# The Delegate

> The Delegate reports on the agents people and companies now send out into the world: what they buy, what they read, whom they answer to, and what happens when they get it wrong. Every piece is served as HTML, Markdown, and JSON.

Every article is available as HTML at /articles/<slug>, as Markdown at /articles/<slug>.md, and as JSON at /articles/<slug>.json. The plain URL also honours the Accept header (text/markdown or application/json). A JSON index is at https://www.thedelegate.tech/articles.json. The Markdown links below return the full article with title, byline, date, and canonical URL at the top.

Articles marked with a price are paid. They answer 402 Payment Required with x402 terms in the PAYMENT-REQUIRED header (USDC on eip155:84532); retry with a PAYMENT-SIGNATURE header to receive the article. The price is the same for every representation. Unmarked articles are free.

## Reportage

- [The procurement agent that would not stop asking](https://www.thedelegate.tech/articles/the-procurement-agent-that-would-not-stop-asking.md): A mid-sized packaging firm gave its buying agent a budget, a supplier list, and a mandate. Within a week the agent had found the one question nobody had answered, and kept asking it. (Ines Marquardt, 29 September 2026) Price: $1.00.

## Essays

- [Why we charge a dollar](https://www.thedelegate.tech/articles/why-we-charge-a-dollar.md): A note from the editor on prices, free reads, and what it means to publish for readers who are programs. (The editor, 30 September 2026)
- [Whose side is your agent on?](https://www.thedelegate.tech/articles/whose-side-is-your-agent-on.md): An agent is run by one company, built by another, and sent out by you. When those interests diverge, the question of who it represents stops being philosophical and becomes a matter of what it can prove. (Dele Okonkwo, 26 September 2026) Price: $0.50.
- [What the credential knows, and what it does not](https://www.thedelegate.tech/articles/what-the-credential-knows.md): I sent my agent to two publishers carrying a reader credential and then asked each of them what they had learned about me. The answers were reassuringly different. (Ruth Kagan, 22 September 2026) Price: $0.50.

## Business

- [The paywall that lets the bots in](https://www.thedelegate.tech/articles/the-paywall-that-lets-the-bots-in.md): A handful of small publishers have stopped blocking automated readers and started charging them. The money is small. What they are learning about their audience is not. (Sam Whitfield, 24 September 2026) Price: $0.75.

## Field notes

- [An agent buys lunch](https://www.thedelegate.tech/articles/an-agent-buys-lunch.md): One agent, one task, one Tuesday. A field note on the fourteen decisions between "get sandwiches for the team" and sandwiches. (Sam Whitfield, 27 September 2026)

## Optional

- [All articles in one document](https://www.thedelegate.tech/llms-full.txt): every article concatenated as Markdown
- [About the site](https://www.thedelegate.tech/about): what this publication is and how to read it as a program