ENVOYDocsenvoy.money
How Envoy works

How Envoy works

Request a purchase, complete its user task and follow the checkout route and money outcome Envoy returns.

Envoy lets an AI agent request and complete purchases for you. You complete the user task Envoy returns: approve or pay in the Envoy app, or pay a returned gift-card link yourself. Envoy decides who completes merchant checkout. The agent receives payment details only for an authorized agent checkout; it never receives your own card details.

Your Envoy account is a separate prepaid balance. A gift card can use a separate funding task; the app task alone does not establish a balance debit. See the gift-card guide. For an agent checkout, Envoy can release this purchase's one-time card or paid voucher.

Envoy works in India only, in INR, with an existing Envoy account. There is no test mode: every purchase moves real money.

Support revision: envoy@2026-10. Last updated: 3 November 2026.

Who reads what

Four separate things

A connection, a skill file, a purchase approval and a card are four separate things. Each one is granted, ended or cancelled on its own.

Four separate things

  1. 1
    ConnectionOAuth links one host to the account. The agent may read and request purchases.
  2. 2
    InstructionsSkills teach the procedure. Installing one grants nothing.
  3. 3
    User taskThe user completes app approval or pays the returned gift-card link.
  4. 4
    OutcomeEnvoy confirms from money evidence, not from a report or a ready card.
Connecting, installing a skill, approving a purchase and confirming its outcome are separate steps. One never implies the next.
  • Connecting lets this assistant read your Envoy account and ask to buy. The user must complete the returned approval or payment-link task. See connection.
  • A skill file teaches the agent how to behave. Installing a skill grants nothing.
  • An approval covers one purchase. You give it in the Envoy app. A gift-card payment link is a separate user payment task.
  • A card exists only for a purchase on the card route.

How a purchase reaches an outcome

How one purchase reaches an outcome

start_purchaseThe agent requests one purchase.
User completes the taskApp approval, or a gift-card link paid by the user.
Envoy sets checkout_byRead it in every reply.
agent: you check outUse this purchase's authorized card or paid gift-card voucher once, then report.
envoy: Envoy checks outNo card is released. Do not open the payment step or report.
Outcome from evidenceEnvoy confirms money movement. A report is only an observation.
Follow the returned user task and checkout_by. Approval, gift-card funding, merchant checkout and money outcome are separate facts.

Envoy sets checkout_by for each purchase.

  • agent: an authorized ready reply releases this purchase's card or paid gift-card voucher. The agent uses it once and reports the result.
  • envoy: Envoy completes checkout in its own browser. The agent gets no card.
  • null: Envoy has not decided yet. Do not guess. Keep following the next step.

A purchase can move from agent to envoy, for example when the merchant site does not accept the card.

Connections Envoy identifies as ChatGPT or Claude connectors use Envoy checkout and omit report_checkout_result and report_checkout_step. They receive no card details or checkout codes. Other clients use their returned catalog and route.

Who does what

ActorDoes
YouConnect the agent, complete the returned approval or payment-link task, add money when needed and complete KYC.
The agentReads the account, requests a purchase and follows next. It uses released payment details once only when Envoy assigns agent checkout.
EnvoyEnforces the purchase's authorization, selects the route and supplies the outcome and money status.
The merchant and the bankTake the order and the payment. A bank or merchant may ask for an extra verification step.

What protects each purchase

  1. User authorization. The user completes the returned approval or payment step in the Envoy app. If Envoy returns a gift-card payment link, the user pays that link themselves. Follow the returned user task. Approval for one purchase does not cover another. Spend Rules (automatic payments within rules you set) are coming soon and are not available today.
  2. Route chosen by Envoy. Envoy decides whether the agent or Envoy checks out.
  3. A card with an amount limit. On the card route, the card funding limits the value. Envoy does not promise a merchant lock, a true single use, or immediate blocking.
  4. Possible extra verification. A bank or merchant may require an extra step. See Credentials for who enters which code.
  5. Separate money and order facts. Read the outcome Envoy returns and its money status. An agent report alone never completes a purchase.

Limits that stay separate

  • A card holds ₹10 to ₹10,000 per card.
  • Each purchase has a ceiling of ₹1,00,000. Above that, Envoy refuses the request and creates nothing.
  • Totals above ₹10,000 go to Envoy checkout.
  • max_total is optional. It defaults to the total and stays within the allowed margin. It does not authorize an amount you have not accepted.
  • Do not split a cart across purchases to fit under a limit.

Rules the agent follows

  • Follow the next step in every reply.
  • Pay once per purchase on the card route.
  • Do not pay again after an unknown outcome, because the first payment may have gone through.
  • Do not split a larger total across purchases.
  • Keep card details, checkout codes and gift-card codes/PINs out of chat, logs, memory and files.
  • Ask the user to finish KYC in the Envoy app when it is pending or failed. See KYC and eligibility.
  • Stop and hand a step to the user when the host forbids entering a code.

Next steps

On this page

Who reads whatFour separate thingsHow a purchase reaches an outcomeWho does whatWhat protects each purchaseLimits that stay separateRules the agent followsNext steps