Agentic Commerce FAQ
For cross-cutting questions, see the General FAQ and Technical FAQ.
Multiple carts
Can the destination chain multiple single-merchant carts together?
Yes. Each cart is independent. The destination can place several orders in sequence — one per merchant — within a single conversation.
Can I have multiple carts open simultaneously?
Yes. Carts are scoped by domain (merchant) and session. The session API (Get active carts) lets you list and switch between them.
Discovery and catalog
Does Firmly’s discovery search across all merchants?
Yes, by default. The destination can scope discovery to specific merchants by App ID configuration (banks and brand-loyalty destinations often do this — see Destinations).
Is the catalog real-time?
The catalog index is refreshed regularly per merchant. Price and stock are validated in real time against the merchant at order-placement time — even if the catalog index is slightly stale, the order placement uses fresh data.
Identity and sessions
Does Firmly handle SSO between the destination and the merchant?
That’s what Firmly Connect is for. Firmly Connect lets a user signed into the destination appear signed into the merchant at order time, so the order goes under the user’s existing merchant account rather than as a guest order.
Does Firmly see the conversation between the user and the agent?
No. Only structured commerce data (cart contents, address, payment token) crosses the boundary. Conversational context stays on the destination’s side.
Payment choices
What’s the difference between Smart Payment Selection and Agentic Pay?
- Smart Payment Selection is the pattern of choosing the right payment path per transaction — card, Klarna BNPL, express wallets (Google Pay / PayPal / Click to Pay), saved cards, or Agentic Pay. It’s the broader picker.
- Agentic Pay is one of those paths — a Network Token Router specifically designed for autonomous-agent purchasing (cardholder pre-authorizes a mandate; agent transacts within it without a live human at checkout). It’s a specific payment mode, not the picker.
In a Smart Payment Selection flow, Agentic Pay is Path E. See Smart Payment Selection → Path E.
When should an agent use Agentic Pay vs a normal card flow?
Use Agentic Pay when the cardholder is not present at checkout — autonomous purchasing (the agent decides when to buy within a pre-authorized mandate), recurring buys, or biometric / passkey-confirmed purchases. For an interactive flow where the user confirms each purchase, a normal saved card or fresh JWE-encrypted card is simpler.
See Autonomous Agent Purchasing for the use case framing.