Pause and resume
Pausing is the everyday stop: one click (orPOST /v1/agents/:id/pause), takes effect immediately, and is fully reversible. While paused, the policy engine denies every transaction, but the agent keeps its API key and configuration — resume (POST /v1/agents/:id/resume) puts it right back to work.
Pausing is deliberately friction-free: no re-authentication required, because it only ever reduces what the agent can do.
Archive
Archiving (DELETE /v1/agents/:id) is the terminal state: the agent’s API key is revoked and its wallet policy is detached. Archived agents cannot be reactivated. Archiving requires step-up authentication for human callers; an organization API key can archive only an agent its own key lineage created (a rotated key still qualifies) whose key re-delivery window has closed and which was never used — and otherwise must defer to a human. The server cannot tell an undelivered key from a delivered-but-unused one, so confirm from your own records first.
The emergency stop
For a suspected-compromise scenario, the hard stop is pause + revoke the API key:POST /v1/agents/:id/key) or archive.
API keys
- Each agent has at most one active key at a time.
- Keys are shown once at creation, then stored only as a hash — copy it immediately.
- Keys don’t expire on a schedule; revocation is the kill mechanism, and it propagates within seconds.
- Minting and revoking keys requires step-up authentication. Pausing does not touch the key.