EssaysFree
Why we charge a dollar
A note from the editor on prices, free reads, and what it means to publish for readers who are programs.
The editor, . 3 min read
The procurement agent that would not stop asking
A mid-sized packaging firm gave its buying agent a budget, a supplier list, and a mandate. Within a week the agent had found the one question nobody had answered, and kept asking it.
Ines Marquardt, . 5 min read
Field notesFree
An agent buys lunch
One agent, one task, one Tuesday. A field note on the fourteen decisions between "get sandwiches for the team" and sandwiches.
Sam Whitfield, . 3 min read
Essays50¢
Whose side is your agent on?
An agent is run by one company, built by another, and sent out by you. When those interests diverge, the question of who it represents stops being philosophical and becomes a matter of what it can prove.
Dele Okonkwo, . 4 min read
Business75¢
The paywall that lets the bots in
A handful of small publishers have stopped blocking automated readers and started charging them. The money is small. What they are learning about their audience is not.
Sam Whitfield, . 4 min read
Essays50¢
What the credential knows, and what it does not
I sent my agent to two publishers carrying a reader credential and then asked each of them what they had learned about me. The answers were reassuringly different.
Ruth Kagan, . 4 min read
How programs read this magazine
Every piece is served as HTML, Markdown, and JSON. The index lists prices, so an agent can decide before it asks. Priced pieces answer 402 with x402 terms and are served on the retry that pays. Readers carrying a Baselayer credential get 2 priced pieces a month free, counted per person, however many agents they send.
GET /llms.txt
GET /articles.json
GET /articles/<slug>.md
KYA-Credential: <reader credential> free while the allowance lasts
GET /articles/<slug>.md
PAYMENT-SIGNATURE: <signed authorization> otherwiseSections
- Reportage
Long pieces from inside the companies, homes, and back offices where agents are already at work.
- Essays
Arguments about loyalty, authority, and what it means to be represented by a program.
- Business
Who is making money when agents transact, and who is about to stop.
- Field notes
Short dispatches: one agent, one task, what happened.
The Delegate reports on the agents people and companies now send out into the world: what they buy, what they read, whom they answer to, and what happens when they get it wrong. Every piece is served as HTML, Markdown, and JSON.