ActOnce Spend Gateway is an open source, local-first decision engine that controls how AI agents spend money. As autonomous agents such as OpenClaw, Hermes, Claude Code, and Cursor start making real purchases, instructions like be careful with spending stop being a safety mechanism, because an agent can ignore, misread, or forget them between sessions. The gateway sits between the agent and the payment step: it evaluates every transaction against a YAML policy file and returns a single decision of approved, rejected, or requires approval. It ships as an MCP server and command line tool, installs with one npm command, and never stores card numbers, Stripe credentials, or payment tokens.

What Makes ActOnce Spend Gateway Stand Out

YAML policy engine: Define maximum purchase amounts, merchant allowlists, category blocks, business hours, and approval thresholds in a readable config file that the agent cannot override at runtime.

Duplicate detection: A SQLite-backed dedupe window stops the same purchase from being approved twice in a configurable time period, which addresses the common double domain registration and repeated subscription problem.

Human-in-the-loop approvals: Purchases above your threshold are queued instead of executed, and you receive a Telegram alert where you can approve or decline before the agent continues.

MCP-native integration: Built as a Model Context Protocol server, so it connects to any MCP-compatible agent through a short JSON config rather than custom glue code.

Zero credential exposure: The gateway only emits decisions. Your payment method, Stripe Link credentials, and tokens stay outside the tool entirely, and the open source edition runs fully on your own machine with no external API keys.

Who Should Use ActOnce Spend Gateway

Developers running autonomous agents who need hard limits on what an agent can buy, plus dry-run mode to test policies before enabling real spending.

Solo builders and agencies managing agents across several client projects, where per-project caps, approval queues, and clear audit logs replace guesswork.

Security, finance, and operations leads who must answer why a purchase happened and need a timestamped record of the policy matched, the approval, and the reason.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does ActOnce Spend Gateway process payments?

No. It is a decision engine only. It returns yes, no, or wait, and a payment tool such as Stripe Link handles the actual transaction. The gateway never touches your card or payment credentials.

Do I need to send data to the cloud?

The open source version is entirely local. Policy files, logs, and the deduplication database live on your machine with no external services. A hosted dashboard with approvals, multi-agent management, and webhooks is available on the paid Pro, Team, and Business plans.

Which agents and frameworks work with it?

Any MCP-compatible agent. It is tested with OpenClaw and Hermes and works with Claude Code, Cursor, and other frameworks that support the Model Context Protocol.

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