# Agentcard

> Virtual Visa cards for AI agents

Agentcard gives AI agents scoped, safe payment access. Add cash to your balance, issue a virtual card locked to a fixed amount, hand it to any AI agent via MCP (Model Context Protocol), and spend anywhere Visa is accepted online. Cards are single-use by default — they close after their first charge, with no overdraft risk; multi-use cards stay open across charges for subscriptions. Or attach your own Visa so purchases charge it directly, with no identity verification and no funding step.

## Two products

- **Personal** (`agent-cards` on npm): an individual giving their own agent a card. Sign-in with an emailed code, cash added with Apple Pay / Google Pay (or your own Visa attached instead), MCP server at `https://mcp.agentcard.sh/mcp` for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, and any MCP client. CLI `--amount` is in **dollars**; MCP `amount_cents` is in **cents**. See https://www.agentcard.sh/agent.txt and https://docs.agentcard.sh (Personal tab).
- **Companies** (the `companies` namespace of the same `agent-cards` CLI): a product or platform issuing cards to many of its own users. Each user authorizes the app once via "Connect with Agentcard" (OAuth 2.1 + PKCE); the app then calls the MCP server with that user's token to create cards and buy on their behalf. The **wizard** (`agent-cards companies wizard`) is an AI agent that implements the whole integration in a repo and verifies it in test mode. Webhooks push card, cardholder, and transaction events with signed payloads. See https://docs.agentcard.sh (Companies tab).

Canonical facts: network = **Visa**; lifecycle = **single-use by default** (a card closes after its first charge; multi-use cards stay open for subscriptions); units = CLI **dollars**, MCP **cents**; test vs live is decided by the credential, never the URL; one CLI (`agent-cards`) covers both products — `agent-cards-admin` is a legacy shim that forwards to `agent-cards companies`. Canonical one-liners: `npx -y agent-cards@latest` (guided setup) and `npx -y agent-cards@latest agents add` (wire coding agents to the `agent-cards api` tool catalog).

## Key Features

- **Virtual Visa cards, single-use by default**: each card is prepaid with a fixed USD amount from the cash balance and works anywhere Visa is accepted online; unspent funds return to the balance when the card closes. Multi-use cards stay open across charges for subscriptions (create with `type: "multi_use"` / `--multi-use`; pause, resume, and resize them anytime)
- **Attach your own card (BYOC)**: `agent-cards attach` (CLI) or the `attach_card` tool enrolls the user's own Visa so purchases charge it directly, with no KYC and no funding step. Attach several cards (`--add` / `additional: true`), list and remove them (`attach --list` / `--remove`, `list_attached_cards` / `remove_attached_card`), and mint against a specific one (`cards create --from` / `connected_card_id`)
- **MCP-native**: one remote MCP server (`https://mcp.agentcard.sh/mcp`, Streamable HTTP, OAuth sign-in) works out of the box with Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, claude.ai, and any MCP-compatible client
- **Human-in-the-loop**: humans add the cash (Apple Pay / Google Pay) and approve sensitive actions; approval gates can pause card creation and credential reveals until a person confirms
- **One shared wallet**: with the shared wallet enabled, `list_cards` returns a `wallet` view of every live card across connected apps and companies, each tagged with its source and an `access` flag; a card minted by another app is read-only until the user approves the action (an emailed approve link; retry the same tool with `approval_id`)
- **Agent-to-agent onboarding**: the company-side wizard is itself an AI agent — one command integrates "Connect with Agentcard" plus per-user card issuance into a codebase and proves it with a test card
- **Agentic shopping**: the conversational `buy` tool runs entire purchases (DoorDash and other merchants) — cart, address, confirmation, checkout — in natural language
- **Blast radius containment**: a card's balance is the maximum possible loss from any failure mode
- **Card isolation (companies)**: a token from one app manages only the cards that app created for that user, and never sees another user's data; with the shared wallet enabled, cards from other apps are visible read-only and acting on them requires the user's approval
- **Signed webhooks (companies)**: HMAC-SHA256 signatures with timestamps, retries with backoff, test/live event separation
- **Test mode (companies)**: test-mode OAuth clients issue test cards that are never charged; production is a separate universe unlocked by a company subscription

## Supported Runtimes

- Claude Code — `agent-cards setup-mcp` (or `claude mcp add --transport http agent-cards https://mcp.agentcard.sh/mcp`)
- Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf — add `https://mcp.agentcard.sh/mcp` to the MCP config
- Claude.ai (web) — Settings → Integrations → add the MCP URL
- Any spec-compliant MCP client over Streamable HTTP (e.g. the Vercel AI SDK's) — OAuth, discovery, and token refresh are handled by the client

## Personal quickstart

```
npm install -g agent-cards
agent-cards signup                    # emailed code
agent-cards fund --amount 50          # add cash: Apple Pay / Google Pay
agent-cards cards create --amount 25  # dollars
agent-cards setup-mcp                 # connect the MCP server
```

Plans: Free ($0, 5 cards/mo, $50/card), Basic ($15/mo, 15 cards/mo, $500/card), Pro ($100/mo, 50 cards/mo, $1,000/card).

## Companies quickstart

```
npm install -g agent-cards
cd /path/to/your/app
agent-cards companies wizard    # AI agent implements OAuth + MCP issuance, verifies in test mode
```

Or manually: `agent-cards login` → `companies create` → `companies credentials create` → implement the OAuth 2.1 + PKCE flow (authorization server `https://mcp.agentcard.sh`) → call the MCP server with each user's token. Go live with `agent-cards companies subscribe` + `companies env production` + a production client.

## Key MCP tools

- `create_card` — issue a card prepaid from the cash balance (`amount_cents`; `type: "multi_use"` for subscriptions)
- `attach_card` — enroll the user's own Visa so purchases charge it directly (no KYC, no funding); `list_attached_cards` / `remove_attached_card` manage the enrollments
- `get_card_details` — decrypted PAN, CVV, expiry (approval-gated)
- `list_cards`, `get_card_balance`, `close_card`, `list_transactions` — card management
- `pause_card`, `resume_card`, `update_card_limit` — manage multi-use cards
- `add_funds`, `get_balance`, `withdraw` — cash balance, funding, and payouts
- `buy` — conversational end-to-end shopping at linked merchants
- `get_plan`, `upgrade_plan` — plan management
- `start_kyc`, `get_kyc_status` — one-time identity verification
- `approve_request` — resolve human-approval gates
- `get_instructions` — always-current usage guide; call it first

## Typical flows

Personal: signup → add cash to the balance (or attach your own Visa) → agent creates a card in cents → agent pays online → single-use cards close themselves after the first charge.

Companies: user clicks "Connect with Agentcard" → OAuth 2.1 + PKCE issues per-user tokens → app calls `https://mcp.agentcard.sh/mcp` with the user's token → agent issues cards and buys for that user → webhooks notify the app of card and transaction events.

## Use Cases

- AI agents purchasing cloud services, domains, or API credits
- Consumer agents ordering food and goods (DoorDash and other merchants) via `buy`
- Platforms and messaging agents issuing cards to their end users (companies product)
- Automated procurement with hard budget guardrails
- Giving coding assistants (Claude, Cursor) the ability to buy tools and services

## Comparison

| Feature | Agentcard | Other virtual card platforms |
|---------|-----------|------------------------------|
| MCP support | Native | Limited or none |
| Setup time | Minutes (personal) / one wizard run (companies) | Days–weeks |
| AI agent focus | Purpose-built | General-purpose |
| Single-use cards | Default | Configurable |
| Per-user OAuth for platforms | Built-in (Connect with Agentcard) | Custom build |

## Links

- Homepage: https://www.agentcard.sh
- Docs: https://docs.agentcard.sh
- Agent quick reference: https://www.agentcard.sh/agent.txt
- Dashboard: https://app.agentcard.sh
- Blog: https://www.agentcard.sh/blog/
- About: https://www.agentcard.sh/about
- npm (one CLI, both products): https://www.npmjs.com/package/agent-cards
- npm (legacy companies shim, forwards to `agent-cards companies`): https://www.npmjs.com/package/agent-cards-admin
- Status: https://agentcard.checkly-status-page.com