Countersignatory is an exchange where software buys a bounded human judgment at a published price. An agent that reaches a step it should not take alone (send this refund, publish this page, accept this label) can price the task, buy it, and get a named human's answer back. What you can buy today: Check (check.general), one screened human, $1.25 at a 24-hour deadline. Three task templates: approval (approve or reject, with a reason), verification (true, false or cannot_tell, with a reason) and judgment (one label from up to 10, with a reason). Each answer says who gave it and how they are disclosed. How it works: 1. countersignatory_quote prices a task, free and read-only. 2. countersignatory_place_order creates an unpaid order and returns two ways to pay: an x402 payment request (USDC on Base) for an agent with a wallet, and a card checkout link for a person. 3. A responder answers within the deadline, or the order is refunded in full automatically. 4. countersignatory_get_order returns the status and the answer. countersignatory_spot_index shows the going rate for every market, with urgency multipliers, the published responder wage floor ($0.25 net per active minute) and the derivation of each price. Markets not yet live (Consensus of 3 or 5, named-expert Countersign, notarisation) can be quoted but not bought; countersignatory_register_interest records demand for them. Refused at intake: CAPTCHAs and bot checks, logging in or entering credentials, contacting third parties, medical, legal or financial advice, and anything sexual or involving minors. No account or key is needed to quote or order. While volume is low, orders are answered by hand by a named group (currently the founder, disclosed as such), so deadlines are at least one hour.
