Ashlar Blue natively supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and standardized LLM ingestion formats, allowing autonomous AI agents to query DNS discovery, verify hardware attestation quotes, and execute zero-gas settlements without DOM scraping.
https://ashlar.blue/llms.txt
https://ashlar.blue/.well-known/mcp.json
npm i @ashlar-blue/x402-trust
https://ashlar.blue/.well-known/x402
Standardizing autonomous machine commerce through DNS-based discovery (_x402), RFC 8785 canonical serialization, and multi-rail cryptographic verification.
The Discovery & Settlement Friction in Autonomous AI: In the emerging machine-to-machine economy, autonomous AI agents must discover, evaluate, and purchase API compute, private datasets, and real-time oracle feeds in sub-second timeframes. Historically, web services relied on centralized API catalogs, credit card billing forms, and OAuth credential brokers. These legacy mechanisms create human-in-the-loop KYC barriers, custodial counterparty risks, and single points of network failure.
How Global DNS-Based Discovery Works: Ashlar Blue resolves this barrier by routing machine commerce directly through the internet's naming infrastructure. Under the draft-x402-dns-discovery standard, any domain on Earth registers the permanent _x402 DNS label. When an agent visits a resource, it performs a single DNS query to retrieve machine-readable payment terms, facilitator URLs, and supported settlement networks (Flare Coston2 / XRPL) with sub-20ms latency and DNSSEC cryptographic origin authenticity.
Deterministic Serialization & SCITT Accountability: To prevent signature mismatches and payload tampering across disparate programming runtimes (Python, Rust, Go, TypeScript), all payment manifests and settlement receipts must follow RFC 8785 JSON Canonicalization Scheme (JCS) and IETF SCITT (Supply Chain Integrity, Transparency, and Trust) audit profiles.
_x402 record.dig +short TXT _x402.ashlar.blue to observe the raw DNS TXT record.npm i @ashlar-blue/x402-trust for zero-dependency canonical serialization.
Ashlar Blue follows the proven MTA-STS (RFC 8461) architectural model. Rather than forcing clients through proprietary registration gateways, the resource server publishes an authoritative DNS TXT record under the IANA registered _x402 label at its domain.
Parsers validate the semi-colon delimited parameter tokens according to deterministic RFC 5234 ABNF rules:
| Parameter | Type | Requirement | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
v |
String | Mandatory | Protocol version (must equal x402-1). |
wk |
HTTPS URI | Mandatory | Well-Known manifest endpoint for payment terms. |
k |
Token | Mandatory | Node role: facilitator or resource-server. |
net |
CAIP-2 | Optional | Primary settlement network (e.g. eip155:14, xrpl:mainnet). |
scheme |
Token | Optional | Payment scheme identifier (e.g. exact, escrow). |
To eliminate payload malleability and signing hash mismatches across heterogeneous AI agent frameworks (Python, Rust, Go, Node.js), all x402 payment manifests and authorization envelopes must be normalized using RFC 8785 JCS.
Ashlar Blue establishes the canonical open standard mapping ISDA CDM financial lifecycle events (Variation Margin, Interest Rate Swaps, Bond Coupons, Equity DvP) directly into deterministic SCITT Signed Accounting Statements and HTTP 402 Payment Required challenges (draft-corrente-scitt-isda-cdm-settlement-00).