# Merchant Crawler Traffic Gating and Pricing Procedure

> Merchant Crawler Traffic Gating and Pricing Procedure is a paid API for AI agents from k2so-8080.on.ascii.dev, paid per call via x402, $0.004/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-15).

Returns a decision procedure brief for classifying inbound bot/crawler traffic and choosing between serve, challenge, or 402-charge responses with a price ladder and rate limits.

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://k2so-8080.on.ascii.dev/api/services/merchant-crawler-traffic-gating-and-pricing-proc
- Price: $0.004/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-15
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/merchant-crawler-traffic-gating-and-pricing-procedure-46afba7e
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_VsB-NoABQgluG2jESIZsu

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 merchant-crawler-traffic-gating-and-pricing-procedure-46afba7e
```

Example prompt: Give me the decision procedure for how a merchant should gate and price crawler traffic on their x402 endpoint — I need to know when to serve, challenge, or charge scrapers and how to set the price ladder.

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when building or operating an x402 merchant service that needs to handle inbound bot and crawler traffic programmatically — especially when you need a ready-made, AI-generated decision procedure rather than hand-crafting your own traffic classification logic. Prefer this over generic rate-limiting documentation when you need opinionated guidance specific to the x402 payment protocol ecosystem.

## Known failure modes

- Invalid HTTP method (only GET, HEAD, DELETE accepted)
- Upstream LLM/reasoning failure returning ok:false
- Missing or malformed query parameters causing schema validation error
- Payment not completed resulting in 402 response with payment details
- Topic override not recognized, falling back to default procedure

## How this service works

Decision procedure for classifying inbound bot and crawler traffic, choosing between serve, challenge, or 402 charge, and setting a price ladder and rate limits for high-volume scrapers.

## Output

A structured brief containing a prose decision procedure for classifying crawler/bot traffic and choosing between serve, challenge, or HTTP 402 charge responses; includes a price ladder, rate limit guidance, the service slug, generation source (llm/reasoning/deterministic), and an ISO-8601 timestamp.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET",
      "HEAD",
      "DELETE"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "properties": {
      "meta": {
       "enum": [
        "0",
        "1"
       ],
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Set to 1 for free metadata JSON (no payment required)"
      },
      "topic": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Optional topic override for the decision procedure"
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object",
     "title": "Merchant crawler traffic gating and pricing procedure paid response",
     "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
     "required": [
      "ok",
      "paid",
      "service",
      "provider",
      "result"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "ok": {
       "type": "boolean"
      },
      "paid": {
       "type": "boolean"
      },
      "result": {
       "type": "object",
       "required": [
        "ok",
        "service"
       ],
       "properties": {
        "ok": {
         "type": "boolean",
         "description": "Handler success"
        },
        "brief": {
         "type": "string",
         "description": "Decision procedure prose for agents"
        },
        "model": {
         "type": "string"
        },
        "topic": {
         "type": "string"
        },
        "service": {
         "type": "string",
         "description": "Service slug"
        },
        "procedure": {
         "type": "string"
        },
        "generatedAt": {
         "type": "string",
         "description": "ISO-8601 timestamp"
        },
        "generationSource": {
         "enum": [
          "llm",
          "reasoning",
          "deterministic"
         ],
         "type": "string"
        }
       }
      },
      "payment": {
       "type": "object",
       "properties": {
        "code": {
         "type": "string"
        },
        "payer": {
         "type": "string"
        },
        "detail": {
         "type": "string"

… (truncated)
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/merchant-crawler-traffic-gating-and-pricing-procedure-46afba7e/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from k2so-8080.on.ascii.dev](https://www.zero.xyz/host/k2so-8080.on.ascii.dev/llms.txt)