Alpha (free) / BYOK / x402 - Xintel

“Alpha (free)”, “BYOK”, and “x402” describe different things. Three are ways a person pays in the app; one is how an agent pays for reports. Keep them separate.

Human modes

Mode	Meaning
Alpha (free)	The deployment’s shared Venice key fronts inference, plus a short-lived app token. No login or wallet.
BYOK	Your own Venice key (and optionally your own X developer credentials). Bills your account, not the deployment’s.
Credits (x402)	A prepaid USDC wallet opened with SIWE, debited for paid in-app actions.

Alpha (free) mode can be disabled per deployment (FREE_TIER_DISABLED / VITE_X402_DISABLE_FREE); BYOK and Credits keep working when it is.

Agent mode

Mode	Meaning
Free menus	The list and per-handle metadata — always free.
x402 reports	Pay-per-call USDC for `select=all` / `select=range` bodies.

Agents never use the human Credits session. Each paid call carries its own payment header and settles on its own.

The distinction that matters

Both “Credits” and “agent x402” move USDC, but they are not the same:

Credits is a standing wallet session a person tops up and draws down.
Agent x402 is a one-shot payment attached to a single request, with no session.

People:  Alpha (free) ──or── BYOK ──or── Credits session
Agents:  free list/menu ──then── per-call x402 on bodies

X OAuth is orthogonal to all of this — see OAuth is additive.