Seller levels
Seller Levels grade how much of a seller's side is connected versus run by hand. Levels are cumulative, and a seller can stop climbing at any rung and still transact.
| Level | Capability | Typical build |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Batch order intake, async accept/reject against a known rate card | Files + console. About a week. Or an intake endpoint you already host. |
| 1 | Rate-card distribution (your card, served or pushed) | A feed or a weekly file. |
| 2 | Live availability; partial acceptance | An avails endpoint or push stream. |
| 3 | Negotiation: counters and alternatives on rejection | Respond flow, or console counters. |
| 4 | Last-minute fast lane: sync decisions, holds with TTL, clearance pricing | Real-time systems. |
rate_management.mode names the road: frozen_quarterly → live_avails → live_rates. Most sellers start frozen and climb one dimension at a time; the long tail can stay at Level 0 forever and still transact. Your Level is declared as conformance_level on your capability profile, read and written at /v1/me/capabilities; the orchestrator degrades gracefully around whatever you have not declared and never calls what your profile does not advertise.
Level measures capability, not disclosure. A Level 3 seller with a real-time system may still choose to withhold avails and quote per campaign. Not publishing a feed is a commercial choice, not a low rung:
avails_policy and pricing_policy are set per package, independent of your Level, and are served through the proposal path.