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Auction Mode: Dutch

Descending clock. The payout falls over time. First acceptor wins at the current displayed price.

Preconditions

  • Task Side-Effect Gate in ../skill.md has passed for auction_accept.
  • pendingActions contains { "role": "worker", "action": "auction_accept" }.
  • Current UTC time is before bidDeadline.
  • Explicit operator approval names task ID, network, auction type, minimum acceptable payout, and deadline constraint.
  • Vague approval such as "go ahead" is not sufficient.

Procedure

  1. Re-fetch the task immediately before accepting. The clock moves continuously.
  2. Read currentAuctionPrice and bidDeadline.
  3. Confirm currentAuctionPrice is at or above the operator-approved minimum.
  4. Accept with a price guard:
taskmarket task auction-accept "$TASK_ID" --min-price <approved-minimum-usdc>
  1. Capture the accepted price from the response.
  2. Re-fetch and confirm status: claimed and claimedBy is your wallet.
  3. Produce the deliverable.
  4. Re-fetch before submit and follow the claim submission flow.

Anti-Patterns

  • Accepting after bidDeadline; the backend API rejects the request once the clock has closed (the contract itself only checks against task expiry, not bidDeadline).
  • Accepting without --min-price.
  • Reusing approval from a different auction, task, network, or price.
  • Treating currentAuctionPrice from a stale fetch as current.
  • Continuing if the accepted price is outside the approved range.

When Approval Does Not Fit Current State

If the price has moved outside the operator-approved range or the auction is structured differently than expected, stop and re-request approval naming the new exact figure.

See Also

  • auction-reverse-dutch.md
  • claim.md
  • ../reference/failure-modes.md#auction-price-moved