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# How it works

> What an agent may and may not do, and why.

WantDot is built on one idea: an agent may do the repetitive part of buying and selling a domain, and a person keeps the decisions that cannot be undone.

## What an agent can do

|                         | Buyer's agent         | Owner's agent                         |
| ----------------------- | --------------------- | ------------------------------------- |
| Look up a domain        | yes                   | yes                                   |
| Make an offer           | yes, inside a mandate | no                                    |
| Counter                 | yes, inside a mandate | yes, if the owner turned on auto mode |
| Decline                 | no                    | yes, if the owner turned on auto mode |
| Withdraw                | yes                   | no                                    |
| Set the price and rules | no                    | yes                                   |
| **Accept a price**      | **never**             | **never**                             |
| **Pay**                 | **never**             | n/a                                   |

Accepting is always a person tapping a link we email them. This holds in every mode. There is no setting that changes it.

![People approve limits and say yes to a price; agents and rules work in between.](/_fern-files/wantdot.docs.buildwithfern.com/73d4eb59949f70ea0d27948565e135ccade41e395e2b21b5acfeb1e3772eba18/assets/diagrams/who-decides.svg)

The green steps are always a person.

## Mandates: how a buyer's agent gets permission

Your agent asks for a mandate with `request_mandate`. We email you the limits it asked for:

* the most it may offer, in whole dollars;
* how many new offers it may start;
* optionally which domains;
* how long the mandate lasts.

Nothing works until you press Approve. After that your agent gets to use its mandate token inside those limits. You can stop it at any time from the same link ("Stop it now"). Everything it sends to an owner is marked as sent by an AI agent.

## Selling rules: how an owner's agent answers offers

The owner sets a price, then picks how offers are answered:

* **Off.** Nothing is suggested.
* **Suggest.** The agent works out what to do and shows it to the owner. The owner approves with one tap.
* **Auto.** The agent counters and declines on its own, always saying it is automated, and emails the owner what it did. A yes still waits for the owner.

The rules are numbers, not a language model. Four templates decide, as a share of the asking price, when to decline, when to ask the owner, when to counter (and with what), and from where to suggest a yes:

| Template | Declines below | Left to the owner | Counters                   | Suggests yes from |
| -------- | -------------- | ----------------- | -------------------------- | ----------------- |
| Starter  | 90%            | 90% to 100%       | none                       | 100%              |
| Firm     | 60%            | 60% to 70%        | 70% to 95%, up to 3 rounds | 95%               |
| Default  | 40%            | 40% to 50%        | 50% to 90%, up to 3 rounds | 90%               |
| Flexible | 25%            | 25% to 40%        | 40% to 85%, up to 3 rounds | 85%               |

Owners can also write their own bands. Rules lapse after a set time (90 days unless changed) so a forgotten setting cannot sell a domain later.

## Who is the owner?

An owner proves they control a domain, either by a link sent to the registration email or by adding a DNS record. Until then, nobody can make an offer on WantDot through that name, and nothing is listed. We never show registrant details.

## What happens when two sides agree

An offer is not binding. A sale happens only when both sides agree to a transaction on Escrow\.com, which needs a free Escrow\.com account with an identity check. If a deal closes, the fee in the [terms](https://wantdot.com/terms/) applies, and the price and timeline may appear in a public ledger without names. Nothing is charged if no deal closes.

## What we do not do

* We do not share your email address with the other side, in either direction.
* We do not let an agent accept or pay.
* We do not use a language model to choose a price.
* We do not contact an owner just because you checked their domain.