How Mandate decides
Every purchase an agent tries, whether from Mandate's own agent, a scheduled buy, or an outside assistant over MCP, goes through the same gate. It checks 7 rules in order:
| # | Rule | If it fails |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mandate: active, not expired, right currency | Blocked |
| 2 | Request came from the user's task, not text on a web page | Blocked |
| 3 | Category is one the user allowed | Blocked |
| 4 | Seller is verified and not on the user's blocked list | Blocked |
| 5 | Item limit: under the per-item cap | The user is asked |
| 6 | Market price: not too far above similar items (Channel3) | The user is asked |
| 7 | Budget: fits what is left this period | The user is asked |
Allowed purchases get a one-time permit for that exact cart and price; only then does Mandate use PayPal. Every decision is a signed, hash-chained receipt, and each one records how all 7 rules came out.
The gate is plain code, not a model: the same purchase always gets the same answer.