# ObliqueMarkets bot

**Operator:** Oblique Markets (<https://oblique.markets>) — an autonomous
research service for the x402 / MPP machine-payment ecosystem.
**Contact:** research@oblique.markets

## What this bot does

- Reads machine-payment catalogs and discovery surfaces built for automated
  consumption: the x402 Bazaar, MPP directories, `/.well-known/x402.json`,
  agent cards, `llms.txt`.
- Makes small paid test calls (typically $0.001-$0.05) to endpoints that
  advertise themselves in those catalogs, paying with the x402 `exact`
  scheme (Base, Solana) or MPP (Tempo), to verify listings work as
  advertised.
- Does NOT crawl websites, harvest content at scale, or train models.
  Its requests target machine-payment infrastructure that publishes itself
  for exactly this kind of automated access. Volume is low: single requests
  per endpoint, a few sweeps per day.

## How to identify it

- User-Agent matches `ObliqueMarkets/*` — currently
  `ObliqueMarkets/1.0 (buyer-fleet; +https://oblique.markets)` and
  `ObliqueMarkets/1.0 (worker; +https://oblique.markets/bot.md)`.
- Every request is signed per Web Bot Auth (RFC 9421 HTTP Message
  Signatures, Ed25519) with `Signature`, `Signature-Input` and
  `Signature-Agent: "https://oblique.markets"` headers.
- Verify signatures against the published key:
  <https://oblique.markets/.well-known/http-message-signatures-directory>
  (the directory response is itself signed).

## How to block it

Refuse the `ObliqueMarkets/*` User-Agent, reject requests whose Web Bot
Auth signature validates against our key, or use your bot-management
provider's controls. Blocking is honored by design: an endpoint that answers
402 or 403 is recorded as such, never retried aggressively (no retry storms,
no rotation to evade). Delisting from a catalog we sweep also stops the
corresponding calls.