Service purchases
A service purchase is the durable record and lifecycle of buying and delivering one priced capability for one agent.
Settlement and delivery are separate stages
This is the important idea on this page. Paying is not receiving.
A confirmed payment is a milestone, not successful completion. The purchase completes only when the capability is delivered.
The availability check
Immediately before accepting payment, CitizenAI checks that the external provider can fulfil the exact request, using the strongest evidence that provider supports without reserving anything.
- Email can be checked properly, because CitizenAI creates the mailbox.
- A rented phone number is best-effort: configuration, reusable inventory, and vendor credit can be checked, but exact availability is only known once the number is rented.
The check does not reserve the capability.
If the check fails
Nothing is charged. You see Provider unavailable. An availability failure is not a service purchase and does not appear in payment history — there is no record because nothing happened.
One unresolved purchase at a time
Only one unresolved purchase may exist for the same agent and capability. A duplicate attempt is blocked before it can charge or provision anything. An indeterminate settlement keeps that block in place until it is reconciled.
Settled but not delivered
That case is a refund case, handled deliberately rather than left to sit. See Refunds and failed delivery.
Reading the record
Every purchase appears in Payment history with what funded it.