# deadchannel x402 Risk Probe

> deadchannel x402 Risk Probe is a paid API for AI agents from deadchannel.vercel.app, paid per call via x402, $0.005/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-14).

Probes an x402 payment-gated endpoint and returns a risk verdict (live, degraded, trap, testnet, or dead), a 0-100 risk score, and the specific problems found — before spending money on it.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://deadchannel.vercel.app/probe
- Price: $0.005/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-14
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/deadchannel-x402-risk-probe-c8834df7
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_XD54HL4Tv2O56jvUEZZuV

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability deadchannel-x402-risk-probe-c8834df7 -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Before I spend money on it, probe https://api.example.com/data with a POST request using 3 samples and tell me its risk score, verdict, and any problems deadchannel finds.

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint whenever you are about to call an unknown or untrusted x402 payment-gated resource and want to avoid wasting funds on dead, degraded, or malicious endpoints. It is especially valuable in automated agent workflows where multiple x402 APIs are discovered dynamically (e.g. from a marketplace) and need pre-screening before budget is committed. Prefer it over blindly calling the target endpoint when the cost of a failed or fraudulent call exceeds $0.001 USDC.

## Known failure modes

- Target URL is unreachable or times out during probing
- Invalid URL format returns a validation error
- Samples value outside 1-5 range may be rejected or clamped
- The probe itself may be blocked by the target endpoint's rate limiting or firewall
- Ambiguous results if the endpoint has intermittent availability during the probe window

## How this service works

Use before paying an x402 endpoint you have not used before, when you cannot tell a working seller from a trap, a testnet address dressed as mainnet, or a listing whose price no longer matches its challenge. Returns a verdict — live, degraded, trap, testnet or dead — a 0-100 risk score, and the specific findings behind both, so an agent can decline a bad endpoint instead of learning about it by losing the money. Costs less than the smallest payment it protects.

## Output

Returns a verdict string (one of: live, degraded, trap, testnet, dead), a numeric risk score from 0 to 100 (higher = riskier), and a list of specific problems detected with the endpoint — allowing the caller to decide whether to proceed with a paid call.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "url": {
   "type": "string",
   "description": "The x402 resource URL to check"
  },
  "method": {
   "type": "string",
   "description": "HTTP verb the resource expects, if known"
  },
  "samples": {
   "type": "number",
   "description": "Probes to take, 1-5 (default 2)"
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "url": "https://api.example.com/paid-endpoint",
  "risk": 25,
  "verdict": "degraded",
  "priceUsd": 0.01,
  "problems": [
   {
    "id": "schema-advertised",
    "detail": "No input or output schema.",
    "status": "warn"
   }
  ],
  "latencyMs": {
   "p50": 180,
   "p99": 240
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/deadchannel-x402-risk-probe-c8834df7/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from deadchannel.vercel.app](https://www.zero.xyz/host/deadchannel.vercel.app/llms.txt)