An organization proves its status once. After that, its agents carry the proof, and any seller that honors np402 answers with a better price. It rides inside the x402 payment standard, so nobody has to adopt a new protocol.
Software agents now buy data, tools and access a fraction of a cent at a time, using HTTP 402 and stablecoins. Every one of those prices is the same for everybody, because a seller has no way to tell who is asking.
People solved this long ago. Schools, charities, congregations and public agencies get a better rate on software, postage and supplies by showing who they are. Agents acting for those same organizations show up with a wallet and nothing else. np402 gives them something to show.
A seller that honors np402 says so in its 402 response. The agent asks again with its proof attached, the seller checks the proof, and the price comes back lower. Payment then happens the ordinary x402 way.
> GET /v1/report HTTP/1.1 < HTTP/1.1 402 Payment Required < accepts: exact, USDC, base < maxAmountRequired: 10000 (0.01 USDC) < NP402-Accept: organization > GET /v1/report HTTP/1.1 > NP402-Proof: eyJjbGFzcyI6Im9yZyJ9… < verifying certificate … ok < HTTP/1.1 402 Payment Required < maxAmountRequired: 2500 (0.0025 USDC) < NP402-Applied: verified rate > X-PAYMENT: eyJ4NDAyVmVyc2lvbiI6MX0… < HTTP/1.1 200 OK < X-PAYMENT-RESPONSE: settled, 0.0025 USDC
Illustration only. The three NP402 header names are proposals and may change before 1.0. The discount shown is an example; every seller sets its own.
Prove your status one time. Receive a signed certificate. Hand it to any agent that works on your behalf.
Add a small piece of middleware in front of an endpoint you already sell. Choose your own verified rate. Show the seal.
Attach the proof when a seller says it honors np402. Pay the lower price with the same wallet and the same flow.
Each kind of organization is a class with its own way of being checked. The first release will verify one class well before it adds the next.
A certificate is a short signed statement. A seller can check it without phoning anyone, and it says as little as it can.
A made-up example. The field list is a draft.
Certificates expire and can be revoked. Each time one is honored, the seller gets a record of why it gave the rate, so a discount can always be traced back to a proof.
An organization is more than a buyer. The same group that claims a verified rate can run an endpoint of its own and answer agents directly with facts about itself: who it serves, where it works, what it needs. Clients become servers and servers become clients.
np402 is the first case of a wider idea: verified pricing for agents. Organizations come first because their status is already a matter of record. The same proof-then-price pattern could later serve students and other groups that sellers already choose to treat differently.
Nothing here is live yet. This page describes a design, and no seller or organization has been enrolled.
| Step | What it means | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Draft spec | Classes, tiers, header names, certificate fields | In design |
| Validation | The prove-it-once check for the first class | Not started |
| Seller middleware | Reads the proof, lowers the price in the 402 response | Not started |
| First seller | One live endpoint that honors the rate | Not started |
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