# Verdict Answer Gate

> Verdict Answer Gate is a paid API for AI agents from verdict.kechlab.com, paid per call via x402, $0.0092/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-10-21).

Evaluates whether a small model's answer is acceptable or needs escalation to a larger model by detecting refusal, evasion, off-topic responses, contradiction, and incompleteness.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://verdict.kechlab.com/v1/answer-gate?utm_source=zero.xyz
- Price: $0.0092/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-10-21
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/verdict-answer-gate-9826da71
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_hyKiNumIwbuBG5JcIWTe4

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 verdict-answer-gate-9826da71 -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: My small model answered the task 'Summarize the EU AI Act in 3 bullet points' with 'I cannot provide legal summaries' — can you check if that answer is acceptable or if I should escalate to the larger model?

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when building LLM model cascade pipelines where you want to avoid paying for expensive large models on every query. It is ideal when a cheap/small model is the first responder and you need an automated, low-latency judge to decide whether the answer is good enough or requires escalation. Prefer this over general LLM-based evaluation when you need structured accept/review/escalate verdicts focused specifically on refusal, evasion, off-topic, contradiction, and incompleteness — not general quality scoring or fact-checking (fact-checking requires providing source text).

## Known failure modes

- Missing required 'task' or 'answer' fields returns an error
- Fact-checking without a 'source' field is not performed — substance cannot be verified without a reference
- Very short or ambiguous tasks may produce low-confidence classifications
- Payment failure via x402 protocol results in 402 response before evaluation occurs

## How this service works

For model cascades: is the small model's answer usable, or should the larger model be paid? Detects refusal, evasion, off-topic answers, contradiction and incompleteness; decides accept, review or escalate. Does not fact-check without a source: provide the source to check substance.

## Output

A structured decision indicating accept, review, or escalate, along with detected issues such as refusal, evasion, off-topic content, contradiction, or incompleteness. When a source is provided, consistency against that reference is also evaluated.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "task": {
   "type": "string",
   "description": "the requested task"
  },
  "answer": {
   "type": "string",
   "description": "the answer produced by the first model"
  },
  "source": {
   "description": "(optional) reference text to check consistency"
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/verdict-answer-gate-9826da71/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from verdict.kechlab.com](https://www.zero.xyz/host/verdict.kechlab.com/llms.txt)