Understanding Agent Authorization and Spending Limits

Agent authorization and spending limits are fundamental to making agentic payments safe and trustworthy. This article explains how our platform handles these controls to ensure agents operate within boundaries you define while maintaining autonomy for routine transactions.

The Authorization Model

When you enable an agent, you grant it specific permissions within defined boundaries. Agents can only take actions you've authorized, and only within spending limits and approval workflows you configure.

Explicit Authorization: You explicitly enable agents for specific use cases—like "handle routine office supply purchases" or "manage subscription renewals."

Boundary Definition: You set boundaries that define what agents can and cannot do—spending limits, merchant categories, transaction types, and approval requirements.

Continuous Monitoring: Every agent action is logged and monitored, giving you complete visibility into what agents are doing on your behalf.

Spending Limits

Spending limits are your primary control mechanism. You can set limits at multiple levels:

Per-Transaction Limits: Maximum amount for any single transaction an agent can complete autonomously.

Daily Limits: Maximum total spending per day across all agent transactions.

Category Limits: Different limits for different merchant categories—higher limits for trusted vendors, lower limits for new merchants.

Merchant Limits: Specific limits for individual merchants or merchant types.

When an agent encounters a transaction that exceeds a limit, it automatically requests approval before proceeding. You can approve or deny these requests through notifications, email, or your dashboard.

Approval Workflows

For transactions that require approval, you can configure workflows that match your organization's needs:

Automatic Approval: Transactions within limits and matching your criteria are approved automatically.

Single Approval: Transactions exceeding limits require approval from a designated approver.

Multi-Stage Approval: Large transactions or specific categories require approval from multiple people in sequence.

Time-Based Rules: Different approval requirements based on time of day, day of week, or business hours.

Safety Mechanisms

Beyond spending limits and approvals, our platform includes multiple safety mechanisms:

Fraud Detection: Real-time fraud detection identifies suspicious patterns and blocks potentially fraudulent transactions.

Merchant Verification: Agents only interact with verified merchants that meet our safety and security standards.

Transaction Monitoring: Every transaction is monitored for anomalies, with automatic alerts for unusual activity.

Audit Trails: Complete logs of every agent decision, transaction, and approval for compliance and review.

Best Practices

Start Conservative: Begin with lower spending limits and more approval requirements. You can always relax these as you gain confidence in agent behavior.

Monitor Regularly: Review agent activity regularly to understand patterns and adjust limits accordingly.

Use Categories: Set different limits for different merchant categories to match your risk tolerance.

Enable Notifications: Stay informed about agent activity through real-time notifications and daily summaries.

Transparency and Control

You always have complete visibility and control. You can:

• View all agent transactions in real-time
• Adjust spending limits instantly
• Pause or disable agents at any time
• Review approval requests and transaction history
• Export transaction data for accounting and compliance

Agent authorization and spending limits give you the control you need while enabling agents to operate autonomously within safe boundaries.

Learn more about safety