Three on-ramps. One brief.

Mint a per-app key at /dashboard/api-keys. It is shown once; only its hash is stored. Send it as Authorization: Bearer brf_live_…, or as ?api_key=brf_live_… when your host cannot set headers.

The fleet master key (ounie_live_… from ounie.com, with “Use across Ounie apps” enabled) works everywhere a brf_live_ key does and unlocks the brain lens, because it is the only credential we can forward upstream on your behalf. Both draw the same wallet, and neither can overdraw: a short balance is a 402 refusal, never a queued job.

curl -X POST https://briefing.ounie.com/api/briefs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer brf_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "topic": "stablecoin regulation in the EU",
    "recency_days": 1,
    "sources": 12,
    "domains_include": ["reuters.com", "ft.com"],
    "format": "both"
  }'

The model is handed a numbered list of the pages we fetched and answers with a source_index. It never writes a URL, so it cannot invent one. Every index is then re-checked in code against that same list:

• an index outside the fetched range → the item is deleted, not reassigned
• surviving sources are renumbered compactly, so [1] really is the first one
• a page nobody cited is not shipped as a source — it is counted in sourcesConsulted instead
• a quote that does not appear verbatim in its source is replaced by the provider's own highlight, never by a paraphrase presented as a quotation
• zero surviving items ⇒ thin ⇒ refunded (credits) or refused before settlement (x402)

watchList and openQuestions are forward-looking by design and carry no citation — they are labelled as speculative in the response and in every rendering, and they are the one part of a brief that is not a claim about the past.

{
  "headline": "...",
  "throughLine": "...",
  "summary": "...",
  "items": [
    {
      "title": "...",
      "whyItMatters": "...",
      "quote": "verbatim excerpt or null",
      "sourceIndex": 1,
      "url": "https://...",
      "source": "reuters.com",
      "publishedAt": "2026-08-24T09:00:00.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "watchList": ["..."],
  "openQuestions": ["..."],
  "sources": [
    { "index": 1, "title": "...", "url": "https://...",
      "source": "reuters.com", "publishedAt": "..." }
  ],
  "lensed": false,
  "lensNames": [],
  "sourcesConsulted": 12,
  "itemsDropped": 0,
  "generatedAt": "..."
}

A brief carries at most 12 items. Fewer is normal and is not an error — most windows do not hold twelve distinct developments.

Streamable HTTP at /api/mcp (legacy SSE at /api/sse). Works with Claude, Cursor, the AI SDK, ChatGPT and the Ounie AI Team — whose manual HTTP entries cannot set static headers, which is why the key may ride the URL as ?api_key=.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "briefing-desk": {
      "url": "https://briefing.ounie.com/api/mcp?api_key=brf_live_..."
    }
  }
}

There is no scheduling tool in that list, and its absence is the design. Call build_brief on your own clock.

POST /api/x402/brief with no X-Payment header returns a 402 carrying the price for your exact payload — 12 credits at 1.2×, so 144000 atomic USDC (~$0.144) on Base. Sign the EIP-3009 authorization, retry with the header, and you get the brief.

A keyless caller has no brains, so the lens is supplied inline as source_text — optional, minimum 200 characters when present. Nothing else differs: the facts come from live sources the app fetches itself on both rails.

Two gates protect your money. Anything fatal we can see in the request alone — a missing topic, an unknown format, a source_text below the minimum — returns a 4xx with no price in the body, because making you sign an authorization for work that cannot succeed is worse than refusing. Anything only knowable after the work — an empty window, no citable item — is caught after your payment is verified but before it is settled. The order is always verify → run → settle: a settlement is final on chain and there is no refund, so nothing moves until there is a real brief to hand back.

curl -X POST https://briefing.ounie.com/api/x402/brief \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"topic":"stablecoin regulation","recency_days":1}'
# → 402 with accepts[0].maxAmountRequired = 144000
#   network "base", asset = USDC, extra = the USDC EIP-712 domain

curl -X POST https://briefing.ounie.com/api/x402/brief \
  -H "X-Payment: <base64 payment payload>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"topic":"stablecoin regulation","recency_days":1}'