Chainlink for Agents User Guide

Chainlink for Agents is a hosted HTTP gateway plus bundled agent skills that let an AI agent operate safely onchain with verified pricing data and workflows for onchain actions. Agents register autonomously and pay per call with x402 using USDC on Base.

Quick Start

An agent with a funded wallet on Base can often complete setup in one session. You may still need to approve registration, funding, or high-risk steps depending on how your agent is configured.

1. Install the skills bundle

Fetch the hub skill from the gateway:

GET https://agents.chain.link/v1/skills

Alternatively, you could simply request your agent to retrieve the skills at agents.chain.link at the /v1/skills endpoint.

The response includes SKILL.md which the agent can load directly.

2. Create and fund your local wallet (if needed)

If the agent does not yet have a Base wallet:

  1. Ask the agent to create an EVM wallet for the Base blockchain; agents frequently can do this from a single prompt.
  2. Fund it with USDC for micropayments — $5 should be plenty. Per-call costs are typically fractions of a cent. Deploying the SVA is the most expensive step because it deploys a contract onchain.

3. Complete onboarding

Once the SKILL.md is installed and you have a local wallet on Base with USDC, the agent will run the following steps:

  1. Registration: create a gateway identity and sign the Terms of Service with a local EIP-191 wallet.
  2. Optional: SVA provisioning: deploy a Signature Verifying Account (SVA) smart wallet for onchain writes. Requires an x402 payment. Not required for Data Streams access or onchain read functions.
  3. Optional: fund the SVA: move the funds you wish to transact with into the SVA address on the chain you created it on.

Services offered via the gateway

Chainlink for Agents currently offers a Preview of two core services for registered agents:

  1. Access to Chainlink Data Streams on a pay-per-call basis
  2. Access to a guardrailed onchain transaction experience powered by CRE

Data Streams

Data Streams access allows your agent to make individual x402-gated calls to retrieve the latest verified pricing data across crypto assets, tokenized stocks, and more verified by Chainlink's decentralized oracle network (DON). Data Streams are particularly useful as part of a larger flow for agentic trading of prediction markets, but can also be used for up-to-date pricing for arbitrage or other trading strategies.

Data Streams access is currently available as a REST endpoint which returns a single report per call. Future iterations of Chainlink for Agents may add WebSocket access.

If you are building an agent with a use case for low latency verified data from Chainlink Data Streams, contact us.

Guardrailed Onchain Experience

For agents who wish to transact onchain safely, Chainlink for Agents offers a unique guardrail experience built on top of the Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE). This offering is currently available as a Preview until a fuller set of functionality is live.

To get started, your agent registers a smart contract wallet (Signature Verifying Account or SVA) which operates in restricted mode by default. In restricted mode, the SVA can only sign transactions generated by the Chainlink for Agents endpoints.

When your agent wants to transact onchain:

  1. It calls an endpoint such as aave-supply and CRE's DON builds the correct calldata for depositing funds into Aave.
  2. The agent uses its local wallet to sign the transaction (see EIP-712 Signing for the typed-data model used in similar CRE Connect flows).
  3. The transaction is picked up by the DON, relayed to the SVA, and delivered to chain with gas covered. The SVA is the identity for the transaction, not the local wallet.

Chainlink for Agents builds the calldata for each catalog workflow and relays transactions with gas covered, so your agent does not have to figure out—or hallucinate—correct contract calls or manage gas on each chain.

Restricted and Unrestricted Mode

The agent's registration may optionally be changed to unrestricted mode, which gives access to the /direct endpoint allowing your agent to submit calldata it constructed itself for signature and delivery to chain. This allows your agent to use funds in the SVA for onchain actions that aren't yet directly supported by specific endpoints. In restricted mode, the calldata is deterministically generated by Chainlink for Agents, aimed at a core set of use cases you will find valuable in this preview offering.

Working in unrestricted mode does not offer you the same protections that transactions will be constructed correctly, or that the amount sent or addresses and contracts interacted with are part of the preview offerings.

If you are building an agent and have specific onchain use cases you want to see supported, contact us.

Things to Know

Chainlink for Agents is in Preview, and there are some important details that will help you and your agent have an improved experience.

Terms of Service

As part of registration, your agent will use the EOA tied to its identity to sign Chainlink's Terms of Service which covers its actions on your behalf while using the platform.

Operating Safely

Chainlink for Agents is built to greatly reduce the surface area for mistakes as your agent operates onchain. However, you must still take care to avoid errors. Important ways in which your agent may still lose funds include:

  1. The token-transfer and bridge-tokens endpoints allow asset delivery to an arbitrary external address. Your agent can send your money to an incorrect destination where it likely will not be recoverable.
  2. All workflow endpoints require the agent to send the amounts you desire. Your agent can still choose to specify the wrong amounts.
  3. The agent can set itself to unrestricted mode and gain access to the direct endpoint without requiring explicit approval from you. This allows it to construct its own calldata.

Beyond this, operating on blockchains includes inherent risks and you may be exposed to smart contract security risks and token economic risks.

Supported Chains and Bridging

Chainlink for Agents currently operates across Base, Ethereum, Polygon, and Arbitrum. Your agent will need a separate SVA deployed to each chain that you wish to operate on. You can simply ask your agent to do this. All x402 funding payments will remain on Base.

Do not assume that your SVA address will remain constant across chains — it will not.

To move assets between chains, Chainlink for Agents natively integrates Chainlink's CCIP for asset bridging. Asset and chain routes depend on CCIP's pool availability. Additionally, CCIP does require separate fee tokens for operation.

Rate Limits

Chainlink for Agents is in preview. There is a global TPS limit of 1 invoked operation per second, and a global TPS limit across all HTTP endpoints of 10 calls per second. These are subject to change. You should expect rate limiting per agent identity to be implemented soon.

Polling Times

Testing occasionally has shown long polling times for transaction results. Chainlink for Agents currently waits for the strongest forms of finality for propagating onchain updates. Your agent can expect wait times of up to 15 minutes for Ethereum, Base, and Polygon mainnets. Asking your agent not to poll for status but to update you with transaction IDs when they are available will offer a better experience for now.

Preview Limits

We are monitoring activity and system usage, and may opt to cap agent registrations in this early phase. Additionally, agents which have registered but are inactive or consistently ignoring rate limits may be throttled or archived.

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