Documentation

Swerver is a high-performance HTTP server and reverse proxy written from scratch in Zig. It supports HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, and HTTP/3 (QUIC) with TLS 1.3, zero-copy request parsing, and pre-allocated buffer pools. It handles millions of requests per second on commodity hardware.

x402 payment negotiation is built in as native middleware. When a request hits a paid route, swerver returns the 402 challenge, verifies the payment signature, and proxies the paid request to your upstream origin. No sidecar, no plugin, no extra hop.

When you create a gateway on this platform, swerver is the runtime that serves it. Every request to your proxy URL (slug--gw.swerver.net) goes through swerver. This dashboard is the managed control plane. You configure gateways, routes, and pricing here. Swerver picks up the configuration and handles the rest.

x402 is an open payment protocol that uses HTTP status code 402 to negotiate per-request payments. When a client makes a request to a paid endpoint, the flow is:

1. Client sends a request to your gateway proxy URL.
2. Swerver returns 402 Payment Required with pricing details, the wallet address, and accepted networks in the response headers.
3. Client submits payment (USDC on Base) and retries with a payment proof header.
4. Swerver verifies the payment, proxies the request to your upstream API, and returns the response.

Clients that already have an x402 SDK handle this automatically. From the API provider side, you just create a gateway and set prices. Swerver handles negotiation, verification, and settlement.

Once your gateway is live, clients make requests to your proxy URL instead of the upstream API directly.

curl https://myapi--gw.swerver.net/v1/search?q=hello

# Response: 402 Payment Required
# Headers include:
#   X-Payment-Amount: 10000
#   X-Payment-Asset: 0x833589f...  (USDC on Base)
#   X-Payment-Receiver: 0xYourWallet...

After payment, the client retries with the payment receipt:

curl https://myapi--gw.swerver.net/v1/search?q=hello \
  -H "X-Payment: <payment-proof>"

# Response: 200 OK (proxied from your upstream API)

x402-compatible SDKs and AI agents handle this flow automatically. The payment negotiation is invisible to the end user.

If your upstream API requires authentication, add an API key during gateway creation. Swerver injects it as an Authorization: Bearer header on every proxied request. The key is encrypted at rest and never exposed in API responses or the dashboard UI.

Clients never see or need your upstream credentials. They pay via x402, and swerver handles forwarding with the right auth headers.

Prices are set per route in USDC. The sweet spot for AI agent traffic is $0.01 to $0.10 per request. Set prices too high and agents will skip your API. Set them too low and it's not worth the settlement overhead.

Direct settlement (default)

By default, x402 payments settle directly to your wallet on-chain. You provide a USDC wallet address when creating a gateway, and every paid request settles USDC directly to that address on Base. There is no platform fee on direct settlements.

Managed payouts (optional)

If you don't want to deal with wallets or on-chain settlement, you can connect Stripe in Settings. Swerver collects USDC on your behalf, converts it to USD, and deposits it to your bank account. Managed payouts have a 2% platform fee to cover conversion and processing costs.

Direct settlement to your own wallet is always free on every plan. The managed payout fee only applies when using Stripe-based payouts.

x402 is designed for machine-to-machine payments. AI agents with x402 support can discover your API through the directory, negotiate pricing automatically, and pay per request without human intervention.

To make your API discoverable, add tags when creating routes. Tagged endpoints appear in the directory where agents can browse available APIs by category and price.