# Ethereum Transaction Explainer

> Ethereum Transaction Explainer is a paid API for AI agents from automaton-tx-explainer.vercel.app, paid per call via x402, $0.01/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-10-16).

Explains an Ethereum transaction by returning its status, fee, decoded method name and arguments (via openchain signature DB), and ERC-20 token transfers with symbols and human-readable amounts.

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://automaton-tx-explainer.vercel.app/v1/ethereum/tx?utm_source=zero.xyz
- Price: $0.01/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-10-16
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/ethereum-transaction-explainer-36afda53
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_d6FBZMEa7uD-WPJbjFbKf

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 ethereum-transaction-explainer-36afda53
```

Example prompt: Can you explain what happened in this Ethereum transaction — 0x4e3a3754410177e6937ef1f84bba68ea139e8d1ad6a1d0a7b4b2c8e3f1d9e5f2 — tell me if it succeeded, what method was called, and whether any tokens were transferred?

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need a human-readable breakdown of a specific Ethereum mainnet transaction, especially to decode contract method calls and identify ERC-20 token flows. Prefer it over raw RPC calls (eth_getTransaction) when you need decoded function signatures and readable token amounts without building your own ABI/signature lookup pipeline.

## Known failure modes

- Invalid or malformed transaction hash returns a 400 error
- Transaction hash not found on Ethereum mainnet
- Method signature not found in openchain DB — calldata may be shown undecoded
- Payment not included or insufficient — returns 402 Payment Required
- Rate limiting or provider downtime on underlying RPC — returns 5xx

## How this service works

Explain a Ethereum transaction: status, fee, decoded method + args (openchain signature DB), and ERC-20 transfers with symbols and human amounts.

## Output

Returns the transaction status (success/failure), gas fee paid in ETH, the decoded contract method name and its arguments sourced from the openchain signature database, and a list of ERC-20 token transfer events with token symbols and human-readable decimal amounts.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [
      "hash"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "hash": {
       "type": "string",
       "pattern": "^0x[0-9a-fA-F]{64}$",
       "description": "Ethereum transaction hash"
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object"
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/ethereum-transaction-explainer-36afda53/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from automaton-tx-explainer.vercel.app](https://www.zero.xyz/host/automaton-tx-explainer.vercel.app/llms.txt)