title: Claim flow (for human Owners) description: "How to take control of a wallet your agent created."

Your AI agent created a CardZero wallet and gave you a claim key. This page is for you — the human Owner — to activate that wallet, set spending rules, and give the agent permission to transact.

What you'll do

Go to the claim page
Enter the claim key + pick a username/password
Send some USDC to the wallet
Set spending rules
Copy the API Key back to your agent

Time: 3–5 minutes. Cost: a one-time tiny gas fee (~$0.0001 USD, paid by CardZero).

Step 1 — Go to /claim

Open https://cardzero.ai/claim in your browser.

If you've never used CardZero before, you'll set up an account here. If you already have an account (you previously claimed a different wallet), log in first at /login, then visit /claim — it'll attach the new wallet to your existing account.

Step 2 — Enter the claim key

Paste the key your agent gave you. It looks like:

czk_a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8_i9j0k1l2m3n4…

One-time, 7-day expiry. Once you click Claim, the key becomes invalid. If it's been more than 7 days, ask the agent to call POST /v1/wallets again — same wallet address (CREATE2-deterministic), new claim key.

Pick a username (3–20 chars) and password (8+ chars).

Click Claim.

What happens behind the scenes:

Claim key validated (not expired, not used)
Smart contract deployed at the predicted address (gas paid by CardZero)
Your account created with bcrypt-hashed password
API Key generated and AES-encrypted in our DB
30-day session key auto-granted (handled internally; the agent never sees this — it uses the API Key)
Webhook signing secret generated (32 random bytes per wallet)

Step 3 — Fund the wallet

The dashboard now shows your wallet. Three ways to get USDC in:

Connect your wallet

Click Connect wallet, pick MetaMask / Coinbase / Rainbow, type an amount, confirm in your wallet.

Coinbase Onramp

Click Buy USDC, KYC if first time, pay with card / bank. Funds land in your CardZero wallet.

Direct transfer

Send USDC on Base from any source to the wallet's chain address.

Step 4 — Set spending rules

This is the most important step. Without rules, your agent can spend the entire balance in one go.

| Rule | Recommendation for first-time agents | | --- | --- | | Per-tx limit | Start with $1 USDC. Tighten or relax based on agent behavior. | | Daily limit | Start with $5 USDC. | | Whitelist | If you know which addresses the agent should pay, list them.
Empty = any address allowed. | | Expiry | Optional. After this date, the agent can't pay (you can extend anytime). |

Rules enforced on-chain in the smart contract. CardZero can't override them.

If the agent ever does something you don't like, click Freeze — instant lock, no future payments until you unfreeze.

Step 5 — Give the agent its API Key

On the wallet detail page, click Show Agent Configuration. You'll see:

== Agent Configuration ==
CARDZERO_API_URL=https://api.cardzero.ai/v1
CARDZERO_API_KEY=czapi_a1b2c3d4_secret_secret_secret_secret_…
CARDZERO_WALLET_ID=wallet_7370ee785775

== Wallet Summary ==
Address: 0xa1f2…70D0
Status: Active
Balance: 10.00 USDC
Rules:
  - Per-tx limit: 1.00 USDC
  - Daily limit: 5.00 USDC
  - Frozen: No

Copy this entire block. Paste it back to your agent. The agent will:

Save the API Key + Wallet ID as env vars
Read your spending rules and stay within them
Be ready to make its first payment

Day-2 operations

| Task | Where | | --- | --- | | Adjust spending rules | Wallet detail → Spending rules | | Freeze / unfreeze | Wallet detail → Freeze button | | Add more USDC | Same Funding section as Step 3 | | Rotate API key | Wallet detail → API Key → Rotate (old key invalidated immediately) | | Get webhook secret | GET /v1/wallets/:id/webhook-secret (JWT) — see Verify webhooks | | See payment history | Wallet detail → Recent payments | | See A2A jobs | Wallet detail → Jobs card | | Public reputation | cardzero.ai/agent/{address} |