# ForgeMesh Discovery Theory

> ForgeMesh Discovery Theory is a paid API for AI agents from x402.forgemesh.io, paid per call via x402, $0.01/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-14).

Returns ForgeMesh's structured 10-tenet theory of agent-commerce discovery, covering x402 design principles like free discovery surfaces, 402 challenge probing, risk tiering, and price laddering.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://x402.forgemesh.io/discovery-theory
- Price: $0.01/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-14
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/forgemesh-discovery-theory-522dd413
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_GI6fZUGR-Yo2eGnzCT8Og

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 forgemesh-discovery-theory-522dd413 -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Can you pull up ForgeMesh's discovery theory document — I want to understand the 10 tenets about how x402 services should handle free discovery surfaces, 402 challenge probing, and price laddering?

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when an agent or builder needs to understand ForgeMesh's opinionated design framework for x402 services — specifically the structured tenets around discovery, probing, risk tiering, and pricing. Prefer this over generic documentation searches when you want ForgeMesh's canonical, machine-readable philosophy rather than unstructured prose.

## Known failure modes

- Payment not provided or invalid — 402 response requiring USDC payment before content is delivered
- Malformed POST body — endpoint may reject non-JSON content types
- Service temporarily unavailable — 5xx response if ForgeMesh infrastructure is down
- Empty or unexpected response body if the theory document has been updated or relocated

## How this service works

ForgeMesh's written theory of agent-commerce discovery: 10 structured tenets covering free discovery surfaces, the 402 challenge as a free probe, upstream risk tiering, price laddering, and monetizing the shortcut without hiding the underlying map. For agents or builders reasoning about how x402 services should be designed.

## Output

A structured JSON document containing ForgeMesh's 10 tenets of agent-commerce discovery, including guidelines on free discovery surfaces, using the 402 challenge as a free probe, upstream risk tiering, price laddering strategies, and how to monetize shortcuts without obscuring the underlying resource map.

## 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",
    "bodyType",
    "body"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "body": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [],
     "properties": {}
    },
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "POST"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "bodyType": {
     "enum": [
      "json",
      "form-data",
      "text"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object"
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "title": "ForgeMesh theory of agent-commerce discovery",
  "tenets": [
   {
    "id": "rich-free-surfaces",
    "tenet": "Free discovery surfaces stay rich.",
    "detail": "llms.txt, openapi.json, and .well-known/x402.json expose every route, price, and schema at no cost, so crawlers and humans can index a service fully without ever paying."
   }
  ]
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/forgemesh-discovery-theory-522dd413/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from x402.forgemesh.io](https://www.zero.xyz/host/x402.forgemesh.io/llms.txt)