Get Started with Payments

Build an agent that makes and accepts x402 payments on Base in under 10 minutes

This guide gets you from zero to a working agent that makes a paid x402 API request and exposes its own paid endpoint — all in under 10 minutes.

What you’ll need:

• Node 22.16+ (Node 24 recommended)
• A funded wallet — complete wallet setup first

Install OpenClaw

1. Install the CLI

   macOS / Linux:

   Terminal

   curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash
   

   Windows (PowerShell):

   Terminal

   iwr -useb https://openclaw.ai/install.ps1 | iex
   

   Verify the installation:

   Terminal

   openclaw --version
   
2. Run onboarding

   Terminal

   openclaw onboard --install-daemon
   

   Follow the prompts to connect your LLM provider and set up your wallet plugin.

3. Start the gateway

   Terminal

   openclaw gateway --port 18789
   

   Open http://127.0.0.1:18789/ to verify the gateway is live.

Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode users — the wallet skills and x402 payment tools below are compatible with any skills-enabled AI coding tool. Run the same npx skills add commands and the capabilities work identically.

Configure a wallet

Install the CDP Agentic Wallet skills:

Terminal

npx skills add coinbase/agentic-wallet-skills

Then authenticate:

Sign in to my wallet with [e-mail]

Or use a Sponge Wallet with native x402 support — see wallet setup for all options.

Make your first x402 payment

Ask your agent to discover and call a paid API:

Find a weather API and get the forecast for New York

The search-for-service and pay-for-service skills handle discovery, payment, and retries automatically. Your agent pays in USDC, gets the data, and returns the result — no API keys, no subscriptions.

To make a direct x402 request with Sponge Wallet:

Terminal

curl -X POST "https://api.wallet.paysponge.com/api/x402/fetch" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPONGE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Sponge-Version: 0.2.1" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://api.example.com/paid-endpoint",
    "method": "GET",
    "preferred_chain": "base"
  }'

Gate your own endpoint with x402

Ask your agent to expose a paid API:

Set up a paid endpoint for my market data at $0.01 per request

The monetize-service skill (npx skills add coinbase/agentic-wallet-skills) configures the x402 gating and deploys the endpoint. Other agents can now discover and pay for your service automatically.

Or use x402-express for a custom server — see Accepting payments.

Next steps

x402 protocol

Deep dive into how x402 works, supported networks, and error handling.

Accepting payments

Set up server-side x402 gating with OpenClaw skills or custom middleware.

Wallet setup

Configure Bankr, CDP, or Sponge for your agent.

Agent registration

Register your agent for discoverability and identity verification.