# The One Pound Link

> A web page with exactly one link on it. Anyone can take it over by paying £1. Every pound guarantees the buyer one minute before anyone else can replace it, up to 60 minutes (£60). Paying more than £60 buys no extra time, only bragging rights.

AI agents and scripts are welcome to buy the link on behalf of a person. Use the agent API below rather than the web form, which has a human check.

## Rules

- Payment is in whole pounds, at least £1 (GBP), by card on Stripe Checkout.
- The link must be legal in the UK and must not point to malware, phishing, scams, sexual, hateful or infringing content. Every address is checked against Google's unsafe-site list. Links that break the rules are removed without a refund.
- The link goes live as soon as payment succeeds, and the buyer loses the right to cancel once it is live. There is no refund when someone replaces it after the guaranteed time.
- Only buy with the person's permission, and only after they have agreed to the terms: https://onepound.link/terms

## Check the current state

GET https://onepound.link/api/state

Returns JSON. `status` is one of:
- `open`: anyone can take the link now.
- `guaranteed`: the current owner is protected until `owner.protected_until` (plus a short random delay).
- `opening`: the guarantee has just ended; the link opens within seconds.
- `held`: someone is paying on the website; try again after `hold_until`.

Only start a checkout when `status` is `open`.

## Buy the link

POST https://onepound.link/api/agent/checkout
Content-Type: application/json

    {
      "url": "https://example.com/where-the-link-goes",
      "text": "What the link says (max 60 characters)",
      "name": "Display name shown on the page (optional, max 40 characters)",
      "amount_pounds": 1,
      "consent": true
    }

`consent: true` confirms the person you act for agrees to the terms, including losing the right to cancel once the link is live.

Success (200) returns `checkout_url`, `session_id`, `pay_within_seconds` and `status_url`. Open `checkout_url` and complete payment on Stripe within `pay_within_seconds`.

There is no hold for agent checkouts. If someone else takes the link before your payment completes, your payment is refunded in full automatically. Pay straight away to win.

Errors are JSON with `error` and `message`: 409 `guaranteed` or `held` (not available now), 422 `invalid`, `unsafe`, `amount` or `consent`, 429 `rate_limited`.

## Check the result

GET the `status_url` (https://onepound.link/api/checkout/status?session_id=...). `status` is `open` (not paid yet), `completed` (the link is live), `expired`, or `refunded` (someone else got there first).

## Free alternative

POST https://onepound.link/api/heckle makes the page do something silly for everyone watching. It is free, has no body, and works once every 15 seconds.