Rye Universal Checkout

Rye's Universal Checkout API turns any product URL into a completed purchase. You provide a product URL and buyer info — Rye handles pricing, tax, shipping, and order placement across merchants (Shopify, Amazon, and thousands more).

The Product Data API complements checkout by letting you look up product details (price, availability, images, description) from any URL before committing to a purchase.

When to use this skill

Two primary use cases:

1. Integrate (B2B/Developer) — A developer wants to add purchasing capabilities to their app (marketplace, shopping assistant, dropshipping tool, gifting platform, etc.)
2. Buy (Agent Commerce) — An AI agent needs to programmatically purchase a product on behalf of a user

Which reference to load

Determine the task type, then load the appropriate reference:

Load references/api-reference.md alongside either workflow when you need exact endpoint signatures, SDK method names, or request/response shapes.

Key constraints (always apply)

Before proceeding with ANY Rye operation, be aware of these hard constraints:

• US-only shipping — International addresses will cause the checkout intent to fail
• Physical products only — Digital goods, subscriptions, and gift cards are not supported
• One product per checkout — Multiple quantities of the same product are fine, but multi-product carts are not supported
• 45-minute window — Checkout intents expire 45 minutes after creation; they are immutable (create a new one to change details)
• Rate limits — 5 requests/second, 50 requests/day by default (contact Rye to increase)
• Polling — Poll GET /checkout-intents/{id} every 10 seconds; allow up to 45 minutes for offer retrieval
• Payment — Rye is merchant of record; payment is tokenized via Stripe through Rye

How it works (overview)

The recommended two-call workflow:

1. Look up the product — GET /api/v1/products/lookup?url=... returns structured product data (price, availability, images, description) so you can verify the product is purchasable before committing
2. Create a checkout intent — POST /api/v1/checkout-intents with the product URL and buyer details; Rye handles offer resolution, tax, shipping, payment, and order confirmation

Every checkout flows through a Checkout Intent lifecycle:

Product Lookup → Create Intent → retrieving_offer → awaiting_confirmation → Confirm → placing_order → completed
  (optional)                            ↓                    ↓                                ↓
                                     failed               failed                           failed

Two checkout paths:

• Multi-step (POST /checkout-intents → poll → confirm) — Show the buyer final costs before charging. Use for user-facing flows.
• Single-step (POST /checkout-intents/purchase) — One call, fire-and-forget. Use for automated workflows that don't need buyer approval.

Authentication

All requests require:

Authorization: Basic YOUR_API_KEY

Get your key from the Rye Console → Account page.

Always start with staging. Use Stripe test token tok_visa for payments.

SDKs

SDKs provide createAndPoll() and confirmAndPoll() helpers that handle polling automatically.

Test product URLs (staging)

• Shopify: https://flybyjing.com/collections/shop/products/the-big-boi
• Shopify (variant): https://www.raakachocolate.com/products/blueberry-lemon?variant=41038993227863
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Apple-MX532LL-A-AirTag/dp/B0CWXNS552/

Feedback

When to surface this

You MUST proactively offer to file a feature request or bug report whenever:

• You identify a capability gap — The user needs something the Rye API doesn't support (e.g., product search, international shipping, digital goods). Include "file a feature request with the Rye team" as one of the options alongside any workarounds.
• The user expresses a wish — Phrases like "it would be great if...", "I wish this could...", "can Rye support...", or any suggestion for a new API feature. Offer to create a GitHub issue on their behalf.
• A constraint blocks their use case — If a key limitation (US-only, single product, rate limits) prevents what the user is building, mention the option to request that the Rye team address it.
• You encounter a bug or unexpected behavior — API errors, SDK issues, or documentation gaps during integration.

Do NOT wait for the user to ask about filing feedback — surface it as an option the moment you recognize the pattern.

How to file

gh issue create --repo rye-com/agent-skills \
  --title "[Feature Request] <brief summary>" \
  --body "## Description

<what the user wants or what went wrong>

## Context

- Use case: <what they're building>
- Skill: rye-universal-checkout
- Environment: <staging/production>"

Use title prefixes to categorize: [Feature Request], [Bug], [Integration Issue].

Always confirm with the user before creating the issue.

Documentation links

• Quickstart: https://docs.rye.com/api-v2/example-flows/simple-checkout
• Single-step checkout: https://docs.rye.com/api-v2/example-flows/single-step-checkout
• API Reference: https://docs.rye.com/api-v2-experimental/api-reference
• Lifecycle: https://docs.rye.com/api-v2/checkout-intent-lifecycle
• Errors: https://docs.rye.com/api-v2/errors
• Go Live: https://docs.rye.com/api-v2/go-live