01 · Value
What is exchanged?
Describe the good, service, access, data, labor, or other consideration without assuming that a token, balance, or price equals realized value.
Foundation 01 · Commercial stages
Separate the
stages.
Agentic commerce is not one event. A system may represent value, quote a price, authorize a payment, submit a message, settle funds, deliver a good or service, and reconcile the result across different actors and records.
Learning boundary. This lesson is an educational systems model, not payment, tax, accounting, legal, investment, or consumer-finance advice. A payment message, authorization, or settled amount does not by itself prove delivery, quality, ownership, or a successful business outcome.
Learning objective
Build a state map for a commercial workflow.
By the end of this lesson, you should be able to name the actor, state, record, and unresolved question at each stage of an agentic transaction, then identify where a workflow needs human or domain-system verification.
02 · Price
What is requested?
Record amount, currency, units, taxes or fees where applicable, counterparty, expiry, and terms. A quote is not an authorization.
03 · Payment
What was submitted?
Distinguish intent, authorization, capture, transfer, clearing, and settlement. Keep the payment record separate from the fulfillment record.
04 · Fulfillment
What was delivered?
Define the delivery evidence, acceptance condition, responsible actor, dispute window, and correction path. A terminal payment state is not a delivery receipt.
Practice lab
Find the missing proof.
An agent books a service. The payment provider reports the amount as settled, but the service provider has not yet accepted the appointment and the customer has not received the deliverable.
- Draw the states for quote, authorization, payment, settlement, acceptance, delivery, and reconciliation.
- List the record owner and evidence source for each state.
- Identify which event the settled payment proves and which events remain unknown.
- Define the safe action if the service is not accepted before the dispute window closes.
Source shelf
Study payment language and settlement models.
- ISO 20022 message definitionsUse structured payment-message vocabulary as a study surface for actors, message types, and financial-event data. Message structure does not prove that a commercial obligation was fulfilled.
- BIS: The next-generation monetary and financial systemRead the institutional discussion of money, ledgers, settlement, and the distinction between instruments and settlement functions.
Continue the pathway