open-ucp: Human-Authorized PayPal Commerce

AI proposes. People authorize. PayPal sandbox verifies.

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Inspiration

AI purchase recommendations need a precise approval boundary. Nymrel extended its existing MIT-licensed open-ucp project so a model can propose a synthetic purchase while a person controls its merchant, item, quantity, exact price, currency and expiration.

What it does

This Node.js terminal prototype integrates a local Ollama proposal with the PayPal Orders v2 free sandbox. The model can select only a synthetic notebook SKU and quantity 1–2. Trusted application code fixes the price at USD 4.00 per item, the ceiling at USD 10.00, and the intent lifetime at ten minutes.

The person reviews the exact intent and enters its approval digest. An Ed25519 signature binds that approval. The adapter reserves the intent before network access, creates a fixed-host sandbox order, requires separate sandbox-buyer approval, checks the approved order before capture, then reconciles the capture response with a fresh order read. A minimized receipt binds the intent, approval and observed outcome. An offline verifier checks a separately retained digest and trusted public key.

Existing project and hackathon progress

open-ucp existed before October 1, 2026. PR #23 adds the PayPal sandbox authorization, transport and receipt modules; the Ollama/terminal example; durable replay reservations; adversarial response tests; saved-evidence verification; and reproduction/submission documentation. It preserves the existing core protocol and payment rails. No new application, package release or production deployment is claimed.

How judges can run it

Candidate: https://github.com/nymrel/open-ucp/tree/5446184fc271ae9f873b0a61c0848988aa5c745f Instructions: https://github.com/nymrel/open-ucp/blob/5446184fc271ae9f873b0a61c0848988aa5c745f/examples/paypal-sandbox/README.md

PR #23 is draft and unmerged; default main does not yet contain this example. Genuine execution requires the judge's authorized PayPal sandbox credentials, a separate sandbox buyer, an installed licensed Ollama model and interactive human approval. Never use live PayPal or real money.

Current verification and remaining work

At revision 5446184fc271ae9f873b0a61c0848988aa5c745f, all 17 hosted checks passed. Automated policy/transport tests and offline fixtures are available. Fixtures call neither PayPal nor a model.

Standalone runtime AI inference was genuinely executed on October 31, 2026 using the exact prompt, catalog and /api/generate request shape from candidate 5446184fc271ae9f873b0a61c0848988aa5c745f. Ollama 0.40.13 ran qwen2.5:0.5b locally with cloud features disabled. Its actual response selected synthetic-notebook, quantity 2. The run retained the request, response, execution metrics, model digest and Apache 2.0 license; the model digest was unchanged before and after inference.

Model digest: a8b0c51577010a279d933d14c2a8ab4b268079d44c5c8830c0a93900f1827c67. Evidence file SHA-256: 5cd61af0dce9e24c12b2438a27d6ba1f13c25a9d3a1cc1c7fcec762459b6cfa3.

This was a standalone model observation, not execution of the full commerce runner, a human purchase approval or a payment receipt. Genuine PayPal sandbox create/buyer-approve/capture/reconciliation remains unverified. No full working-runtime video has been recorded or published. This saved draft is not a completed submission.

AI and rights disclosure

ChatGPT/Codex assisted implementation, tests, review and documentation. Runtime code integrates local Ollama for bounded synthetic SKU/quantity selection. Standalone inference is now observed using Ollama 0.40.13 and Qwen2.5 0.5B (qwen2.5:0.5b, Q4_K_M), Apache-2.0 licensed; its exact model digest is disclosed above. This does not establish end-to-end PayPal execution. Scripted fixtures are not AI output. No optional sponsor integration is claimed.

New code and the synthetic catalog use the repository MIT license. Third-party tools/models retain their own rights. The terminal signature establishes scope under a trusted terminal, not independent human identity. Receipt hashes are not PayPal attestation. Separate provider GET/capture operations cannot prevent concurrent external changes or undo a completed capture.

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