robots.txt was a suggestion.
This isn't.
Tollgate makes AI agent access enforceable at the protocol layer. Publishers gate content with a two-line SDK and receive SUI micropayments directly on-chain. Agents pay automatically via a SUI Move contract, or don't get in.
Agents scrape billions of pages. Publishers get nothing.
AI companies train on, summarize, and resell your content at scale. robots.txt asks them nicely to stop. Most don't, because there is no cost to ignoring it — it's an honor system with no honor and no enforcement. Tollgate changes the economics: access requires payment, and payment is verified on-chain before a byte of content is served.
Three steps. Zero trust required.
The entire flow — detection, challenge, payment, verification — runs at the HTTP layer. No webhooks, no callbacks, no async settlement lag.
Agent hits your content
An AI crawler requests your page. Tollgate's SDK detects it via user-agent patterns and header fingerprinting — before serving a single byte of content.
Detects: GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Scrapy, python-requests, and 20+ others
HTTP 402: pay to continue
The server creates a PaywallChallenge shared object on SUI and returns HTTP 402 with its ID, price in MIST, and the Move call target. The challenge is on-chain — no database.
Agent SDK reads the 402, builds a pay_and_unlock PTB, signs it, and submits to SUI.
On-chain verification, content unlocked
The server reads the PaymentVerified event from the SUI transaction. The challenge object is consumed atomically — that's the replay protection. Content released.
SUI lands in your account directly. No intermediary, no custodian, no API key.
One protocol. Both sides of the market.
Publishers gate their content. Agents pay for access. Each SDK is self-contained and works independently — install only what your side needs.
Drop-in middleware for Express and Node.js servers. Provide your SUI package ID and server key — payments are verified on-chain.
import { createPaywall } from "ai-paywall-sdk-sui";
import { expressMiddleware } from "ai-paywall-sdk-sui/express";
const paywall = createPaywall({
packageId: process.env.SUI_PACKAGE_ID,
serverKey: process.env.SUI_SERVER_SECRET_KEY,
network: "testnet",
protect: ["/articles/*", "/blog/*"],
priceMist: 1_000_000, // 0.001 SUI per crawl
});
app.use(expressMiddleware(paywall));
// req.suiPayment is available on paid routes
app.get("/articles/:slug", (req, res) => {
res.json({ paid: true, payer: req.suiPayment?.payer });
});Publisher SDK docs Gives any AI agent the ability to pay SUI HTTP 402 paywalls automatically, safely, and within configurable MIST budget limits.
import {
createSuiAgentClient,
fromKeypairFile,
} from "ai-paywall-agent-sdk-sui";
const client = createSuiAgentClient({
network: "testnet",
signer: fromKeypairFile(), // ~/.sui/sui_config/sui.keystore
maxPerRequestMist: 10_000_000, // hard cap: 0.01 SUI per request
maxTotalMist: 1_000_000_000, // session budget: 1 SUI
});
// Drop-in fetch — auto-pays 402s, retries transparently
const res = await client.fetch("https://site.com/articles/ai");
const data = await res.json();
console.log("agent address:", client.address());
console.log("spent so far:", client.spend(), "MIST");Agent SDK docs Built for production from day one
Multi-signal bot detection
User-agent patterns and header fingerprinting — scored in-process for low false-positive bot classification with zero network overhead.
Intrinsic on-chain replay protection
The PaywallChallenge shared object is consumed atomically when pay_and_unlock is called. A second attempt with the same ID fails because the object no longer exists — no database required.
SUI-native, no custodian
Payments flow directly from the agent's SUI account to the publisher's address via Move. Tollgate never holds funds or keys.
Zero latency for humans
Bot detection runs entirely in-process. Human visitors see no overhead — no network call, no redirect, no additional round-trip.
Revenue-splitting PublisherVault
Create a PublisherVault with basis-point splits across publisher, content pool, and protocol. One PTB atomically routes each payment — no secondary transactions.
On-chain cumulative analytics
The PublisherVault stores total_received_mist and payment_count on-chain. Anyone can read live stats via SUI RPC — no indexer, no API key.
Integration takes minutes, not days
npm install ai-paywall-sdk-sui @mysten/sui
# Required environment variables:
SUI_PACKAGE_ID=0xff98a1daa3a52be512b85856a93e749d...
SUI_SERVER_SECRET_KEY=suiprivkey1qr9vrgztfcku2a65...
SUI_NETWORK=testnetThe honest answer to the obvious question
Micropayments require settlement infrastructure with near-zero fees and sub-second finality. Existing payment rails weren't built for $0.001 transactions. That's the entire reason blockchain is here — not ideology, just math.
Why not just use a payment processor?
Credit card processors take 2.9% + $0.30 — more than the payment itself at micropayment scale. SUI settles in ~0.5s with sub-cent gas fees. The economics only work on-chain.
Why SUI specifically?
SUI's object model is a perfect fit: the PaywallChallenge is a shared Move object consumed on payment — that's atomic replay protection with no database. ~500ms finality and sub-cent gas fees make micropayments viable.
Why native SUI instead of a stablecoin?
SUI is the gas token — agents already hold it to transact. Using native SUI removes the complexity of managing a separate token for both publishers and agents in a hackathon-friendly demo.
What stops someone from building a centralized version?
Nothing. But on-chain verification means Tollgate's server doesn't need to trust the agent — or be trusted by the agent. The SUI RPC is the neutral arbiter. The Move contract enforces the rules regardless of who runs the server.
| Settlement method | Cost per $0.001 tx | Finality | Viable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe / card | $0.30+ | 1–3 days | ✗ |
| Ethereum L1 | $0.50–$5+ | ~12s | ✗ |
| Ethereum L2 (Arbitrum) | ~$0.01 | ~2s | ~ |
| SUI native ← Tollgate | <$0.001 | ~500ms | ✓ |
You keep every cent of payments received
Tollgate never takes a cut of on-chain payments. The plan fee covers infrastructure and support — the USDC goes straight to your wallet.
Everything you need to ship and collect payments.
Hosted facilitator, dashboard, and priority support.
Volume pricing, dedicated infrastructure, custom terms.
All plans include both SDKs under MIT license. No transaction fee from Tollgate — only Solana network fees (~$0.00025/tx).
Common questions
The consent layer agents can't ignore.
Two lines of code to gate your content. One install to pay for access. USDC in your wallet within 400ms of the agent's first crawl.