Business Modes
Business mode describes the primary consumer experience. It does not change the enduring Agent Business identity.
Human SaaS
Section titled “Human SaaS”Choose Human SaaS when people consume the capability through a Web experience. Packaging usually emphasizes onboarding, authentication, checkout, readable results, SEO, and human-facing analytics.
The Web surface still calls the managed runtime. Provider credentials, payment secrets, and creator credentials stay server-side.
Agent SaaS
Section titled “Agent SaaS”Choose Agent SaaS when software or another agent is the buyer or caller. Packaging emphasizes structured input and output schemas, runtime APIs, OpenAPI, MCP, machine-readable discovery, deterministic errors, and usage-based payment.
An Agent SaaS contract should be understandable without hidden conversational context. Field descriptions, required values, timeouts, and error behavior are part of the product.
Choose Dual when people and agents need different surfaces backed by the same capability and release history. A Web app can present a guided experience while API and MCP clients use the structured contract directly.
Dual does not mean duplicating the business. Offers and publications may differ by channel, while capability identity and operational evidence stay connected.
How to choose
Section titled “How to choose”Start with the consumer who must succeed first:
| Question | Human SaaS | Agent SaaS | Dual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary consumer | Person | API client or agent | Both |
| Primary surface | Hosted Web | API, OpenAPI, MCP | Web plus machine surfaces |
| Contract emphasis | Guided experience | Structured schema | Shared capability, channel-specific presentation |
| Common monetization | Checkout or subscription | Metered usage or agent payment | Channel-specific offers |
You can evolve the mode as demand becomes clear. Before publishing a new surface, validate that its release, Offer, origin policy, authentication, and payment behavior match that consumer.