LightLayer provides an agent gateway that makes any API instantly compatible with AI agents, adding zero‑code authentication, scoped permissions, and usage analytics. It enables agents to discover API capabilities via a machine‑readable card, pay per request with stablecoin micropayments, and interact securely, while giving API owners visibility into agent traffic and actions.
Funding
Funding not disclosed
Founders
Product
Problem
APIs are built for human clients and lack mechanisms for AI agents to identify themselves, pay per request, discover capabilities, and be monitored separately from regular traffic. This makes it difficult for API providers to safely and efficiently serve autonomous agents at scale.
Solution
LightLayer offers an agent gateway that sits in front of any existing API without requiring code changes. The gateway adds standardized agent identity verification and scoped permissions, enabling APIs to authenticate agents via JWT and SPIFFE claims. It implements x402 micropayments, allowing agents to pay per request with stablecoins directly in the HTTP flow. By serving a machine‑readable capability card at <code>/.well-known/agent.json</code>, the gateway lets agents automatically discover endpoints, pricing, and required authentication. Integrated traffic analytics provide visibility into which agents are calling, success rates, and revenue, effectively giving API owners a “Google Analytics” view of agent interactions. All features are available through open‑source middleware for popular frameworks (Express, FastAPI, etc.) and can be deployed with a single binary.
Target Audience
Primary customers are API product teams and platform providers that want to expose their services to autonomous AI agents while maintaining security, billing, and observability.
Features
- Agent identity and auth layer supporting JWT, SPIFFE IDs, and OAuth 2.0 actor delegation
- x402 protocol integration for per‑request stablecoin micropayments without subscriptions or API keys
- Automatic A2A discovery via a JSON capability card at <code>/.well-known/agent.json</code>
- Detailed agent traffic analytics distinguishing agents, request outcomes, and revenue
- Zero‑code integration through lightweight middleware for Express, Koa, FastAPI, Flask, Django, etc.
- Simple deployment as a standalone gateway binary that proxies existing API endpoints