, and what must be true before Autonomy pays. We start with the suppliers our pilot partners already use; each route is listed with its status as it qualifies.
Shipping labels.
A fulfilment agent buys postage for a specific order, parcel and service level.
Checked: one label per shipment.
Contractor work.
A project agent commissions a fixed-price task under an approved scope.
Checked: scope, fee and remaining project budget.
An offsite under one budget.
Separate agents book venue, catering and transport for one event.
Checked: every booking fits the same budget; none is duplicated.
Newsletter sponsorships.
A marketing agent buys a fixed-price slot for an approved offer and date.
Checked: campaign budget and no overlapping booking.
Show all twenty
Commerce and fulfilment
- Shipping labels
- Return labels
- Inventory replenishment
- Replacement products
- Printing and mailing
Client services
- Contractor deliverables
- Translation
- Specialist review
- Signature-envelope capacity
- Business documents and filings
People and operations
- Outsourced support hours
- Job listings
- Candidate assessments
- Research participants
- Equipment repairs
Events and marketing
- Business travel
- Conference tickets
- Team offsites
- Newsletter sponsorships
- Webinar capacity
Release 1 covers purchases with a fixed, enforceable total through your existing accounts. Deposits, open-ended charges and the later use of prepaid credit need separate support and are not in the first release.
Access routes
Your agents. Your accounts. Our rules.
Autonomy Gateway In development
Runs on your machine or server. Your agents request purchases through its MCP tools; it checks each one with Autonomy, then completes it through your supplier account.
Browser checkout In development
Lets the gateway complete a supplier's own checkout with your card after the rules pass. Each supplier's checkout is qualified separately.
Route status Simulation
Every supplier route shows where it stands: simulation (no real money), pilot (real purchases with pilot partners) or qualified. Today, every route is in simulation.
Example MCP calls, illustrative; fields simplified
// 1. The agent requests a purchase through the Autonomy Gateway
{ "tool": "request_purchase",
"arguments": {
"purchaseId": "pur_…",
"case": "shipping-label",
"businessReference": "order-4821",
"maximumTotalUsd": "18.40",
"fields": { "service": "priority", "parcel": "…" } } }
// → accepted: recorded once, even if the call is retried.
// Acceptance is not approval or payment.
// 2. The agent checks where that purchase stands
{ "tool": "get_purchase", "arguments": { "purchaseId": "pur_…" } }
// → "Needs approval": above this agent's automatic limitWhat Autonomy cannot do
Hold your money.
Payments go through your accounts and your providers. Autonomy holds no funds and issues no cards in release 1.
See your card.
Agents never receive card numbers, logins or checkout sessions. Only the Autonomy Gateway, which you run, can complete a purchase.
Override you.
The hosted service can't loosen the restrictions you approved on your gateway.
Keep going blind.
If rules, budgets or approvals can't be checked, purchases stop.
Be talked into it.
Supplier pages, invoices and tool output are data. They can't change a rule or redirect a payment.
Only purchases that go through the protected route are governed. Setup shows you which other logins or credentials sit outside it, so you can remove them or know they're there.
FAQ
Questions people ask first.
Can I use it today?
Not for live purchases yet. Autonomy is in development, and we're looking for pilot partners whose agents already buy things for their business. Live purchasing will open one supplier route at a time, as each one qualifies. Join the pilot and tell us which suppliers you use.
Which suppliers work?
None is qualified for live purchases yet. We start with the suppliers our pilot partners already use, so tell us yours in the pilot form. Each route will be listed with its status and limits.
Do you hold funds or issue cards?
No. Release 1 uses your existing cards and accounts. Agent wallets are planned and depend on the required authorisations; we'll say so plainly when that changes.
What do I need?
An agent that can call MCP tools, and a machine or server where you can run the Autonomy Gateway beside it. The gateway holds your supplier credentials; your agents never do. You don't need to be a software business, but you should be comfortable running a server process.
What happens if a payment times out?
The amount stays held, a replacement payment is blocked, and the original purchase is checked with the supplier. See "Unknown is not failed" above.
What does it cost?
Nothing during the pilot. Plans after the pilot will be priced per active governed agent. See Pricing below.
Can my team use it?
Yes. Owners set rules and budgets. Administrators handle setup and connections but can't approve purchases or raise budgets. Approvers decide purchases within their own limits. Viewers can look. A solo founder holds every role.
Is this a bank?
No. Autonomy is software. In release 1 it never holds your money: payments go from your own accounts to your suppliers through their normal checkout or billing.
Where this goes
Release 1 governs purchases from the accounts you already have.
Next, planned: wallets you fund for your agents, then accepting payments from other businesses' agents, under the same mandates, budgets and records. One authority model from your first governed purchase to agents paying and getting paid. Wallets launch only with the authorisations they require.
Pricing
Free during the pilot.
Pilot
$0
Release 1 for pilot partners: mandates, shared budgets, approvals, receipts and purchase records.
Join the pilotAfter the pilot
Per active agent
Plans will be priced per active governed agent: an agent that submits a real purchase request in the month. Retries, replicas and tests don't count.
We'll publish prices before any paid plan starts.
Founder note
Giving an agent access to a card or a bank account is easy. Deciding what it may spend, when it needs approval, and how to trace or stop it is the hard part. Autonomy is that part, built first for the people already running real businesses with agents.
Join the pilot.
For solopreneurs, small teams, and enterprises whose agents already buy things for the business. Tell us what you'd want them to buy, and from whom. Your answers decide which supplier routes we qualify first.