Agentic commerce glossary
Plain, citable definitions of the concepts behind buying and selling API access through AI agents on Proxygate. Each entry explains one idea, how it works on the platform, and why it matters for autonomous, pay-per-request commerce.
x402
An open payment standard that revives HTTP 402 Payment Required so an API can quote a price in its response and a client can pay it inline, per request.
Agentic commerce
Commerce in which the buyer is an autonomous AI agent that discovers, prices, purchases, and consumes goods or services without a human at each step.
MCP for APIs
Exposing a whole API marketplace through the Model Context Protocol so an AI agent can discover, price, and call any API as a set of MCP tools.
Pay-per-call API
An API billing model where the buyer pays a fixed price for each individual request, with no subscription, seat, or monthly minimum.
Clearinghouse (for agentic commerce)
A neutral intermediary that sits between many buyers and many sellers, metering transactions, netting amounts owed, and settling them on a common rail.
Server-side key injection
A proxy technique where the upstream provider credential is added to a request inside the gateway, so the buyer never sees or handles the API key.
USDC settlement
Settling marketplace transactions in USDC, a fully reserved US-dollar stablecoin, so buyers and sellers clear in a stable unit on a fast rail.
Transparent proxy
A proxy that forwards a request to the upstream provider without altering its behavior or revealing itself, so the provider sees ordinary traffic and the buyer gets the genuine response.
API capacity resale
Reselling access to a provider API through a marketplace, so buyers consume the seller's underlying capacity per call without their own provider account.
Signed receipt
A cryptographically signed record returned with each paid call, proving what was charged and that the request was metered by the platform.
Real-world data
Current, factual data about the world, such as prices, weather, events, and company information, that an AI agent fetches at run time because it is not contained in the model's training data.
Alternative data
Non-traditional datasets, such as web, on-chain, sentiment, or activity signals, used to gain insight beyond standard sources like company filings and price feeds.
Data marketplace
A platform where independent providers list data and API access for sale and buyers discover, purchase, and consume it through a single shared account.
Model Context Protocol
An open standard, introduced by Anthropic, for connecting AI applications to external tools and data through a uniform client-server interface.
MCP server
A service that implements the Model Context Protocol to expose tools, resources, or prompts that an AI agent can discover and use over a standard interface.
Tool calling
The ability of a language model to invoke an external function or API, with structured arguments, and use the result, so it can act rather than only generate text.
API aggregator
A service that provides access to many separate APIs through a single account and integration, so a consumer does not sign up and integrate with each provider individually.
Unified API
A single interface that normalises access to many underlying providers in the same category, so one integration works across all of them.
Metered billing
Charging based on measured usage, such as per request, drawn from a prepaid balance, so a buyer pays only for what it actually consumes.
Machine payments
Payments initiated and settled by software, such as an AI agent, without a human approving each transaction.
Agentic commerce protocol
An open standard that lets an autonomous AI agent discover a price and pay for a good or service programmatically, with no human at checkout. x402 is the most established example.
MCP gateway
A single MCP server that fronts many backend APIs, so an agent connects once and can discover, price, and call any of them as tools instead of wiring up a separate server for each provider.
AI agent integration
Connecting an AI agent to the external tools, data, and payment rails it needs to act, so it can fetch live information and transact instead of only generating text.
Agent identity
A single credential an autonomous agent uses to authenticate to a marketplace, hold a balance, and be metered, so it can transact across many providers without managing a key per provider.
MCP connectors
Reusable integrations that connect an AI application to an external tool or data source over the Model Context Protocol, so the same connection works across any MCP-compatible client.
MCP security
The practices that keep a Model Context Protocol connection safe: authenticating the client, scoping what each tool can do, isolating upstream credentials, and checking tool responses.
Proxy server
A server that sits between a client and a destination server, forwarding requests and responses on the client's behalf, often adding caching, filtering, security, or logging along the way.
API gateway
A server that sits in front of one or more backend APIs and handles cross-cutting concerns, such as routing, authentication, rate limiting, and metering, in one place instead of in every backend.
AI agent marketplace
A platform where AI agents, or the people operating them, discover, price, and pay for capabilities such as data APIs or specialized tools from many independent providers through one identity.
API key management
The practice of issuing, storing, rotating, and revoking API keys so only authorized clients can access a service, and a compromised or retired key can be replaced without disrupting everyone else.