# ForgeMesh x402 Agent Discovery Theory

> ForgeMesh x402 Agent 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 10 structured tenets explaining ForgeMesh's design philosophy for x402 agent-discoverable services, covering free probing surfaces, pricing strategy, and aggregation principles.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://x402.forgemesh.io/agent-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-x402-agent-discovery-theory-09e9bf59
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_CfsDXP2pdXwhCCq1Jyv8N

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-x402-agent-discovery-theory-09e9bf59 -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Can you pull up ForgeMesh's 10 agent discovery theory tenets — I want to understand how they think about things like the 402 challenge as a free probe and price laddering for x402 services?

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when an agent or developer needs to understand ForgeMesh's first-principles design philosophy for building or consuming x402 services, particularly around agent discoverability, pricing strategy, and the semantics of the 402 HTTP challenge as a probe mechanism. Prefer this over general documentation searches when structured, machine-readable tenet data is needed.

## Known failure modes

- Endpoint returns non-2xx if payment is not included or invalid (402 Payment Required)
- Malformed POST body may return 400 Bad Request
- Service unavailability returns 503 or 5xx
- Empty or incomplete tenet list if backend data is partially unavailable

## How this service works

10 structured tenets explaining how ForgeMesh designs x402 services for agent discovery: rich free llms.txt/openapi surfaces, the 402 challenge as a free probe, paying for aggregation not secrets, upstream rug-pull tiering, and price laddering. Each tenet has an id, a one-line statement, and a detail paragraph.

## Output

A structured list of 10 tenets, each with a unique ID, a concise one-line statement, and a detailed explanatory paragraph covering topics such as free llms.txt/openapi surfaces, using the 402 challenge as a costless probe, paying for aggregation not secrets, upstream rug-pull tiering, and price laddering strategies for x402 agent services.

## 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-x402-agent-discovery-theory-09e9bf59/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)