Compare checkout paths

Understand when the browser completes checkout, when an agent completes it, and when a handoff connects the two.

Orderboost keeps browser checkout, hosted agent requests, direct Model Context Protocol (MCP) control, and handoff as separate paths. They share authoritative commerce state but use different capabilities and completion rules.

Compare ownership and completion

Each path assigns checkout ownership and payment authority differently:

Follow the human checkout path

The Store creates a public buyer checkout from a product URL. The hosted page collects or restores contact, fulfillment, shipping, and payment information, then completes the order in the browser.

This path does not require MCP OAuth, a handoff code, a purchase grant, or an agent completion call.

Let an agent open hosted checkout

The default Node agent flow starts from a canonical product URL. Orderboost resolves the selected variant, creates a public buyer checkout, opens the hosted page, and returns the order identifier after browser completion.

The SDK receives the opaque hosted checkout URL and a separate read-only status capability. It opens the URL and polls status, but does not use either capability for agent-side checkout mutation. The caller receives only the final order identifier.

Follow the direct agent checkout path

An authenticated agent creates checkout through MCP. Orderboost requotes the items and returns requires_escalation with a hosted continue_url.

A signed-in person reviews the exact merchant, items, fulfillment, total, and payment method. Approval issues a purchase grant, then the agent calls complete_checkout once.

Use handoff only for existing checkout

A handoff code lets an authenticated agent claim a checkout that the browser already created. The code expires after 10 minutes and can be redeemed once.

The handoff grants checkout access, not payment authority. The person must still approve the exact purchase before agent completion.

Tempo MPP can pay the exact Orderboost hosted checkout URL when its response advertises mpp.endpoint; the private link still identifies the checkout. Other MPP or x402 resources must advertise their own endpoint and do not create Orderboost checkout ownership. Read Understand agentic checkout before combining either protocol with Orderboost checkout.