Human-not-present transaction
A purchase an agent completes while the user is absent, relying on authority the user granted in advance.
A human-not-present transaction is a purchase that an agent completes while the user is absent, relying on authority the user granted in advance, in contrast to a human-present transaction in which the user confirms the final cart at the time. The Agent Payments Protocol supports both, using open mandates to carry the user's constraints for human-not-present flows. These are the flows where limits, expiry and evidence carry the most weight, because no one reviews the final step.
Agent Minute explains this term on 20 February 2027.
Related terms
Open mandateIn AP2, a mandate not yet bound to one action, carrying the user's constraints for the agent to act within.Merchant-initiated transactionA card payment the merchant initiates without the cardholder present, under an agreement made earlier.Spend limitA cap on how much an agent may pay, enforced by the system that executes the payment, not by the agent.Evidence packA bundle of records that reconstructs one agent action: identity, mandate, authentication, inputs, calls, outputs and approvals.