# Macro Scout — setup (agent)

Prefer OpenAPI: https://api.scout.macrocontent.dev/openapi.json  
Parent brief: https://docs.macrocontent.dev/scout.md

## Steps

1. **API key** — Early-access `sk_scout_…` (manual issue; shares one credit wallet per Macrocontent account). Shown once at creation.
2. **Base URL** — `https://api.scout.macrocontent.dev`
3. **Health** (no auth, 0 credits):

```bash
curl https://api.scout.macrocontent.dev/health
```

4. **First billed call** — screenshot JSON (~8 credits):

```bash
curl -X POST https://api.scout.macrocontent.dev/v1/screenshot/json \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_scout_…" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url":"https://example.com","format":"jpeg"}'
```

Decode `image_base64` to confirm. `402 CREDITS_EXHAUSTED` = empty wallet (PAYG off); `429` = rate limit.

5. **Domain verify** — only for sensitive ops (journey interact/evaluate, Basic Auth, mTLS). HTML: https://docs.macrocontent.dev/scout/domains/

## Credits

Free tier starts with **500 credits** / period and ~**30 req/min**. Full table: https://docs.macrocontent.dev/scout/tiers/

## Next

- Auth headers: https://docs.macrocontent.dev/scout/auth.md
- First verification recipe (HTML): https://docs.macrocontent.dev/scout/recipes/first-verification/