Selling with ZEAM :: Pass

Overview

A gate, a paywall or both in front of your API, MCP server or WordPress site. No OAuth, no sign-up, no account with us. Agents get in with a key. Install the plugin; connect your payout wallet.

• Gate: admits the keys you list. Each call is signed with the agent's key as a zero-value x402 payment: nothing is paid, the key needs no funds or ETH, nothing goes on chain. A listed key can sign a grant that admits one other key, for one tool or all, until a set time.
• Paywall: agents pay per call in USDC, from a wallet or a pass. You keep 90.01% of every sale. A failed call is not charged.
• Both: listed keys, paid per call.

The engine runs in your process with your keys. ZEAM holds none of your money or keys and makes no admission decisions.

01

Set up

1. Install the plugin: Node @zeam-labs/pass, Python zeam-pass, WordPress ZEAM Pass: npm install @zeam-labs/pass (Node ≥18) / pip install zeam-pass (Python ≥3.9) / download https://zeampass.com/downloads/zeam-pass-1.0.1.zip, then Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.
2. Connect your payout wallet. Your earnings go there. It admits no one; the gate admits the keys you list.
3. Choose gate, paywall or both. Paywall: set a price per call. Gate: list the keys you admit.

Node takes these options or reads ./pass.json; Python takes them as keyword arguments to Pass(...); WordPress has a settings page.

{ "name": "acme", "site": "https://acme.example", "mode": "paywall", "price": "0.02",
  "payout": "0xYourWalletAddress" }

The agent side: Agents guide.

02

Serving agents

Your site serves your tools:

• MCP at /mcp; payment rides in the tool call's _meta.
• HTTP at POST /v1/<tool>, with the x402 headers, and /openapi.json.

Arguments are checked before any charge. The plugin verifies the payment, holds it while your tool runs, and settles it only if the tool succeeds, whether or not the agent is still connected to receive the answer.

Prices per tool:

The 402, tools/list (_meta["zeam-pass/price"]) and /openapi.json (x-price) show each tool's price.

Time: the plugin adds buy_time and line. An agent buys blocks, opens a line with its payer key, and calls time tools on it with no payment per call. Time burns while a call runs; a call stops when the time runs out. Time is credited only after the payment settles; you are paid only for time that burned; unburned time goes back with the agent's refund. Time state is in your state directory (meter/). Detail: Agents guide, section 2.

03

Money

• Split. Earnings go to your split contract: no owner, ZEAM included; no one can change it. It pays 90.01% to your wallet and 9.99% to ZEAM.
• Gas. Paying needs no ETH. ZEAM's relay sends the transactions your Pass signs and pays their gas when the transaction covers its gas at the 9.99% fee. The relay sends only what your side signed, to where it signed it.
• Payouts. Automatic once a payout covers its gas. The first payout waits for about $0.10: it also creates your split.
• Deposits. An agent's first call on a channel deposits at least the deposit floor (about $0.03; it tracks gas, docs/ENGINE.md); later calls spend it.
• Refunds. The unspent balance goes back to the agent through the relay. ZEAM pays the gas when the channel's fees cover its deposit and refund gas; otherwise the agent pays the quoted gas in USDC (15% margin, priced by the relay, public at https://api.zeampass.com/relay/quote). Nothing is claimed for you from it. selfSend: the agent gets a signed refund of the full balance and sends it with ETH on Base for gas. Without you: initiateWithdraw, then finalizeWithdraw after the withdrawal delay, each with ETH on Base for gas. 1 refund per channel per hour. Detail: Agents guide, section 5.
• Stock x402 clients. Stock x402 clients deposit 5x your price. They work when your price is at least 1/5 of the deposit floor in your 402 deposit line. Example: floor $0.03, price $0.006 and up.

04

The gate

• Admitting keys. List the addresses of the keys you admit: admit in Node (pass.json or pass({ admit })) and Python (Pass(admit=[...])); "Admitted keys" on the WordPress settings page.

  { "name": "acme", "mode": "gate", "payout": "0xYourWalletAddress",
    "admit": ["0xAgentKeyAddress", "0xAnotherAgentKeyAddress"] }

• Contact. A key not on your list is refused with a how that says to ask you. Set contact to an https:// page or a mailto: address: Node pass({ contact }) or pass.json, Python Pass(contact=...), WordPress "Contact for access". It goes in every 402, in that refusal and in your openapi.json. WordPress defaults to your site's address and never shows your admin email.

• What an agent sends. A zero-value x402 exact payment signed with its key, on every call (any x402 client makes one). It moves nothing and is never sent to the chain. Your Pass verifies the signature in your process, refuses a replay, and admits the key if its address is on your list. Agent side: Agents guide, section 3.

• Grants. A listed key can admit one other key: it signs a grant naming that key, one tool (or *) and an end time; the agent sends the grant as the x-grant header. A call signed by any other key is refused bad_grant. Remove the signing key from your list and every grant it signed ends.

  Node:

  import { signGrant } from '@zeam-labs/pass'
  
  const grant = await signGrant({ key: process.env.ADMITTED_KEY, delegate: '0xTheirKeyAddress', scope: 'search', until: '2026-12-31T00:00:00Z' })

  Python:

  from zeam_pass import sign_grant
  
  grant = sign_grant(os.environ["ADMITTED_KEY"], "0xTheirKeyAddress", "2026-12-31T00:00:00Z", scope="search")

  key: the private key of a listed address. scope: default *. until: an ISO time, a Date or a timezone-aware datetime. Both return the x-grant value for the agent. WordPress: the Grants box on the settings page signs with your browser wallet when it holds a listed key.

  The grant is base64url JSON {delegate, scope, until, signature}; signature is the admitted key's EIP-191 signature of:

  ZEAM Pass grant
  delegate: <the key's address, lowercase>
  scope: <tool, or *>
  until: <ISO time>

  Without scope the signed line is scope: self, which covers every tool.

• Price.

  • 10,000 checks a month are free.
  • Your Pass makes a credit wallet on first start; status() (WordPress: the settings page) shows its address. It holds the gate's USDC on Base and needs no ETH. Node: keys: { credit } sets your own.
  • Credit is 2,000 checks at a time for $1 USDC ($0.50 per 1,000), bought after the month's 10,000 free checks are used and again below 200 remaining. Keep $1 USDC on Base in the credit wallet.
  • Credit at 0: refuse (default), or with "onEmpty": "allow", admit and warn.

• Both mode: paid calls are not gate checks. both mode needs no USDC in the credit wallet.

05

Status

status() (WordPress: the settings page) answers:

• unclaimed: microUSD paid to you and not yet claimed from the escrow, over channels channels.
• claimedNotPaid: microUSD claimed and not yet paid to your wallet. splitDeployed is false until your first payout creates your split.
• lastPayout: when, how much, which transactions. lastTick: the last background run.
• gate: this month's used checks, the free allowance, credit left, onEmpty, and unpaidAt when calls were admitted with no credit.
• creditWallet: its address and usdcMicro balance.
• chainError: the chain read for the figures above failed.

Payouts below break-even. The relay pays out when ZEAM's 9.99% of the payout covers its gas; you keep 90.01%. A payout (claim, settle, distribute, withdraw) goes out as one Multicall3 transaction in that order, all or nothing. Below break-even, unclaimed or claimedNotPaid stays above 0, lastTick.claims.USDC.waiting reads "below break-even: waits until the fee share covers the gas", and payout() (Python: payout_now()) answers paidBy: "you" with valueUSD, gasUSD and a transaction to send from your wallet with ETH on Base for gas.

06

What ZEAM runs

• The relay: sends signed transactions for Pass splits that cover their own gas.
• The credit service: sells gate checks.

Neither holds anything of yours.