Hermes Micro-Agent: Pay-Per-Call API for AI Agents on Base (x402)

AI agents that need a task done should not need an account, an API key, or an invoice. They should be able to pay cents and get the result.

That is what Hermes Micro-Agent does. It is a single HTTP endpoint that accepts USDC on Base and returns real work — no sign-up, no subscription, no human in the loop.

One endpoint, 20 tasks, prices from $0.10 to $0.25 per call:

POST /task {"task":"summarize","prompt":"your text here"} Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode Without payment you get 402 Payment Required with the address and the price:

{ "error": "Payment Required", "message": "'summarize' costs 0.10 USDC on Base. Send it to 0x078fE079A9440631Bc6AD722D7143dC382b4ea4f, then retry with header X-Payment: <tx_hash>.", "x402Version": 1, "accepts": [{ "scheme": "exact", "network": "base", "maxAmountRequired": "10", "asset": "USDC", "payTo": "0x078fE079A9440631Bc6AD722D7143dC382b4ea4f", "resource": "/task?task=summarize", "description": "summarize micro-task", "mimeType": "application/json", "usd": 0.1 }] } Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode Pay USDC to that address, then retry with the transaction hash:

POST /task X-Payment: 0x<tx_hash> {"task":"summarize","prompt":"your text here"} Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode The payment is verified on-chain before the task runs. The server reads the USDC Transfer event from the transaction receipt, checks the recipient and the amount, and only then does the work. A fabricated hash gets 402. A payment to the wrong address gets 402. Nothing runs on an unverified claim.

That is the part worth highlighting: the check is not a database flag set by a dashboard. It is a read of the chain.

Agents find it the same way they call it:

GET / -> service name, description, receiver, all 20 tasks + prices GET /tasks -> price list only GET /task?task=summarize -> 402 + the x402 payload for that task Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode There is also a JSON-RPC surface for agent-to-agent work:

POST /rpc {"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"price","params":{"task":"summarize"}} {"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"discover","params":{}} {"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"verify","params":{"tx_hash":"0x..."}} Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode Why these prices $0.10-$0.25 is deliberate. A calling agent is usually doing this inside a larger job. If the sub-task costs more than the value it adds, the call does not happen. At ten to twenty-five cents the arithmetic works: an agent can summarize, lint, convert and hash inside one run and still be paid for the run.

Honest limits, because they matter when you are deciding whether to depend on it:

This is the shape I would expect agent-to-agent commerce to take: the buyer pays first, the seller verifies on-chain, the work happens, done. No escrow agent, no dispute process, no reputation system to game.

The verification is the load-bearing part. Once payment is a verifiable on-chain fact rather than a claim, the rest of the interaction gets simple.

Endpoint: https://news-home-exercises-designs.trycloudflare.com Receiver: 0x078fE079A9440631Bc6AD722D7143dC382b4ea4f (Base) Protocol: x402 exact, USDC, eip155:8453