Mastercard Verifiable Intent

Pending

Mastercard Verifiable Intent — Mastercard

Overview

Mastercard Verifiable Intent is Mastercard's framework for enabling AI agents to make verified, intent-based payments. It uses a signed Verifiable Intent document between the principal and the agent to ensure that every agent payment reflects the genuine intent of the human principal, preventing unauthorized or runaway spending by autonomous agents. (Earlier press coverage called this "Mastercard Agent Pay"; the canonical product / spec name is "Verifiable Intent.")

How It Works

Mastercard Verifiable Intent introduces a signed-intent layer between the agent and the payment. Before an agent can make a payment, the principal must sign a structured intent document specifying the allowed merchant categories, maximum transaction amount, time window, and geographic restrictions. This intent is cryptographically signed and stored on Mastercard's infrastructure.

When the agent initiates a payment, it presents the intent document along with the transaction details. Mastercard verifies that the transaction falls within the intent's constraints — if the amount exceeds the limit, the merchant category is not allowed, or the time window has expired, the payment is rejected.

This approach solves the "runaway agent" problem: even if an agent is compromised or malfunctions, it cannot spend beyond what the principal explicitly authorized. Every transaction is logged with a link back to the original intent document for audit purposes.

How SettleGrid Integrates

SettleGrid ships a Mastercard Verifiable Intent detection adapter. This rail is not yet live: presented Verifiable Intent tokens are detected, but validation returns not-yet-supported, so no payment is processed. When Mastercard Verifiable Intent reaches general availability, SettleGrid will validate the token with Mastercard's infrastructure, check that your tool's merchant category is allowed, verify the spending limit, and process the payment. Developers receive payouts through Stripe Connect as with all other protocols.

Key Specs

Protocol	Mastercard Verifiable Intent — Mastercard Verifiable Intent
Backer	Mastercard
Detection Header	X-MC-Agent-Intent / Authorization: MCAP <intent>
Identity Type	mc-verifiable-intent
Payment Type	mastercard-authorization
Status	Pending

Code Example

Here is how a developer's tool works with Mastercard Verifiable Intent via SettleGrid:

mastercard-agent-pay-example.tstypescript

import { settlegrid } from '@settlegrid/mcp'

const sg = settlegrid.init({
  toolSlug: 'financial-analysis',
  pricing: {
    defaultCostCents: 40,
    methods: {
      'market-summary': { costCents: 10 },
      'portfolio-analysis': { costCents: 40 },
      'risk-assessment': { costCents: 75 },
    },
  },
  // Mastercard Verifiable Intent tokens are verified automatically
})

const portfolioAnalysis = sg.wrap(async (args: { holdings: string[] }) => {
  const analysis = await analyzePortfolio(args.holdings)
  return { content: [{ type: 'text', text: JSON.stringify(analysis) }] }
}, { method: 'portfolio-analysis' })

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