Build an AI Shopping Agent with Full Identity Infrastructure | Anima Blog

Building a Shopping Agent from Scratch#

An AI shopping agent needs to do more than just find a product. It needs to navigate a checkout flow, handle 2FA via SMS, store its merchant credentials, and receive an order confirmation email. In this tutorial, we'll build one using the Anima SDK.

Step 1: Initialize the Agent Identity#

First, we'll create a new agent identity with the necessary capabilities.

import { Anima } from '@anima/sdk';
 
const am = new Anima(process.env.AM_API_KEY);
 
const agent = await am.identities.create({
  name: "Shopping-Assistant-Alpha",
  capabilities: ['cards', 'email', 'phone', 'vault']
});
 
console.log(`Agent created with ID: ${agent.id}`);

Step 2: Configure Email and Phone#

The agent needs an email address for receipt parsing and a phone number for 2FA.

const email = await agent.email.provision({
  domain: "my-agents.com",
  prefix: "shopping-01"
});
 
const phone = await agent.phone.provision({
  country: "US",
  type: "mobile"
});
 
console.log(`Email: ${email.address}, Phone: ${phone.number}`);

Step 3: Issue a Virtual Card with Visa TAP#

We'll issue a virtual card specifically for this agent. We'll use the Visa TAP protocol to set a strict spending limit and merchant whitelist.

const card = await agent.cards.issue({
  limitCents: 20000, // $200.00 limit
  protocol: 'VISA_TAP',
  policy: {
    allowedMerchants: ['amazon.com', 'bestbuy.com'],
    maxTransactions: 5
  }
});

Step 4: Store Credentials in the Vault#

Instead of hardcoding merchant logins, we'll store them in the agent's secure identity vault.

await agent.vault.set('amazon_creds', {
  username: "agent-user@my-agents.com",
  password: "secure-generated-password-123"
});

Step 5: Handling the Checkout Flow#

When the agent reaches a checkout page that requires a 2FA code, it can listen for incoming SMS messages.

agent.on('sms:received', async (message) => {
  if (message.body.includes('verification code')) {
    const code = message.body.match(/\d{6}/)?.[0];
    console.log(`Received 2FA code: ${code}`);
    // Use the code in your agent's browser automation loop
  }
});

Step 6: Parsing the Receipt#

Once the purchase is complete, Amazon will send a confirmation email. Anima automatically parses the MIME content and provides a clean JSON representation.

agent.on('email:received', async (mail) => {
  if (mail.from.includes('amazon.com')) {
    const orderNumber = mail.data.metadata.order_number;
    console.log(`Order ${orderNumber} confirmed!`);
    await agent.cards.update(card.id, { active: false }); // Disable card after purchase
  }
});

Conclusion#

By using Anima, we've given our shopping agent a complete, verifiable identity. It can now act as a first-class citizen on the web, handling payments and security challenges just like a human user would. This approach is more robust than a DIY stack and more flexible than proprietary intent engines.

For more advanced configurations, check out our full documentation on the Anima SDK. Happy building!

Stay Updated