Agent context
Solvimon is built to be run headless and by agents. Every operation in Desk is available through the API, the MCP server puts the billing lifecycle in an agent’s hands, and the catalog carries something most billing systems leave out: the reasoning behind it. Products, product items, pricing plans and quote templates have an agent_context object whose guidance field is written for an AI agent, not for a customer. It says when to pick this plan, what the item actually covers, and which deals it suits. In Desk, the same field is called Guidance.
Why this matters
When billing runs without a person clicking through a UI, the agent doing the work only knows what the API tells it. A typical billing API tells it what a plan is: a name, a reference, prices, a status. It does not tell it what the plan is for: why it exists, which of two similar plans fits this deal, or that an item named “Platform fee” covers onboarding but not migration. description does not carry that either, because it is often shown to customers and is frequently left empty.
Without that knowledge an agent guesses from names. With it, the agent reads your intent. Agent context turns the catalog from a list of SKUs into one an agent can reason about.
Built for headless and agent-first billing
Agent context is useful wherever software, not a person in Desk, decides which part of your catalog to use.
How it works
agent_context is an object with one field today, guidance, holding up to 2,500 characters of free text. Line breaks are allowed, so you can write a short list rather than one paragraph. It is available on four resources:
The field is read and written like any other field on those resources. It is not shown to customers: it does not appear on an invoice, in the customer portal, or on a quote the customer sees.
How agents read it
- Through the MCP server. Solvimon’s MCP server gives the guidance to the agent together with the catalog metadata. The
get_agent_contexttool returns only a resource’s identity fields plus its guidance, so an agent can compare plans or templates cheaply before it chooses one. - Through the API.
agent_contextis part of the resource in every response, so your own agent or integration gets it with no extra call.
Guidance is advisory
Guidance informs the agent’s choice. It does not grant permissions. It never outranks the user, and it cannot authorise a discount, skip an approval, or trigger any action the user has not asked for. If guidance conflicts with the user’s request, the MCP server tells the agent to follow the user and point out the conflict. Approvals and Desk permissions apply as they always do.
Implementation
Via MCP
Ask your agent to write it, or call the tools directly. write_agent_context replaces the whole guidance string, so read the current text with get_agent_context first and write back the merged version. An empty string clears it.
When an agent creates a product or product item with write_product_catalog, it can include agent_context: {guidance} in the body to record who the resource is for from the start.
A good first prompt: “Go through our active pricing plans and quote templates, and draft agent guidance for each one. Show me the drafts before writing anything.” Review the drafts, then let the agent write them.
Via API
Set it with a PATCH on the resource, for example PATCH /v1/pricing-plans/{id}:
The same shape applies to products, product items and quote templates. Send "agent_context": null to clear it.
Via Desk
Open a product, product item, pricing plan or quote template and fill in the Guidance field on its detail screen. An empty field shows suggestions for what to write. The text is saved with the resource and is what the API returns as agent_context.guidance.
What to write
Write what you would tell a new sales engineer in their first week, not what you would print in a brochure.
- The decision, not the description. “Pick this over Starter once they ask for SSO” is useful. “Our flexible mid-market plan” is not.
- The boundaries. What the item does not cover is often what an agent gets wrong.
- The traps. Plans that must not be combined, units that are annual rather than monthly, items that look interchangeable and are not.
- Keep it current. It is free text, so nothing validates it against the plan. Guidance describing last year’s pricing is worse than none, because an agent will act on it.
Treat guidance as instructions an agent may act on. Do not put credentials, customer names, internal cost prices, or anything you would not want repeated back in an agent’s answer into this field.
Edge cases
- It does not change billing. Nothing in
guidanceaffects pricing, invoicing or entitlements. It informs the agent that reads it, and nothing else. - 2,500 characters is the limit. A longer value is rejected on the field. If you need more, the plan is usually carrying a distinction that belongs in two plans.
- Only four resources carry it today. Subscriptions, customers and invoices do not. The object exists so more fields can be added to it later without a new field on every resource.
See also: Claude integration to connect an agent to your account, Developing for Solvimon for the full MCP tool reference, and Product catalog for how products and items fit together.