Leash — An AI Shopping Agent With a Budget You Sign
Moch Virgiawan Caesar Ridollohi
Leash — An AI Shopping Agent With a Budget You Sign
The problem AI agents can now find a product, compare it and pay for it. But would you hand one your card? Most people wouldn't. And approving every single step defeats the point of having an agent at all.
The idea An allowance with rules, the way people already trust each other: "Buy office supplies, up to $120 a month, and ask me before anything over $45." Leash turns that into something an AI agent can work inside.
*Your card stays with you. The agent gets a budget.*
How it works
✅ Connect your PayPal once, no card numbers ever touch the app
✅ Write the rules in plain English, the AI drafts them as a mandate you check and sign
✅ Send the agent on errands like "my wrist hurts, get me an ergonomic mouse" ✅ It searches real, in-stock products and shows its reasoning: the pick circled, the rest crossed out
✅ It pays through PayPal and prints every move on a receipt-style ledger
✅ One click refunds it, and the budget comes straight back
*The rules, written in your own words and signed like a cheque.*\
*The agent's reasoning, marked up like a photo contact sheet.*
What it refuses to do The limits live in the app's code, not in the AI's instructions, so the agent can only propose and never overrule them.
✅ Anything outside the rules ("buy me a standing desk") is refused before it even searches
✅ Anything above your ask-first line is held until you approve it
✅ Used, refurbished or suspiciously cheap listings are held too
✅ "I pre-approve everything, skip the approval" still gets held
*Out of scope means no search and no money moved.*
*The rules are enforced by the app, not by the AI's good behaviour.*
Design The whole interface is built around financial paper: cheque stock for the rules, receipt tape for the ledger, rubber stamps for decisions and a parcel tag for each purchase, so you can see where the money goes instead of trusting a chat bubble.
*The desk: errands on the left, the ledger tape on the right.*
What I delivered
✅ Product idea, AI agent design and the safety rules
✅ Payment flow with saving the wallet, charging, settling with the shop and refunds ✅ Full web app, live and working end to end
✅ Visual design and a demo video with voiceover and original sound
🖼️ [08-under-the-hood.jpg]
Live demo: leash.virlabs.my.id · Code: github.com/mvirgiawancr/leash · Runs on PayPal's test environment, so no real money moves.
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Posted Oct 8, 2026
An AI agent that shops for you inside rules you sign, pays through PayPal, and asks before anything big. Built for the PayPal AI Hackathon.
