Agent-Native Staking APIs: How AI Agents Access TAO Allocation Analysis
How autonomous agents discover Stakao, read the strategy catalog, pay with x402 USDC, and receive informational Bittensor allocation analysis outputs.
Published Jul 6, 2026 . Stakao . 8 min read
Direct answer
An agent-native staking API is an HTTP interface designed for autonomous software agents rather than only human dashboards. It exposes machine-readable discovery, product catalogs, payment requirements, request schemas, and structured allocation outputs that an agent can evaluate and call safely.
What an AI agent needs before it can request staking allocation analysis
A useful agent needs more than a landing page. It needs a public catalog, a clear request contract, a payment rail, and a safety boundary it can explain back to the user.
- Discovery: llms.txt, api-catalog, OpenAPI, MCP, Link headers, and readable product pages.
- Pricing: a public price, token rail, network, facilitator URL, and merchant wallet.
- Input contract: wallet_address, catalog_item_id, optional config, and a Stakao-generated client_request_id returned by free preflight.
- Output contract: compact JSON with decision, product, and payment; full audit snapshots stay stored internally.
- Safety: informational output, no strategy activation, no delegate transaction, and no on-chain execution.
Stakao exposes a narrow agent surface instead of the whole backend
The public agent surface lives at https://api.stakao.com/agent. It is intentionally small, because agents should only see the product interface they need.
| Endpoint | Payment | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| GET /agent | No | Top-level manifest for agent discovery, payment metadata, and safety boundaries. |
| GET /agent/allocation-analysis/catalog | No | Public catalog of Stakao products agents can request allocation analysis for. |
| GET /agent/openapi.json | No | OpenAPI contract for REST-capable agents and tool builders. |
| GET /agent/allocation-analysis/model-portfolio | Yes, x402 USDC | Direct paid model portfolio snapshot stored as an analysis decision record. |
| POST /agent/allocation-analysis/allocation | Yes, x402 USDC after preflight | Paid wallet-specific allocation analysis response stored as an analysis decision record. |
| POST /agent/mcp | No | Read-only MCP tools for catalog, pricing, manifest, safety, and public content search. |
| GET or POST /agent/search | No | Cloudflare AI Search over public Stakao website content and agent documentation. |
Informational output is the right V1 safety model
A paid agent call should not silently become asset management. In Stakao V1, the agent receives allocation analysis, not delegated trading or staking permission.
The response can be useful immediately because it returns a deterministic target allocation for the wallet and selected product. The user or downstream system can inspect the allocation, compare it to the current wallet, and decide whether to act through existing human flows.
This model keeps custody, consent, and execution separate. Humans still activate strategies through the existing Stakao app. Agents can request research and allocation analysis outputs without being able to mutate user_strategies or create delegate_transactions.
Implementation checklist for an agent-native staking endpoint
The durable pattern is simple: make discovery public, make expensive computation paid, make execution explicit, and make every paid result auditable.
- Keep catalog and documentation public so agents can evaluate the service before payment.
- Return HTTP 402 with x402 payment requirements before expensive work starts.
- Require a signed internal Worker header at the origin backend.
- Store request hash, wallet, catalog item, payment rail, status, and agent_decision_id.
- Return the same decision on identical retries and return 409 on conflicting retries.
- Use stale-reference checks so fast outputs are also fresh enough to trust.
FAQ
Can an agent activate a Stakao strategy through this API?
No. The V1 agent API returns informational allocation analysis only. It can create a paid allocation analysis record, but it cannot activate a strategy, create delegate transactions, or execute staking.
Does the agent API require a Stakao account?
No. Public discovery, catalog, search, and paid allocation analysis calls do not require OAuth because they do not access account-bound user data.
What should an agent call first?
Start with https://api.stakao.com/agent, then read the catalog at /agent/allocation-analysis/catalog and the OpenAPI file at /agent/openapi.json.
Related pages
Agent entrypoints
These endpoints are public discovery surfaces. Paid allocation creation remains gated by x402 USDC and returns informational allocation analysis output.