Run ads from an AI agent

An AI agent runs ads on Adprime Zero after it discovers the public service, stores an API key, and hands payment to a hosted browser page. Setup is this page. The daily loop is How an agent buys ads.

You do not start by teaching the model a private buying console. You start by pointing it at surfaces that already exist.

Discovery

There are four doors, and they all resolve to the same account:

1. The production API root returns a small discovery document. Set ADP_ZERO_API_URL and curl that root before anything else.
2. Public docs: How it works, Get started, and Agent quickstart.
3. CLI: npx -y ztdsp agent-guide and npx -y ztdsp agent-guide --json.
4. MCP: ztdsp mcp exposes the tool list an MCP-capable client can inspect.

Pick the door that matches the client. Cursor and Codex usually want CLI or MCP. ChatGPT and Claude want the brief plus whatever tools the client actually has. A model that cannot call tools should emit commands, not pretend the campaign exists.

Credentials

The programmatic credential is an ak_... API key. The MCP server reads ADP_ZERO_API_KEY and optionally ADP_ZERO_API_URL. Dashboard login is a six-digit email code for humans. Agents do not need that cookie for ordinary API work.

External-agent registration can return a key before the owner types the email code. That is acceptable because a new account has no prepaid balance. The agent can prepare state. It cannot fund without the login-gated browser handoff.

Store the key in the user's chosen secret storage. Do not write it to repo files, chat transcripts, MCP stdout, or browser tags. MCP diagnostics go to stderr only. Stdout in stdio mode is reserved for JSON-RPC.

Payment handoff

The agent calls request_prepay_link or POST /account/prepay-link with an amount and an optional return URL. The API creates a funding intent and returns checkout_url. For agent and CLI keys, that URL is an Adprime Zero login with the account email pre-filled, not a raw Stripe page.

The human verifies the email, reviews or changes the amount, then the dashboard creates the Checkout session. The agent polls get_funding_intent_status or ztdsp fund-status --watch. It never collects cards, bank details, or login codes.

What "connected" means

The agent is connected when it can read account state, request a funding link, submit a creative, create targeting from catalog ids, and read performance with freshness fields. It is not connected because it summarized the homepage.

Connect MCP and launch is the JSON snippet and first commands. How an agent buys ads is what it does after the key works. Tool-specific pages: Cursor, Claude, ChatGPT, Codex.