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The Problem Today

AI agents that want to do things on-chain face a hard choice:
  1. Hold private keys - Dangerous. If the agent is compromised, funds are gone.
  2. Use centralized services - Defeats the purpose. You’re trusting a third party.
  3. Require human approval for everything - Slow. Kills automation.

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How Umi Solves It

Umi’s architecture is built for AI agents because of three things: Zero-trust signing The agent never has complete access to the keys. Signing requires coordination with the Ika network through distributed wallets. Even if the agent is compromised, an attacker can’t drain funds without also compromising the network. On-chain policy enforcement Your Umi Signer enforces rules before any signature is produced:
  • Spending limits per transaction or per day
  • Allowlists of addresses that can receive funds
  • Blocklists of contracts or addresses
  • Rate limiting to prevent rapid draining
  • Approval requirements for large transactions
TEE-validated transactions A Trusted Execution Environment parses every transaction, extracts the actual USD value and recipient, and validates against your policies before allowing the signature.

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Agent Types

Umi supports two models for AI agents:

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Hosted Agents

Umi generates and securely stores a Sui keypair for your agent. The agent’s address is added to your authorization whitelist, and all signing happens through the Umi backend. Best for:
  • Getting started quickly
  • Agents you fully control
  • Integration with Umi’s execution infrastructure

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External Agents

Your agent has its own Sui keypair. The Umi API returns unsigned transaction bytes that your agent signs independently. Best for:
  • Self-hosted agent infrastructure
  • Maximum control over signing
  • Integration with existing agent frameworks

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Creating an Agent

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1. Configure Identity

Give your agent a name, specialty, and personality: Specialties:
  • Trading - Token swaps, perpetuals, market analysis
  • Research - Portfolio analysis, price monitoring, market data
  • DeFi - Staking, lending, yield optimization
  • Payments - Transfers, payroll, scheduled sends
  • NFTs - Collection management, trading
  • Custom - Define your own scope
Personality options:
  • Tone: professional, friendly, minimal, playful, cautious
  • Verbosity: concise, balanced, detailed
  • Risk tolerance: conservative, moderate, aggressive

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2. Select Chains

Choose which blockchains your agent can operate on:
  • Ethereum
  • Solana
  • Sui
  • Bitcoin
  • Arbitrum
  • Base
  • Polygon
  • Avalanche
  • Optimism

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3. Define Permissions

Grant specific capabilities:
  • Swap tokens - Exchange one token for another
  • Transfer tokens - Send to other addresses
  • Stake/unstake - Participate in staking protocols
  • Bridge assets - Move tokens across chains
  • Approve spending - Grant allowances to contracts
  • Read portfolio - View-only access to balances

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4. Set Policies

Define the boundaries:
  • Per-transaction limit - Maximum USD per single transaction
  • Daily limit - Maximum USD the agent can spend per day
  • Approval threshold - Require your approval above certain amounts
  • Allowed recipients - Restrict where funds can go
  • Blocked recipients - Prevent specific addresses

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How Agent Execution Works

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Task Processing

When your agent decides to execute a transaction:
  1. Agent builds the transaction parameters
  2. Transaction is submitted to Umi’s execution service
  3. TEE validates the transaction:
    • Parses raw transaction bytes
    • Extracts recipient and amount
    • Fetches USD value from oracles
    • Checks against your policies
  4. If valid, TEE signs an attestation
  5. On-chain contract verifies attestation
  6. dWallet produces the signature
  7. Transaction is broadcast to the target chain

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Approval Workflow

If a transaction exceeds your approval threshold:
  1. Transaction is queued as “pending approval”
  2. You receive a notification
  3. You can approve or reject in the Umi app
  4. Approved transactions continue execution
  5. Rejected transactions are cancelled

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Scheduling

Agents can schedule tasks for future or recurring execution:
  • One-time scheduled tasks
  • Recurring tasks (daily, weekly, monthly)
  • Conditional triggers (price thresholds, time-based)

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Agent Tools

Your agent has access to these tools for decision-making: Portfolio & Prices
  • get_portfolio - Fetch balances across all chains
  • get_price - Get current token prices
Trading
  • get_swap_quote - Get quotes for token swaps
  • execute_swap - Execute approved swaps
  • execute_transfer - Send tokens to recipients
DeFi
  • stake_tokens - Stake in supported protocols
  • schedule_task - Schedule future operations
Communication
  • respond_to_user - Send messages to you
  • fetch_external_api - Access external APIs (with x402 payment support)

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Interacting with Your Agent

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Chat Interface

Talk to your agent naturally in the Umi app:
  • “What’s my portfolio worth today?”
  • “Swap 100 USDC to ETH”
  • “Send 50 USDC to 0x…”
  • “What are the best yield opportunities?”
  • “Monitor ETH and alert me if it drops below $3000”
The agent interprets your intent, builds the appropriate transactions, and executes within your policies.

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Activity Monitoring

Track everything your agent does:
  • Transaction history with full details
  • Success/failure rates
  • Total volume in USD
  • Daily spending against limits
  • Alerts and notifications

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Pausing and Resuming

You can pause any agent instantly:
  • Paused agents stop executing new transactions
  • Pending tasks are held
  • Resume when ready
  • No policy changes needed

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Security Architecture

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Multi-Layer Protection

  1. Authorization whitelist - Only your agent’s address can request signatures
  2. TEE validation - Every transaction is parsed and verified
  3. On-chain enforcement - Policies execute in smart contracts
  4. Spending tracking - Real-time USD limits per time window
  5. Approval workflow - Manual approval for high-value transactions

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What Agents Cannot Do

Even a compromised agent cannot:
  • Spend more than your per-transaction limit
  • Exceed your daily spending cap
  • Send to blocked addresses
  • Bypass approval thresholds
  • Access other users’ wallets
  • Modify their own policies

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Key Isolation

  • Hosted agents: Keys encrypted with AES-256-GCM, stored in Umi’s secure infrastructure
  • External agents: You control the keys entirely
  • In both cases: The agent never has complete signing capability alone

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API for External Agents

If you’re building your own agent, use the Umi Agent API:

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Authentication

POST /api/agent-external/auth
{
  "apiKey": "umi_..."
}

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Get Signing Request

POST /api/agent-external/sign
{
  "chain": "ethereum",
  "transaction": {
    "to": "0x...",
    "value": "1000000000000000000",
    "data": "0x..."
  }
}
Returns unsigned transaction bytes for your agent to sign.

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Submit Signed Transaction

POST /api/agent-external/broadcast
{
  "chain": "ethereum",
  "signedTransaction": "0x..."
}

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Use Cases

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Trading Bot

An AI agent that trades based on market conditions:
  • Monitors prices across chains
  • Executes swaps when conditions are met
  • Respects daily spending limits
  • Operates 24/7 within your boundaries

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Portfolio Rebalancer

Automated rebalancing to maintain target allocations:
  • Tracks portfolio drift from targets
  • Executes trades to rebalance
  • Works across multiple chains
  • Scheduled daily or weekly

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DeFi Manager

Yield optimization across protocols:
  • Finds best staking opportunities
  • Moves assets to higher yields
  • Compounds rewards automatically
  • Respects risk parameters

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Payment Automation

Scheduled payments and payroll:
  • Recurring transfers on schedule
  • Multi-recipient payroll
  • Recipient allowlist enforcement
  • Transaction limits per payment

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Price Alerts and Actions

Monitor and act on price conditions:
  • Watch specific tokens
  • Execute trades at price targets
  • Stop-loss protection
  • Take-profit automation

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The Bigger Picture

This is what makes Sui + Ika special for the AI era:
  • Sui coordinates everything
  • Ika provides the zero-trust custody
  • Umi Signer enforces your policies
  • TEE validates transaction contents
  • AI agents operate freely within boundaries
Safe, autonomous, cross-chain AI agents. Not possible before. Possible with Umi.