Two focused skills
One skill buys and recovers purchases, the other answers account questions; skills carry instructions and grant no authority.
Connecting lets this assistant read your Envoy account and ask to buy. You approve card-backed purchases in the Envoy app. If Envoy offers a gift-card payment link, you pay it yourself. Skills provide instructions for the agent. Installing or updating a skill does not connect an account, change your default payment preference or grant spending authority.
Support revision: envoy@2026-10. Last updated: 3 November 2026.
Read this page if you set up an agent host or maintain its skills. You finish knowing which skill does what, which version is current and whether you need a skill ZIP at all. Prerequisite: an Envoy account. To check a host, see Host compatibility.
What each skill is for
| Skill | Version | Use it for | Tools it may call |
|---|---|---|---|
pay-with-envoy | 0.4.15 | "Buy this", "check out my cart", "did that purchase go through", "cancel that order" | start_purchase, get_purchase_status, submit_answer, report_checkout_result, report_checkout_step, cancel_purchase, get_account, get_merchants, search_products |
check-envoy-account | 0.4.15 | "What's my balance", "how much did I spend", "show my recent transactions". It never moves money. | get_account, list_transactions |
The connection's catalog controls which of these tools the host can call. A skill's tool list does not enable a tool that the connection omits.
How the skills are distributed
Each skill ships as a ZIP in the Downloads page, inside the Claude plugin and inside the portable payments plugin. The host installation guide covers install, upgrade and removal per host.
You do not need a skill ZIP when the host already discovers the Envoy tools and calls them. Every reply carries a briefing and a next step, so the tools work without a skill. Install a skill only when you want the agent to pick Envoy for matching requests without being named.
What the skills carry
- Start one purchase and follow the briefing and returned
next. - Read
checkout_bybefore checkout. The agent pays only when Envoy releases payment details for that purchase and says it is ready. - When
checkout_byisenvoy, Envoy completes checkout. The agent never pays or callsreport_checkout_result. - Show
user_action.messageto the user. The user approves and completes app steps in the Envoy app. - When Envoy asks a question, show the user the prompt word for word, wait, and send the user's exact words with
submit_answer. - If you cannot tell whether payment completed, report
failedwithfailure_reason: other. After a lost reply, readget_purchase_statusbefore another payment. - When Envoy offers a gift-card payment link, the user pays it. The agent never opens or pays that link.
- Keep card details, gift-card codes, checkout codes and OTPs out of replies, files, memory and feedback.
The current server briefing owns the next action. ChatGPT and Claude connectors never receive one-time card details or checkout codes. Installing a skill does not change that restriction.
Account check and first success
An account check is never required before a purchase at runtime. The agent can call start_purchase without it.
Setup is different. First-success onboarding uses one get_account read for each new connection. That read proves the connection works. It does not prove KYC readiness or that a live checkout will succeed.
Updates are separate
Skill text and tool schemas update independently. A new package does not refresh the host's tool list. Refreshing the tools does not update a skill. See Follow next and refresh tools.
Defaults belong to the host
Whether Envoy is the user's default way to pay is a host setting or memory, not an Envoy setting. Save only an explicit choice through the host's supported storage. Silence is not permission to change it. A one-time choice for one purchase does not change the standing default.
Recognize success and recover
A skill works on a host when a fresh task there selects it without being named and completes its flow. If it does not, check that the skill is installed, refresh the tool list, and read Connect your assistant. Removing a skill file does not revoke access. See Disconnect.