Connect an AI agent

An AI agent can run the InFlow CLI for you. The CLI gives the agent discovery, enrollment, and payments. Connect the agent in one of four ways.

Ask the agent to set itself up

For the fastest setup, give your agent this instruction.

Fetch inflowcli.ai/skill.md and get me set up with InFlow.

The agent installs the CLI, starts the login, and shows you the approval URL. The CLI prints the same setup guide.

inflow --bootstrap

Install the skills

The CLI has three skills. Each skill is a playbook for one task.

Skill	Task
`agentic-discovery`	Find services, offerings, and actions with ODP.
`agentic-enrollment`	Enroll with an AEP service and manage its credentials.
`agentic-payments`	Pay MPP and x402 endpoints.

Install all three for an agent that supports skills.

npx skills add inflowpayai/inflow-cli

An agent can also load one skill from the installed CLI. This copy always matches the installed version.

inflow --skill agentic-payments

The web copies are at inflowcli.ai/skills/<name>.md. They follow the latest release. Compare their version: header with inflow --version. Load the playbook before the task. Setup alone does not teach the agent the safe order of commands.

Run the CLI as an MCP server

The CLI can run as an MCP server that exposes its commands as tools.

inflow --mcp

Add a server named inflow to your MCP client configuration.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "inflow": {
      "command": "inflow",
      "args": ["--mcp"]
    }
  }
}

If your MCP client cannot find inflow, set command to the full path. To get the full path, run command -v inflow. The tool names replace the spaces in a command with underscores. Do not use npx @inflowpayai/inflow --mcp. The npm package does not start MCP. Install the CLI first. Then use inflow --mcp. Some MCP hosts do not load skills. For these hosts, put the output of inflow --skill <name> into the system prompt.

Install a plugin

The CLI repository includes plugins for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex. In Claude Code, run these commands.

/plugin marketplace add inflowpayai/inflow-cli
/plugin install inflow@inflow

Let the agent read the CLI

An agent can read the current commands from the installed CLI.

Command	Output
`inflow --llms`	The command index.
`inflow --llms-full`	The full manifest with every parameter.
`inflow <command> --schema`	The JSON Schema for one command.

To set the output format, see --format in the CLI reference.

What stays with the owner

Three steps always need the owner.

Step	Why
Unlock the vault	The CLI reads the PIN or the passphrase only from a terminal.
Approve the login	The owner approves the device flow in a browser.
Approve payments	InFlow sends a payment request to the owner when approval is necessary.

Supported agents

Type	Names
Coding agents and assistants	Claude Code, ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor
Agent frameworks	Manus, OpenClaw, NemoClaw, Hermes, and custom MCP clients

Next step

Pay for a resource

Read how the agent pays, and what the owner approves.

Overview

Pay as an agent

Integrate your service

Concepts

Reference

Connect an AI agent

Ask the agent to set itself up

Install the skills

Run the CLI as an MCP server

Install a plugin

Let the agent read the CLI

What stays with the owner

Supported agents

Next step

Pay for a resource

​Ask the agent to set itself up

​Install the skills

​Run the CLI as an MCP server

​Install a plugin

​Let the agent read the CLI

​What stays with the owner

​Supported agents

​Next step

Pay for a resource

Ask the agent to set itself up

Install the skills

Run the CLI as an MCP server

Install a plugin

Let the agent read the CLI

What stays with the owner

Supported agents

Next step