OFAC Developer Compliance Guide Part 1
What developers need to know to add OFAC screening to an agent that makes payments.
TL;DR
TL;DR: Developers can add OFAC screening with one HTTP call that returns in under 100 ms, or install the MCP server with pip install sanctions-mcp. Clean parties ALLOW and flagged parties BLOCK.
Why developers own the control
Payment protocols like x402, AP2, ACP, and Coinbase AgentKit move money but do not screen. That leaves the developer responsible for checking the counterparty. OFAC is strict liability: intent is not required, and civil penalties start at $356,000 per violation.
What is available to build with
The screening API is MIT-licensed and self-hostable, so a developer can run it in any environment. It exposes sanctions_check, risk_score, kya_verify, and dispute_open, and it ships as an MCP server via pip install sanctions-mcp.
Practical steps
- Call sanctions_check before each payment.
- Use risk_score for borderline counterparties.
- Start on the free tier, five checks per day, no key.