Protocol Version 2.0 IETF RFC 9162 & RFC 8785 Hardware Attested (AMD SEV & Intel TDX)

Ashlar Blue Developer Documentation

The institutional machine trust platform enabling autonomous AI agents to discover payment endpoints via DNS, verify counterparty execution inside hardware enclaves, and execute non-custodial multi-rail settlement.

# Platform Overview

Ashlar Blue addresses the fundamental constraint of machine-to-machine commerce: transaction graph surveillance and counterparty risk. When autonomous agents transact on public blockchains, their financial graphs, balances, and operational strategies are exposed to public surveillance.

Ashlar Blue unifies three core technologies into a single non-custodial clearing layer:

  • Hardware Enclaves (AMD SEV-SNP & Intel TDX): Cryptographic clearing, signature validation, and trade matching execute within hardware-isolated memory perimeters inaccessible to hosts, cloud providers, or operators.
  • Dual-Stack x402 Facilitator: Gasless micropayment routing using canonical EIP-3009 authorizations and IETF DNS discovery.
  • IETF SCITT Transparency Receipts (RFC 9162): Every settlement emits a merkleized audit receipt that institutions and regulators can verify offline without calling APIs.
🛡️ Non-Custodial Architecture

Neither Ashlar Blue nor the facilitator ever takes custody of funds. Agents sign standardized authorizations (such as EIP-3009 receiveWithAuthorization). The facilitator broadcasts the settlement, and funds transfer directly between the payer's wallet and payee's address atomically.

# 5-Minute Quickstart

To interact with an x402 paywalled resource on Ashlar Blue, follow the two-step handshake:

Step 1: Probe the Resource for the 402 Challenge

Send an unauthenticated request to the paywalled endpoint. The server responds with HTTP 402 Payment Required containing the accepted payment methods and pricing in the canonical payment-required header:

curl -i -X POST https://api.ashlar.blue/demo/card

Step 2: Interactive Live Endpoint Probe

Test the live facilitator endpoint directly from this documentation portal:

🧪 Live x402 Endpoint Probe Production API
// Click "PROBE" to execute a live x402 challenge request against production infrastructure...

# The x402 Protocol Wire Specification

Ashlar Blue operates a dual-stack x402 v1 / v2 facilitator. In x402 v2, payment requirements are delivered in the payment-required Base64 response header:

HTTP 402 Response Headers
HTTP/2 402 Payment Required
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Access-Control-Expose-Headers: payment-required
payment-required: 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

Decoded, the challenge contains an array of acceptable offers identified by CAIP-2 network identifiers:

Field Type Description
x402Version number Protocol major version (2 for v2 emission).
resource.url string Fully qualified URI of the resource being accessed.
accepts[].scheme string Settlement scheme (e.g. "exact").
accepts[].network string CAIP-2 chain identifier (e.g. "eip155:114" for Coston2, "eip155:50" for XDC).
accepts[].amount string Atomic token units required (e.g. "100000" = 0.10 FCUSD).
accepts[].payTo string Recipient address designated to receive funds upon settlement.

# DNS Discovery Specification (_x402)

Autonomous AI agents discover facilitator endpoints without centralized registries by querying standard DNS TXT records defined under the IETF x402 DNS Discovery draft.

To announce an x402 facilitator for a domain, configure the _x402 apex record:

DNS TXT Record Format
_x402.ashlar.blue. IN TXT "v=x402-1; wk=https://api.ashlar.blue/.well-known/x402; k=facilitator; net=eip155:114; scheme=exact"

# Hardware Enclave Silicon & Remote Attestation

All clearing decisions and cryptographic verifications on Ashlar Blue execute inside attested hardware execution environments: AMD SEV-SNP and Intel TDX.

Enclave Architecture Silicon Generation Attestation Provider Verification Method
AMD SEV-SNP AMD EPYC™ Milan / Genoa Google Cloud Confidential Space OIDC JWT token signed by confidentialcomputing.googleapis.com
Intel TDX v4 4th/5th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Intel SGX / TDX DCAP ECDSA P-256 quote hash verified against MRTD measurement registers

Verifying Remote Attestation

Integrators can independently verify the enclave's code integrity using the verify_tdx_quote or get_enclave_attestation tool over the Model Context Protocol (MCP) or via our public API endpoint.

# Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server

Ashlar Blue provides a full-featured MCP server (@ashlar-blue/x402-trust) enabling autonomous AI assistants—such as Claude Code, Cursor, and Google Antigravity—to discover paywalls, verify enclave attestation, and dispatch gasless payments.

Claude Desktop & Claude Code Configuration
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ashlar-trust": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@ashlar-blue/x402-trust", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Core Tool Reference

Tool Name Parameters Purpose
discover_x402_endpoint domain Resolves DNS TXT records to discover facilitator endpoints.
verify_tdx_quote quoteHex, expectedMrtd Validates Intel TDX hardware attestation quote against reference hashes.
canonicalize_jcs_payload payload Normalizes JSON data strictly according to RFC 8785 (JCS).
submit_gasless_settlement authorization, requirement Dispatches an EIP-3009 payment authorization to the clearing engine.
reconcile settlementTx, payee Confirms on-chain settlement verdict and produces audit proof.

# REST API Reference

The facilitator server exposes clean HTTP endpoints for verification, settlement, and resource delivery.

POST /verify

Pre-verifies an EIP-3009 authorization before broadcast to confirm signature validity, nonce status, and sufficient balance.

cURL Example
curl -X POST https://api.ashlar.blue/verify \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "x402Version": 2,
    "paymentPayload": {
      "from": "0x118970D2b9c36fB65Eb00F0203Ad5DF...",
      "to": "0x3c36450b84b7b9712A396ab4e1b551888ab36599",
      "value": "100000",
      "validAfter": 0,
      "validBefore": 1788700000,
      "nonce": "0x8f2d...",
      "v": 27,
      "r": "0x...",
      "s": "0x..."
    }
  }'

GET /supported

Returns the live array of supported blockchain networks, tokens, and hardware enclave environments.

Response Payload
{
  "networks": [
    { "name": "coston2", "caip2": "eip155:114", "type": "evm" },
    { "name": "flare", "caip2": "eip155:14", "type": "evm" },
    { "name": "songbird", "caip2": "eip155:19", "type": "evm" },
    { "name": "xdc", "caip2": "eip155:50", "type": "evm" }
  ],
  "enclaves": ["GCP_AMD_SEV", "INTEL_TDX_V4"],
  "standards": ["x402-v2", "EIP-3009", "RFC-8785", "IETF-SCITT-RFC-9162"]
}