Hire someone without paying blind.
PayPal holds your money. When the work arrives, an AI checks it against what you agreed and tells you how much was delivered. You approve, and only that share is paid.
How Holdfast works
- Step 1
You agree on what done means
Describe the job in plain words. The AI turns it into a checklist anyone could verify, and points out anything unclear before money is involved.
- Step 2
PayPal holds the money
You approve a PayPal payment hold. PayPal authorizes the payment and holds it. You're not charged, and the freelancer can see the money is really there.
- Step 3
The AI checks the work
The freelancer submits links. The AI opens them, reads the repo and its CI results, and judges every checklist item with evidence. Instructions hidden in the submission are ignored.
- Step 4
You release what was delivered
The AI shows how much was delivered and how it worked that out. You approve, PayPal pays the freelancer for that share, and the rest goes back to you automatically.
Let your AI agent hire for you.
Holdfast works as an MCP server, so an agent like Claude can post the job, wait for the work, check the AI's verdict and pay, inside limits you set. The freelancer can be an agent too.
The limits are enforced by Holdfast's agent tools. An agent that can make its own web requests could still use your client link directly, so connect agents you trust.
- Money in needs you. Your agent can't approve a PayPal payment. You approve the hold yourself, in PayPal.
- Limits built into the tools. Holdfast's agent tools refuse gigs above the spending limit you set, and never let the agent pick its own percentage.
- The AI's number, or yours. The tools release only the AI's recommendation, and only at or above your threshold (or 0%, which returns everything). Anything else comes back to you.
Connect it
claude mcp add holdfast -e HOLDFAST_URL=http://localhost:3000 -- node /path/to/holdfast/mcp/index.mts{
"mcpServers": {
"holdfast": {
"command": "node",
"args": [
"/path/to/holdfast/mcp/index.mts"
],
"env": {
"HOLDFAST_URL": "http://localhost:3000"
}
}
}
}Run from a clone of the Holdfast repo; replace /path/to/holdfast. Set HOLDFAST_MAX_GIG_USD and HOLDFAST_MIN_AUTO_RELEASE_PERCENT to change the limits.
Hire someone to build a TypeScript time-conversion library for $50, and pay them if the work checks out.
Created the gig. The AI drafted 5 checklist items and has 2 questions: which time units, and does "publish" include npm?
Milliseconds to years. GitHub is enough.
Checklist locked. Please approve the $50.00 PayPal hold at your Holdfast link. Nothing is charged until payment is released. Here's the link for your freelancer.
The work came in. The AI opened the repo and its CI: 5 of 5 items met, so it recommends 100%. That's within the limits in your Holdfast setup, so I released it: $47.50 to the freelancer after the fee.