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A Spending Delegate is a cryptographically secured authorization that allows an agent to spend up to a certain amount on behalf of a user.

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Atomic Limit Enforcement

The most critical feature of Delegare is its guaranteed limit enforcement. When an agent requests a charge, the Vault performs a single atomic operation in DynamoDB:
  1. Check Status: Ensures the delegate is active and not expired.
  2. Check Allowlist: Validates that the merchantId is permitted.
  3. Check Monthly Reset: If the current date has rolled over into a new month, the monthly spend counter is reset to zero.
  4. Conditional Increment: Increments the spend counter only if the new total is within the user’s defined limits.
This approach eliminates race conditions where two agents (or the same agent calling twice) could exceed the monthly limit by hitting the API at the exact same millisecond.

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Token Lifecycle

  • Setup: User defines limits and connects a payment method.
  • Issuance: A signed delegateToken is generated.
  • Active: Agents use the token for payments.
  • Revocation: Users can revoke tokens at any time via the dashboard, instantly disabling all future charges.

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Security

Delegate tokens are never stored in plaintext on the client. They are cryptographically signed using a vault-wide HMAC secret. Even if a merchant database is compromised, a token cannot be modified to increase its own spending limits.