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Policy
May 21, 20267 min readIdentity layer

How Leash policy keeps AI agents inside spend and host limits

Leash policy lets AI agents act with budget, host, trigger, and stop-condition limits that are visible on the identity.

Why it matters

Autonomous agents need more than a balance. They need explicit rules for where they can spend, how much they can spend, and when they should stop.

Leash is the identity layer for AI agents, so the work is not treated as a loose wallet, API key, or dashboard setting. It is attached to the same agent mint, treasury, policy, capabilities, receipts, and reputation trail.

How Leash handles it

Leash represents these rules with typed policy documents such as RulesV1 and evaluates them before buyer calls, automation runs, and payment flows.

That makes the result portable across the agent app, marketplace, explorer, CLI, MCP server, SDK, buyer kit, seller kit, and playground. The surface can change, but the identity and proof trail stay the same.

Implementation checklist

Define the daily and per-call budget, allow only the hosts your agent needs, keep trigger scope tight, and review receipts for denied or warned actions.

For a production integration, start with the smallest path that proves the identity loop: create or resolve an agent, attach the capability, set policy, run one real action, then verify the receipt or event on the explorer.

RulesV1 budget and host policy

json
{
  "v": "0.1",
  "budget": { "daily": "10", "perCall": "0.25", "currency": "USDC" },
  "hosts": { "allow": ["api.example.com"] },
  "triggers": [{ "type": "interval", "seconds": 3600 }]
}

FAQ

Can policy block a payment before settlement?

Yes. Buyer-side policy can deny a call before the agent signs or settles the payment.

Is policy only for payments?

No. Policy also describes allowed triggers, hosts, and operating boundaries for broader agent behavior.

Building with Leash?

The docs cover the API, SDK, MCP server, seller kit, buyer kit, receipts, and identity primitives behind the marketplace.

Read docs