# Offers & payment (/docs/activation/offers-and-payment)



When an Operation crosses a paid boundary, the platform returns an **HTTP 402** with a
structured, platform-signed **Offer** — not an error page.

## The 402 Offer [#the-402-offer]

The Offer is a first-class object binding the Operation, canonical intent, exact
scope and ceiling, price and asset, terms, expiry, and a nonce. It advertises a
machine-method list and a contextual `human_action` that is optional for commerce and
required for legal scope.

```http
HTTP/1.1 402 Payment Required
Content-Type: application/json

{ "offer": { "operation": "op_…", "amount": "…", "asset": "…",
             "methods": ["stripe-mpp", "x402"], "human_action": null,
             "expires": "…", "nonce": "…" } }
```

## Two settlement paths, one Operation [#two-settlement-paths-one-operation]

* **Machine** — a verified wallet settlement (Stripe MPP first; a compatible x402
  exact method where available) atomically records one Purchase receipt, claims the
  Workspace to the machine payer, mints a commerce-only Root grant and exact child
  [Envelope](/docs/concepts/authority), and resumes the same Operation. The external
  wallet methods (`stripe-mpp`, `x402`) are advertised in the price sheet but settle
  **best-effort behind provider approval**: where a wallet rail is not yet
  provisioned, settlement answers `402 settlement_unverified` with the Offer
  restated — nothing is charged and nothing changes state. The always-available
  machine rail is `account-credit`: a pre-funded balance debit against the paying
  account.
* **Human** — a claim-and-fund flow (Stripe Checkout/Link) follows the same
  identity-preserving path with a new human Root-grant version. The claim page
  redirects to Stripe's hosted checkout and settles only the session id Stripe
  returns; the platform re-retrieves the authoritative session and proves it
  complete, paid, exact-amount, and bound to the Offer before any authority moves.

Existing grants never widen; authority is replaced at the root and re-derived. The
**same Operation resumes** from the exact boundary — an Authority continuation receipt
proves unchanged intent, the completed checkpoint, immutable Root replacement, and the
first resumed event. A payment is a service fee; it never authorizes live trading.

> **A payment is not input provenance**
>
> Purchase establishes entitlement; Delivery binds the exact bytes received; Input
> admission verifies content root, schema, watermark, freshness, and use scope. Only an
> `ADMITTED` resource can become a Field or Grade input.