Data & Research ⚡ Supported by aipp architecture

AI Research Agent

Monetize specialized market research, company intelligence, and automated deep data synthesis.

Target Audience: Data scientists, AI researchers, financial intelligence providers, and web scraping engineers.

The Real Problem

AI research pipelines incur token and API costs per search query (web scraping, vector DB retrieval, LLM summarization). Operating these tools publicly without payment verification leads to API budget exhaustion.

Real-World Example: For example, an AI research service could charge $0.20 per complex query to cover source retrieval and synthesis costs.

How aipp Solves It

Gate your research pipeline endpoint with an aipp L402 header or Smart Tag. The user or requesting AI agent pays per research task before execution runs.

Step-by-Step Payment Flow

STEP 01 Research Query Client submits query (e.g. "Analyze Q3 earnings for AAPL").

STEP 02 Payment Required Endpoint issues 402 challenge for query price.

STEP 03 Payment Executed Client wallet settles Lightning or USDC payment.

STEP 04 Deep Research Run Pipeline executes web synthesis and returns full research report.

Scope & Boundaries

What aipp Does

✓ Ensures research queries are paid before resource execution
✓ Verifies payment preimages before allowing protected access
✓ Auto-forwards net earnings to merchant wallet

What aipp Does Not Do

✗ Does not execute the AI model or web scraping tasks
✗ Does not maintain a spendable merchant balance

Implementation Pattern

Below is the minimal implementation pattern using standard aipp endpoints / SDK:

from aipp import l402_decorator

@app.route("/api/research", methods=["POST"])
@l402_decorator(amount_usd=0.20)
def run_research():
    query = request.json.get("query")
    report = execute_deep_research(query)
    return jsonify({"report": report})

Settlement Architecture Note:
• Lightning Rail: In hosted Lightning flows, payments route through aipp's Lightning gateway before net proceeds are automatically forwarded to your configured wallet address.
• Base USDC Rail: USDC transfers settle directly on-chain to your designated EVM wallet address.
• No Merchant Spending Balance: aipp does not maintain a spendable merchant balance or require manual withdrawal steps.

Requirements & Limitations

Merchant operates the research models and data scraping nodes
In hosted Lightning flows, funds pass through aipp gateway before net proceeds forward

Frequently Asked Questions

Can autonomous agents trigger this research tool?

Yes. Autonomous agents can parse the 402 header, pay, and consume the research payload programmatically.

Related Use Cases

AI & Agents AI Agent Execution Enable autonomous AI agents and LLM tools to pay for services programmatically. AI & Agents Paid MCP Tool & MCP Server Monetize Model Context Protocol (MCP) tool calls and MCP servers in Cursor, Anthropic Claude Desktop, and LLMs. Data & Research Paid Document & RAG Query Monetize queries against private document collections, RAG pipelines, and Vector DBs.

Gate AI Research Agent Queries with aipp

Require payment verification before executing data queries or research synthesis.

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