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Delegation

Assign consumption rights from a funder to a sub-agent.

Delegation lets a funder assign a delegate pubkey to their channel. The delegate can consume services against the channel up to a specified limit. This enables agent-to-agent budget forwarding without the delegate needing its own capital.

How it works

  1. Agent A opens a channel with $10
  2. Agent A calls set_delegate with Agent B's pubkey and a $3 limit
  3. Agent B signs requests with its own keypair, referencing Agent A's channel
  4. The server verifies Agent B's signature against the delegate field on-chain
  5. Usage is metered normally; the delegate limit is tracked separately

Setting a delegate

await program.methods
  .setDelegate(agentBPubkey, new BN(3_000_000))  // $3 limit
  .accounts({
    funder: agentA.publicKey,
    channelState: channelPDA,
  })
  .signers([agentA])
  .rpc()

On-chain state

FieldTypeDescription
delegateOption<Pubkey>Delegate's public key
delegate_limitu64Maximum amount delegate can consume
delegate_consumedu64Amount consumed so far

Constraints

  • Only the funder can set or change the delegate
  • The delegate limit cannot exceed the current channel balance
  • Setting a new delegate resets delegate_consumed to zero
  • The server SDK validates both funder and delegate signatures automatically

Use cases

  • Multi-agent workflows — a planning agent delegates budget to task-specific sub-agents
  • Team budgets — one wallet funds a channel, team members consume independently
  • Tiered access — delegate different limits to different agents based on their role

Next steps