x402 Payment Protocol

Use the npx awal@latest x402 commands to discover, inspect, and call paid API endpoints using the X402 payment protocol. Payments are made in USDC on Base.

Workflow

The typical x402 workflow is:

1. Find a service - Search the bazaar or get details for a known endpoint
2. Check requirements - Inspect price, method, and input schema
3. Make the request - Call the endpoint with automatic USDC payment

Commands

Search the Bazaar

Find paid services by keyword using BM25 relevance search:

npx awal@latest x402 bazaar search <query> [-k <n>] [--force-refresh] [--json]

Results are cached locally at ~/.config/awal/bazaar/ and auto-refresh after 12 hours.

List Bazaar Resources

Browse all available resources:

awal x402 bazaar list [--network <network>] [--full] [--json]

Discover Payment Requirements

Inspect an endpoint's x402 payment requirements without paying:

awal x402 details <url> [--json]

Auto-detects the correct HTTP method (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH) by trying each until it gets a 402 response, then displays price, accepted payment schemes, network, and input/output schemas.

Make a Paid Request

Call an x402 endpoint with automatic USDC payment:

awal x402 pay <url> [-X <method>] [-d <json>] [-q <params>] [-h <json>] [--max-amount <n>] [--json]

Examples

# Search for weather-related paid APIs
awal x402 bazaar search "weather"

# Search with more results
awal x402 bazaar search "sentiment analysis" -k 10

# Check what an endpoint costs
awal x402 details https://example.com/api/weather

# Make a GET request (auto-pays)
awal x402 pay https://example.com/api/weather

# Make a POST request with body
awal x402 pay https://example.com/api/sentiment -X POST -d '{"text": "I love this product"}'

# Limit max payment to $0.10
awal x402 pay https://example.com/api/data --max-amount 100000

# Browse all bazaar resources with full details
awal x402 bazaar list --full

USDC Amounts

X402 uses USDC atomic units (6 decimals):

Prerequisites

• Search/Details: No authentication needed
• Pay: Must be authenticated (awal auth login ) with sufficient USDC balance (awal balance)

Error Handling

• "Not authenticated" - Run awal auth login first
• "No X402 payment requirements found" - URL may not be an x402 endpoint
• "CDP API returned 429" - Rate limited; cached data will be used if available
• "Insufficient balance" - Fund wallet with USDC (awal balance to check)