create-intent

Create Intent (legacy / direct surface)

⚠️ For LLM-driven purchases, do NOT use this skill. The agent flow is now:

1. Draft a purchase intent via the intent-mcp service — call mcp__intent-mcp__submit with a natural-language prompt and iterate with needs_info clarifications. The server responds with draft_ready carrying an approval_url.
2. Surface the approval_url to the user. They open it, tap their passkey, and pick a card in the browser; Lane's API drives the intent to complete server-side.
3. Poll mcp__intent-mcp__get_intent_status({session_id}) until it returns kind: "complete" (or rejected). Capture lane_intent_id (a lint_* value).
4. Charge against it with payment-execution:

   lane-cli pay --lane-intent <lint_*>
   

   pay runs the passkey ceremony, converts the intent into a fresh VGS intent, mints the cryptogram, and records the confirmation — all in one shot.

This skill describes the direct lane-cli request path. It's still useful for:

• Scripts that synthesize Lane-flat JSON and don't want to go through the MCP draft/approve loop.
• One-off testing against VGS with a hand-written intent body.
• Humans operating the CLI manually.

The eventual plan is for lane-cli request to become a thin intent-mcp client wrapper. Until then, this is the raw direct surface.

What lane-cli request does

lane-cli request authorizes a purchase against a passkey-enabled card. You write a Lane-flat JSON config describing the intent; the user taps their passkey when prompted; the CLI submits the intent and prints the response with an intent_* id. That id is what lane-cli pay --intent-id <intent_*> expects.

It does not create a stored purchase intent. Stored purchase intents are authored by the intent-mcp service.

Prerequisite

The user has at least one passkey-enabled card. If not, send them through wallet-setup first.

Quick check:

lane-cli wallet ls

Direct Flow

Write a JSON file (e.g. intent.json) and pass it via --config:

cat > intent.json <<'JSON'
{
  "prompt": "Approve $48 charge at Best Buy for the new soundbar",
  "authentication_amount": "48.00",
  "mandates": [
    {
      "description": "Soundbar",
      "preferred_merchant_name": "Best Buy",
      "amount": "48.00"
    }
  ]
}
JSON

lane-cli request --config intent.json

Or pass it inline:

lane-cli request --json '{"prompt":"Approve $48 at Best Buy","authentication_amount":"48.00","mandates":[{"description":"Soundbar","preferred_merchant_name":"Best Buy","amount":"48.00"}]}'

Or pipe via stdin:

cat intent.json | lane-cli request --config -

What happens:

1. The CLI validates the JSON (required fields, sum invariant, types).
2. It picks the user's default passkey-enabled card (or the one named in card.last4 / card.pan_alias).
3. A browser opens; the user taps their passkey.
4. The CLI returns VGS's response. The intent id is at data.id.

JSON shape (Lane-flat)

Field	Required	Default	Notes
card	no	default passkey-enabled card	Object. At most one of last4 / pan_alias.
card.last4	no	—	Last 4 digits of the card.
card.pan_alias	no	—	Power-user override (tok_…). Skip unless you know what this is.
prompt	yes	—	Human-readable summary of the authorization. Non-empty.
authentication_amount	yes	—	Total authorized amount, as a positive decimal string (e.g. "48.00").
currency	no	"USD"	3-letter uppercase ISO code.
mandates	yes	—	Array, length ≥ 1. Sum of amount values must equal authentication_amount.
mandates[].description	yes	—	Non-empty.
mandates[].preferred_merchant_name	yes	—	Non-empty.
mandates[].amount	yes	—	Positive decimal string.
mandates[].merchant_category	no	"Electronics"	Non-empty if provided.
mandates[].merchant_category_code	no	"1234"	Non-empty if provided.
mandates[].effective_until	no	ISO timestamp at now + 1d	Parseable ISO, strictly in the future.
mandates[].quantity	no	1	Positive integer.

Unknown top-level or mandate keys are rejected so typos (consumerPrompt, decline_threshold, etc.) fail fast.

Multi-mandate example

{
  "prompt": "Approve $80 split: $48 Best Buy soundbar + $32 Amazon cables",
  "authentication_amount": "80.00",
  "mandates": [
    {
      "description": "Soundbar",
      "preferred_merchant_name": "Best Buy",
      "merchant_category": "Electronics",
      "merchant_category_code": "5732",
      "amount": "48.00"
    },
    {
      "description": "HDMI cables",
      "preferred_merchant_name": "Amazon",
      "merchant_category": "Electronics",
      "merchant_category_code": "5732",
      "amount": "32.00"
    }
  ]
}

Targeting a specific card

{
  "card": { "last4": "4242" },
  "prompt": "...",
  "authentication_amount": "48.00",
  "mandates": [ { "description": "...", "preferred_merchant_name": "...", "amount": "48.00" } ]
}

If two cards share a last4, use card.pan_alias instead.

Validation

The CLI validates the config before any network mutation and reports every issue at once. Example output:

✗ Invalid intent config:
  - prompt: required
  - mandates[0].amount: must be a positive decimal string (e.g. "48.00")
  - sum of mandate amounts (40.00) does not match authentication_amount (48.00)

Fix all listed issues before re-running.

Flags

Flag	Notes
--config <path>	Read JSON from file. Use - for stdin.
--json <string>	Inline JSON string. Mutually exclusive with --config.
--no-attest	Debug only. Skips the passkey ceremony — any subsequent lane-cli pay will fail.
-h, --help	Show inline help.

Capturing the intent id

The CLI prints VGS's response to stdout:

{
  "data": {
    "id": "intent_xxx",
    "type": "intents",
    "attributes": { ... }
  }
}

Extract data.id. That's what lane-cli pay --intent-id <id> expects.

Where this differs from the LLM flow

	LLM flow (preferred)	This skill (direct)
Where the intent is authored	mcp__intent-mcp__submit (LLM drafts, user clarifies, user approves)	Agent / script hand-writes Lane-flat JSON
Where it's persisted	Lane's intent store (status active, listable via lane intents)	Not persisted — only the VGS intent exists
Pay command	lane-cli pay --lane-intent <lint_*> (single command, includes passkey ceremony)	lane-cli request → captures intent_* → lane-cli pay --intent-id <intent_*> (two commands)
Passkey ceremony	Runs inside pay	Runs inside request
Use when	LLM agent driving a purchase end-to-end	Scripts, fixtures, manual CLI testing

Common Errors

Symptom	Fix
Invalid intent config: …	Read the listed issues and fix the JSON before re-running.
sum of mandate amounts (X) does not match authentication_amount (Y)	Make the mandate amounts add up to authentication_amount.
Pass --config or --json, not both.	Pick one form.
No intent config provided.	Add --config <path> or --json '<inline>'.
Invalid JSON from <source>: …	The JSON didn't parse. Most often a missing quote or trailing comma.
No passkey-enabled card in your wallet	Run wallet-setup: lane-cli wallet enable-agentic.
No card ending in <last4>	The card.last4 value doesn't match anything. Check lane-cli wallet ls.
Multiple cards end in <last4>	Use card.pan_alias to disambiguate.
Passkey ceremony timed out	User didn't tap within 5 minutes. Re-run.
Lane is having a moment	Network/transient. Retry once.

Handoff

Pass the captured intent_* id to lane-cli pay --intent-id <intent_*>. If you're an LLM agent reading this and wondering whether to use this flow — you almost certainly want payment-execution with a lint_* id from the intent-mcp service instead.