AEP Budget

When to Use

• User wants to set or view spend limits (per-tx, daily, weekly, per-task)
• User needs to check if a payment would pass policy before signing
• User wants to emergency-freeze an agent wallet
• User asks about budget caps, remaining spend, or policy state

Manage budget caps and policy checks for AEP agent wallets. Budget enforcement is checked on-chain during transaction validation—overspend is impossible at the protocol level.

What is AEP?

AEP (Agent Economic Protocol) is the runtime layer for economic agents—including autonomous AI agents. It extends ERC-4337 smart accounts with policy modules that enforce budget, counterparty, and rate-limit rules.

Quick Start

1. Deploy an Account

aep deploy --factory 0xFactoryAddress

Owner derived from PRIVATE_KEY when --owner omitted. Or aep deploy --owner 0x... --factory 0x...

2. Set Budget Caps

# Get state
aep policy-get -m <BudgetPolicy address>

# Set basic caps (preserves per-task and windows)
aep policy-set -m <module> --max-per-tx 1000000 --max-daily 5000000 --max-weekly 20000000

# Set full caps including per-task (500k per 1hr task window)
aep policy-set -m <module> --full --max-per-tx 1000000 --max-daily 5000000 --max-weekly 20000000 \
  --max-per-task 500000 --task-window 3600

Caps semantics: see references/caps.md.

3. Check Policy (before x402 payment)

aep check-policy -a 500000 -t 0xRecipientAddress

4. Emergency Freeze

aep freeze

Environment Variables

MCP Tools

Run the AEP MCP server for agent self-management:

• get_balance — EntryPoint deposit
• get_policy_state — Caps and current spend (daily, weekly, task)
• set_budget_caps — Update caps (owner only)

SDK Usage

import {
  getBudgetPolicyState,
  setBudgetCaps,
  setBudgetCapsFull,
  checkPolicy,
  setFrozen,
} from "@economicagents/sdk";

const state = await getBudgetPolicyState(moduleAddress, { rpcUrl });
// state.maxPerTx, state.spentDaily, state.spentInTask, etc.

await setBudgetCaps(moduleAddress, { maxPerTx: 1e6, maxDaily: 5e6, maxWeekly: 20e6 }, { privateKey, rpcUrl });

await setBudgetCapsFull(moduleAddress, {
  maxPerTx: 1e6, maxDaily: 5e6, maxWeekly: 20e6,
  maxPerTask: 500000, taskWindowSeconds: 3600n,
  dailyWindowSeconds: 0n, weeklyWindowSeconds: 0n,
}, { privateKey, rpcUrl });

RateLimitPolicy

Limits transactions per time window. Prevents runaway agents from draining via high-frequency micro-payments.

aep rate-limit set -m <module> --max-tx 10 --window-seconds 3600

Skill: aep-rate-limit

Examples

Example 1: Set daily spend limit

Scenario: Cap agent spend at 5 USDC per day.

Steps:

1. Get BudgetPolicy module: aep modules
2. Set caps: aep policy-set -m <module> --max-per-tx 1000000 --max-daily 5000000 --max-weekly 20000000
3. Verify: aep policy-get -m <module>

Result: Agent cannot spend more than 5 USDC (6 decimals) per 24h window.

Example 2: Check if payment would pass before x402

Scenario: Check whether a 500k (6-decimal USDC) payment to 0xProvider passes policy.

Steps: Run aep check-policy -a 500000 -t 0xProvider

Result: Output shows allowed/denied and reason (e.g. BUDGET_EXCEEDED, COUNTERPARTY_BLOCKED).

Links

• Architecture
• Cookbook