io.github.tang-vu/keryx
Autonomous research agent that pays every source it cites in USDC on Arc via x402 micropayments.
Open source Repository Open in the app JSON README (API)
About
Autonomous research agent that pays every source it cites in USDC on Arc via x402 micropayments.
Details
- Kind
- MCP servers
- Topic
- Finance & crypto
- Publisher
- tang-vu
- Origin
- official
- Category
- ferramentas
- Transport
- http
- Version
- 0.2.0
- Stars
- 1
- Last push
- 2026-09-07T16:49:47Z
- Repository state
- ativo
- Language
- TypeScript
- Added
- 2026-08-29 04:01:30
- Updated
- 2026-08-29 04:01:30
- Origin id
io.github.tang-vu/keryx
README
# Keryx ποΈ
[](https://www.npmjs.com/package/keryx-mcp)
[](https://registry.modelcontextprotocol.io/v0/servers?search=keryx)
[](https://keryx.cc)
[](https://docs.arc.network)
[](https://github.com/circlefin/arc-nanopayments)
[](https://github.com/tang-vu/keryx/actions/workflows/ci.yml)
**Every time an AI uses a creator's work as a source, the creator gets paid β instantly.**
π Live: **[keryx.cc](https://keryx.cc)** β free to try, no wallet, no sign-up
Β· π **[public proof](https://keryx.cc/proof)** β code, adoption, RPC, settlement, cash-outs
Β· βΆοΈ `npm run demo` β the whole loop, real settlement, ~90s
Β· π€ `npx -y keryx-mcp@latest` β plug Keryx into any MCP agent
Β· π§© [Fork the Arc primitives](https://github.com/tang-vu/keryx-arc-primitives)
---
## The problem
The web's economics assume a human reader: you write, people visit, attention becomes ads,
subscriptions, tips. AI agents broke that contract. They read everything and send back nothing β
no click, no view, no cent. Every answer an assistant gives is built on someone's work, and that
someone is invisible at the exact moment their work proves its value.
Keryx (ΞΊαΏΟΟ
ΞΎ β *herald*) exists to fix that one moment. It makes **citation itself the payment
event**: the instant an agent relies on your writing to answer a question, you are paid,
proportional to how much you helped, settled sub-cent in USDC on [Arc](https://docs.arc.network).
No accounts, no invoices, no ad tech. A creator onboards by pasting an RSS URL. An agent pays
because paying is cheaper than not knowing.
## What Keryx is
Keryx is a **citation-toll reading agent** β an autonomous reader with a wallet, and the payment
rail underneath it. Give it a question and a budget:
1. It **decomposes** the question into sub-claims and **discovers** exact article candidates from free previews and the signed offer book.
2. It **decides**, per article version: *buy / skip / cache* β expected value vs effective price vs remaining budget,
with a human-readable rationale for every choice.
3. It **pays the x402 toll** only for what it buys, checks **sufficiency** after each read, and
stops early when it has enough.
4. It **synthesizes** a grounded answer with inline citations, **weighs each source's real
contribution**, and **settles a weighted USDC nanopayment to every creator it cited** β
multi-author works split on-chain, 100% to creator wallets, 0% platform fee.
The result is a working micro-economy: readers that pay by default, and writers that earn by
being *useful* β not by being clicked.
## An agent that genuinely decides
Most "payment agents" are scripts with a wallet. Keryx's differentiator is **visible agency** β
the model reasons about money and shows its work, streamed live to the UI:
- **Buy / skip / cache with rationale** β every spend decision names the exact article version and explains why.
- **Open article market** β [`/market`](https://keryx.cc/market) and `GET /api/offers` publish exact payable versions, registry list prices, x402 paths, and verifiable EIP-712 discounts signed by publishers.
- **Adjudication** βοΈ β when two sources conflict, the agent doesn't average them; it decides which
to trust and says why.
- **Confidence verdict** π β it rates its own answer (High / Moderate / Low) and hedges the prose
accordingly, instead of bluffing.
- **Evidence ledger** β every rewarded citation carries a claim-indexed exact quote. The
orchestrator verifies that quote against content it actually read before the marker can receive
a citation reward; rejected markers are removed from the answer.
- **Living answer receipts** β archived conclusions never silently change. Keryx flags when an
exact paid SHA-256/IPFS article version has been superseded, exposes a metadata-only freshness API,
and itemizes the source/evidence/coverage/settled-payment delta after a reader explicitly re-asks.
- **Portable research receipts** β every permalink exports one deterministic JSON bundle containing
its answer hash, BUY/SKIP/CACHE decisions, exact article versions, claim evidence and sanitized
Circle settlement snapshot. Retain its SHA-256 to detect later changes; the self-check does not
pretend to be a Keryx, publisher, or on-chain signature.
- **Claim-aware evidence portfolios** β Keryx chooses a non-redundant set of positive source
proposals under separate attention and fetch-USDC caps. CACHE correctly costs zero fetch USDC but
one context slot; the receipt compares preview-predicted coverage with evidence yield after read.
- **Cross-query memory** β sources that proved useful (or useless) in past runs *on the same
subject* shift future buy/skip decisions. A source is scored against the runs that actually read
it, so a skip never becomes evidence against the source it skipped.
- **Semantic discovery** β candidate matching by embedding similarity, not keyword luck.
- **Emergent frugality** β it stops early, reuses its cache, and correctly spends *nothing* when
nothing is worth buying.
Money safety is enforced in code, not by the model: the LLM proposes value; the orchestrator
enforces the hard budget cap, so a hallucinated number can never overspend. An economic-invariant
test suite (spend β€ budget, payouts = weights, splits sum exactly) runs in CI on every push.
Example trace (real output):
```
[decide] BUY Agent Economy Weekly β strong match on x402, autonomous, commerce; worth the $0.004 toll
[decide] SKIP Garden & Soil Monthly β weak match (no key terms); not worth $0.002
[fetch] Paid $0.004 to Agent Economy Weekly β S1
[sufficiency] Read 2 sources covering all sub-claims; stopping early to save budget
[settle] Settled $0.015 β Mara Okoye Β· $0.010 β Devin Park (60/40 author split)
π $0.032 spent β 100% to creators Β· 3 bought / 3 skipped
```
## For creators
- **Claim proven demand** β [keryx.cc/wanted](https://keryx.cc/wanted) shows claims paid
dispatches left under-covered. A new creator can check and list an RSS feed; an existing registry
creator can offer the exact indexed article directly and optionally sign a temporary discount.
Keryx guarantees that version a candidate slot, not a purchase, then queues one bounded retry
after refreshing creator authority. Fulfillment is public only when
that source passes the evidence gate and its citation reward really settles. Every claim has a
canonical shareable brief and social card, so the specific gap can reach the writer who covers it.
- **Onboard from your own wallet** β paste an RSS feed at [keryx.cc/register](https://keryx.cc/register)
and your wallet writes the source to the on-chain registry itself. Keryx sets up the x402-priced
endpoint and the free preview; it never holds your key, and the faucet on that page covers the gas.
**All 20 listed sources are written to the on-chain registry**, including real public feeds β
Hugging Face, Vitalik Buterin, CoinDesk, the Ethereum Foundation, Stripe, Latent Space,
Simon Willison β each earning per citation.
- **Own your payout** β the payout address is the wallet you signed in with. The first owner-verified
creator ([conzit.com](https://conzit.com)) proved feed ownership, set its address, was cited &
paid end-to-end β and has since claimed its registry record from its own wallet, so its on-chain
`creator` is the creator, not Keryx. We've also proposed this as an opt-in convention upstream in
[RSSHub](https://github.com/DIYgod/RSSHub/discussions/22315).
*Honest note:* the demo sources seeded before this switch still have operator-held payout keys β
they are Keryx's own sample publications, not third-party creators. Nine of the twenty on-chain
records also name Keryx's treasury as their registry `creator`, so the treasury, not the source
wallet, can update or deactivate those nine. The payout address is correct on all twenty β an
hourly watchdog re-reads every record from the chain and publishes the comparison on
[`/status`](https://keryx.cc/status).
- **Know the moment you're cited** β opt into a plain **email alert** (no webhook server needed,
rate-capped, one-click unsubscribe) and/or signed webhooks that fire the instant a citation
settles; every payout on your public earnings page shows the actual *question* your work helped
answer.
- **Show it off** β an embeddable **"Cited by Keryx" badge** (live SVG at `/api/creator/<id>/badge.svg`)
displays your real citation count + USDC earned on your own site, with copy-paste Markdown/HTML on
each creator page. Payouts become portable, verifiable proof.
- **Cash out yourself, gas-free** β a self-serve, non-custodial withdraw: your wallet signs a
Gateway burn intent in the browser, the treasury relays gas. Real creators have executed real
on-chain cash-outs.
- **Keep everything** β 100% of every citation reward goes to creator wallets. 0% platform fee.
- **Squat-proof identity** β sources live in an on-chain SourceRegistry
([`0x2e12Faβ¦`](https://testnet.arcscan.app/address/0x2e12Fa3256B21b9d8726933b5c4bfBDCc740e536))
with creator-scoped IDs and on-chain multi-author splits.
## For developers & agents
- **Free, no-wallet trial** β [keryx.cc](https://keryx.cc) answers without any setup, with a
graceful upgrade path when you outgrow the free budget.
- **Browser extension** ([`extension/`](extension/)) β highlight text on any page and ask Keryx
from a toolbar popup, or right-click to list a page you own as a paid source. A thin,
no-key client over the OpenAI-compatible endpoint; load unpacked on any Chromium browser.
- **Remote MCP** β connect an MCP client directly to [`https://keryx.cc/mcp`](https://keryx.cc/mcp)
over Streamable HTTP: no package or local wallet process. The `research` tool has an anonymous,
IP-limited trial; an ask-scoped `kx_live_β¦` Bearer key raises the cap and attributes usage to its
verified wallet. Creator rewards still settle in USDC on Arc. Quick connect:
`codex mcp add keryx --url "https://keryx.cc/mcp?client=codex"` or
`claude mcp add --transport http keryx "https://keryx.cc/mcp?client=claude"`.
The interactive setup guide is at [`/integrations/mcp`](https://keryx.cc/integrations/mcp).
- **Local x402 MCP** β on the [official MCP registry](https://registry.modelcontextprotocol.io/v0/servers?search=keryx);
`npx -y keryx-mcp@latest` keeps the caller-funded path: its local Arc wallet pays Keryx's x402
toll before Keryx researches and pays creators.
- **Discord slash command** β [install the Keryx app](https://discord.com/oauth2/authorize?client_id=1527619548809924678)
in any server and type `/ask`: the reply embed carries the grounded answer, every creator paid,
and a link to the dispatch trace. No bot process β signed interactions POST straight to the API
([`docs/discord-bot-setup.md`](./docs/discord-bot-setup.md)).
- **Telegram bot** β DM [@keryxai_bot](https://t.me/keryxai_bot) any question (or `/ask β¦` in a
group): same full reasoning loop, same real creator payouts, answered in-chat with a
dispatch-trace link. Webhook-only, no polling process
([`docs/telegram-bot-setup.md`](./docs/telegram-bot-setup.md)).
- **Slack slash command** β a `/keryx β¦` command for any workspace: signed requests POST straight
to `/api/slack/commands`, the same full reasoning loop and real creator payouts answered in-channel
with a dispatch-trace link. No bot token or scopes β replies ride the command's `response_url`.
Setup + app manifest in ([`docs/slack-bot-setup.md`](./docs/slack-bot-setup.md)).
- **Agent-to-agent API** β `POST /api/agent/ask` lets other agents buy Keryx's research over x402:
an agent paying an agent that pays creators, end to end. Versioned Quick/Deep packages pin the
execution contract and return provisional-SLO latency plus deterministic evidence-quality
receipts; see [`docs/a2a-research-packages.md`](./docs/a2a-research-packages.md).
- **OpenAI-compatible endpoint** β point any OpenAI SDK or tool (LangChain, LlamaIndex, OpenWebUI,
LibreChat, Continue) at `https://keryx.cc/api/v1` with model `keryx`: a drop-in Chat Completions
API. Free with no key, or pass a `kx_live_β¦` key as the Bearer token for higher limits. Every
cited creator is still paid downstream in USDC on Arc; with `stream:true`, the agent's live
buy/skip/trust reasoning streams as `reasoning_content` deltas. Try it with no install in the
[browser playground](https://keryx.cc/playground) β it also hands you the exact curl/Python/JS call.
- **Public API with wallet-issued keys** β SIWE-authenticated key minting (hashed, show-once,
rate-limited) and OpenAPI docs at [`/api/docs`](https://keryx.cc/api/docs).
- **Receipt export + local verification** β `GET /api/dispatch/<id>/receipt` returns the portable
research receipt; download it from any permalink and run
`npm run verify:receipt -- ./keryx-receipt-<id>.json` to recompute its payload digest. See the
[receipt format and trust boundary](./docs/research-receipts.md).
- **Non-custodial by design** β interactive spend uses a session EOA the *user* funds from their
own wallet; the browser co-signs each x402 authorization in-tab. The funded amount is the hard
cap. Keryx never holds your key or your funds.
- **The chain decides who gets paid** β before anything signs or settles, every payee is checked
against the on-chain SourceRegistry, not against Keryx's database. Editing the database cannot
reroute a single citation reward, on any path β browser, volume engine, or A2A.
- **Transparent treasury** β [`/api/treasury`](https://keryx.cc/api/treasury) publishes the
settlement wallet's chain-abstracted Gateway balance (via Circle App Kit), so anyone can audit
what backs the payouts.
- **Live activity feed** β [`/api/activity`](https://keryx.cc/api/activity) streams the most recent
real settled citations (source, question, reward) β a proof-of-life surface and a zero-prior-knowledge
way for tooling to see what Keryx is citing right now; it also drives the live ticker on the landing.
- **Answer archive as an Atom feed** β subscribe to [`/answers/feed.xml`](https://keryx.cc/answers/feed.xml)
and see every new paid answer as it settles. Keryx onboards creators by reading their RSS feeds;
this is the same door pointed the other way β Keryx itself becomes a source any reader or agent
can follow.
## The money rails
Payments are the product, so none of them are pretend. **Policy: no mocked settlement** β every
reported figure is a real, settled transaction; offline dev runs are loudly labeled `SIMULATED`.
- **x402 pay-per-request** (`@circle-fin/x402-batching`) β a two-toll design: a small fixed
*access* toll to read, plus a dynamic *citation* reward priced by contribution weight. Fetched
but uncited earns the toll; cited earns proportionally more only after its evidence passes the
deterministic grounding gate.
- **Circle Gateway nanopayments** β batched sub-cent settlement (floor $0.000001). Average Keryx
payment: ~$0.0044 β a true nanopayment, uneconomical on any card rail.
- **Circle App Kit (Unified Balance Kit)** β chain-abstracted treasury balance, published live on
[`/status`](https://keryx.cc/status) and [`/api/treasury`](https://keryx.cc/api/treasury).
- **SourceRegistry contract on Arc** β source identity, IPFS CIDs, multi-author splits; on-chain
events drive the off-chain indexer.
- **Encrypted content on IPFS** β AES-256-GCM ciphertext pinned publicly; plaintext is released
only after x402 settlement verifies. Free previews stay plaintext.
- **USDC-native chain** β Arc settles in <500ms with USDC as gas, which is what makes per-citation
economics physically possible.
## Live numbers
*Arc testnet Β· snapshot 2026-08-13 Β· always current at [`/proof`](https://keryx.cc/proof)*
| | |
|---|---|
| Settled nanopayments | **9,505** Β· **$44.97** total volume |
| Paid to creators | **$39.09** USDC β **20** earning creators (100% of rewards, 0% fee) |
| Queries | **1,842** Β· **95.4%** aggregate readerβpayer conversion |
| Independent usage | **141** queries Β· **131** paid Β· **611** payments Β· **$2.636** to creators |
| Identified retention + feedback | **4/4** actors returned Β· **9/9** positive responses |
| First-party agent activity | **1,701** queries Β· **8,894** payments Β· reported separately from adoption |
| Creator cash-outs | **12** self-serve gasless withdrawals (**$0.7533**) executed on-chain |
> **Honesty on usage:** most of this volume is generated by Keryx's own 24/7 autonomous agents
> (volume engine + headless web/A2A clients) β real on-chain settlement, agent-driven rather than
> external human traffic, and labeled as such on the dashboard. The external on-ramps (MCP server,
> A2A endpoint, owner-verified creators) are live; growing genuine third-party usage is the
> current push. Settlements batch through Circle Gateway, so on-chain proof is the batched
> settlement wallet + the SourceRegistry contract on [arcscan](https://testnet.arcscan.app), not
> per-payment tx links.
## Architecture
```
BROWSER (Web App) IPFS + Arc Smart Contracts Circle Gateway + Arc Testnet
βββββββββββββββββ βββββββββββββββββββββββββ ββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ
ββββββββββββββββββββ [SourceRegistry]
β /ask page β (SIWE on Arc 0x2e12Fa... USDC on Arc
β + wallet connect β auth) β’ sources[] (ERC-20, 6 decimals)
β β β’ emit Registry events
ββββββββββ¬ββββββββββ β’ indexed by off-chain DB
β session-grant
β (user funds session EOA) [IPFS Content]
β MetaMask tx β session β’ AES-256-GCM encrypted [Circle Gateway]
β deposits in Gateway β’ plaintext released only post-settle β’ batch settlement
β β’ x402 EIP-712 verify
β [Keryx API]
β co-sign loop (fetch+POST): β’ auth: SIWE JWT (browser + API key) [Arc RPC]
/api/ask (SSE) βββββββββββββββββββΆ /api/session/* (grant, credit) rpc.testnet.arc.network
browser streams /api/ask (agent asks, gets
sign-requests /api/ask/sign sign-requests back)
βββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ /api/source/[id]/item/[itemId]?version=β¦
client-side session key /api/offers (signed article price book)
/api/cite (citation reward)
signs EIP-712 /api/keys (API key mint/verify)
auto-signs (NO prompt) /api/agent/ask (A2A, x402-priced)
/api/treasury (App Kit unified balance)
/api/docs (OpenAPI)
Agent brain (lib/agent/run-agent.ts):
decomposeβdiscoverβdecideβfetchβsufficiencyβsynthesizeβattributeβsettle
```
## Run it
**One command β the full cycle (~90s).** Decide β pay the x402 toll β read β synthesize β settle
weighted citation rewards, then print the Arc-testnet wallets whose USDC actually moved:
```bash
npm run demo -- "How do x402 and stablecoins enable AI agent commerce?" --budget 0.05
```
With `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` + `AGENT_FUNDER_PRIVATE_KEY` + `NEXT_PUBLIC_KERYX_REGISTRY_ADDRESS` it
settles for real and prints on-chain proof; without them the same flow runs offline, clearly
labeled `SIMULATED` β a mock is never presented as settled.
```bash
# 1. Install (Node v20.18.2+)
npm install
# 2. Configure (optional β runs offline with zero keys)
cp .env.example .env.local
# 3. Wallets + demo sources
npm run generate-wallets
npm run seed-sources
# 4a. One question, full reasoning trace in the terminal
npm run ask -- "How do x402 and stablecoins enable autonomous AI agent commerce?" --budget 0.05
# 4b. Or the full web app (SIWE auth, session grants, browser co-sign)
npm run dev # http://localhost:3939
# 5. Autonomous volume engine Β· live metrics
npm run seed -- --count 20
npm run metrics
```
| Mode | Reasoning | Payments | When |
|------|-----------|----------|------|
| **Offline dev** | heuristic, no LLM key | simulated, labeled | laptop, zero setup |
| **Server treasury** | Claude / DeepSeek | real Arc testnet (funder wallet) | volume engine, A2A |
| **User interactive** | Claude / DeepSeek | real Arc testnet (user-funded session EOA) | the web app |
## Built to stay up
Keryx runs as a real service, not a demo that dies after the video:
- **Public [`/status`](https://keryx.cc/status) + [`/api/health`](https://keryx.cc/api/health)** β
uptime, deployed commit, settlement mode, live traction, treasury balance.
- **Low-downtime deploys** β new builds compile beside the live one, swap atomically, health-gate,
and auto-roll-back if the new build doesn't come up (`npm run redeploy`).
- **Treasury watchdog** β hourly cron checks settlement-wallet USDC + gas against thresholds and
alerts before settlements can stall; failed settlements alert immediately.
- **Rotating off-box backups** of the traction datastore, hourly.
- **CI** β typecheck + the economic-invariant suite on every push.
- **24/7 volume daemon** β the agent keeps reading, paying, and settling around the clock.
## Security & honest trade-offs
The interactive path is non-custodial, with the remaining testnet trade-offs documented (each with
an upgrade path in the [roadmap](./docs/project-roadmap.md)):
1. **Circle facilitator** β x402 settlement batches through Circle's facilitator (no on-chain
alternative on Arc testnet yet).
2. **Server holds the IPFS decryption key** β content is encrypted at rest, but key release is
server-side (Lit Protocol planned once Arc is supported).
3. **Session key lives in a Web Worker** β derived there, never returned; the tab holds only
AES-GCM ciphertext under a non-extractable key. The worker signs payment authorizations to
registry-authorised payees only, and transactions only to USDC/Gateway β so page-level XSS can
neither steal the key nor name itself as payee. Residual: the derivation signature is produced
on the main thread, a one-call window at setup.
4. **Treasury gas wallet** β holds gas only, rotated; a compromise cannot touch creator funds.
Full threat matrix and verification results: [`docs/security-threat-model.md`](./docs/security-threat-model.md).
## Fork the primitives
The reusable building blocks are MIT-licensed and standalone in
[`keryx-arc-primitives`](https://github.com/tang-vu/keryx-arc-primitives) (also vendored at
[`arc-primitives/`](./arc-primitives) β clone with `--recurse-submodules`):
- **Two-toll x402 settlement** β fixed access price + dynamic citation reward.
- **On-chain creator/attribution registry** β squat-proof IDs, multi-author splits, event indexer.
- **Non-custodial spend cap** β server-enforced budget over a user-funded session EOA.
## Project docs
- [`docs/openai-compatible-api.md`](./docs/openai-compatible-api.md) β drop-in recipes for OpenAI SDK, LangChain, LlamaIndex, Open WebUI, LibreChat, Continue
- [`docs/system-architecture.md`](./docs/system-architecture.md) β data/money flow + on-chain components
- [`docs/security-threat-model.md`](./docs/security-threat-model.md) β threat matrix, audits, residuals
- [`docs/codebase-summary.md`](./docs/codebase-summary.md) β module map
- [`docs/project-roadmap.md`](./docs/project-roadmap.md) β where this is going
- [`TRACTION.md`](./TRACTION.md) β real payment volume, updated from the live datastore
- [`FEEDBACK.md`](./FEEDBACK.md) β Circle/Arc dev-tool feedback we filed while building
- [`DECISIONS.md`](./DECISIONS.md) β architecture decision log
- [`CLAUDE.md`](./CLAUDE.md) β contributor orientation
## Origin & where it's going
Keryx started at the **Lepton Agents Hackathon** (Canteen Γ Circle, on Arc, June 2026) as the
canonical build of the "herald" model β *content cited, paid per citation* β and never stopped
running. It has been live at [keryx.cc](https://keryx.cc) since, settling real value every hour,
onboarding real feeds, and shipping continuously in public. Next: Lit Protocol for client-side IPFS
key release and growing external agent traffic through the MCP and A2A on-ramps. Mainnet remains a
separate audited migration: the current network id, Gateway endpoints, explorer, and browser chain
are deliberately pinned to Arc testnet, with no single-variable production-money switch.
## Stack
Next.js 16 Β· React 19 Β· Tailwind 4 Β· shadcn/ui Β· viem/wagmi Β· `@circle-fin/x402-batching` Β·
`@circle-fin/unified-balance-kit` Β· `@x402/fetch` Β· Node `node:sqlite` / Supabase Β·
Anthropic / DeepSeek. Built on the verified
[`circlefin/arc-nanopayments`](https://github.com/circlefin/arc-nanopayments) x402/Gateway plumbing.