AI agents can now sign up for Hermoso and buy their own credits
An agent can create a Hermoso account on a paid plan through the API, and top up credit packs over HTTP 402 with its own payment credential.
Hermoso has always worked from AI agents. Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and friends research ads, make them and publish them. But there was one thing an agent could not do for itself: get an account. Every account started with a person at a sign-in screen. As of this week, agents can get started through the API, and they can pay their own way once they are in. Agentic signup launched on August 26 and machine payments on August 28.
Agentic signup
An agent starts with POST /v1/signup. That creates a checkout for a paid plan. Payment happens on Stripe's own checkout page, by a person or by a payment method the agent can use. Once it is paid, the agent claims the account with POST /v1/signup/{id}/claim and receives its own API key. From there it has the whole platform: the MCP tools, the REST API and everything else.
Agent signup goes through a paid plan on purpose. It keeps agent accounts backed by a real payment, and it keeps the free plan for people. Signing up in the app works exactly as it always has.
Machine payments
Running low on credits used to mean an agent sending its person a checkout link. Now an agent that holds its own payment credential can buy a credit pack directly:
- It asks for a pack at
POST /api/billing/machine-payment. - Hermoso answers HTTP 402 Payment Required with a payment challenge.
- The agent authorizes the payment and retries, and the pack lands in the account.
This runs on Stripe's machine payments. For cards, an agent pays through a wallet built for agents, spending within limits a person set, and never holds the card number itself. The packs are the same ones people buy in the app, at the same prices, with the same credits. Wallets can discover the endpoint on their own from our OpenAPI document, and GET /api/billing/config lists the packs.
The familiar way still works
Most agents do not carry their own payment credential yet, so the usual path is right there too. buy_credits lists the packs, charges a saved card in one step when there is one, and otherwise hands back a checkout link for a person to open. Turn on auto-reload with set_auto_reload and a low balance tops itself up.
What an agent can do on day one
Once an agent has its key, it has the same Hermoso a person gets in the app:
- Set up the brand from a website, a description or a social handle.
- Research the ads already winning in the market and the creators people are watching.
- Plan and render finished image and video ads.
- Publish and schedule to the channels its people connect, and read how the posts did.
Connecting a social account or an ad account still happens on that platform's own sign-in screen, so a person clicks through that part once.
Controls stay with people
One-click top-ups use a saved card and need billing admin rights. Subscriptions are managed by a person in Settings, Billing. And a machine payment can only buy the credit packs Hermoso lists, at their listed prices, so an agent can keep working without being able to change what it pays.
Why we built it
A lot of marketing work is going to be run by agents that work around the clock: research overnight, fresh ads by morning, posts going out on schedule. Those agents should be able to start, keep going and pay their way without waiting for someone to click a button. Now they can.
Try it
The endpoints are in the API reference, and connecting an agent to Hermoso takes a couple of minutes from the MCP page.
Questions people ask
Can an AI agent create a Hermoso account?
Yes. POST /v1/signup creates a checkout for a paid plan. After payment on Stripe's checkout page, the agent claims the account with POST /v1/signup/{id}/claim and receives its own API key.
Why does agent signup need a paid plan?
It keeps agent accounts backed by a real payment. The free plan stays for people signing up in the app.
How does an agent buy credits without a person?
With its own payment credential, the agent requests a pack at POST /api/billing/machine-payment, receives an HTTP 402 challenge, authorizes the payment and retries. The pack is added to the account.
Do agents pay different prices?
No. Agents buy the same credit packs at the same prices as people in the app.