By Heath Muchena · Sources reviewed 13 November 2026 · Original DN analysis and illustrative records
What Matters
A payment stream has separate amounts, permissions and obligations. Before an AI agent changes it, identify the exact stream, the action being proposed and the evidence that the actor may perform it. An unvested balance is not automatically a refundable balance.
Sablier now documents skills that let AI coding agents create streams and withdraw unlocked tokens across distinct products. [1] That makes the control question practical: what is the agent actually authorized to change, and what remains after the action?
This guide uses Lockup as a bounded technical example. It does not claim that AI systems are legal executives, determine contractor performance or automatically settle payroll obligations. The original DN instrument is a local snapshot record, with invented examples and no account connection.
The DN thesis
A useful change request should preserve three separate records: the payment obligation, the technical authority and the stream inventory at a named observation. Combining them into a single “stop payment” command hides questions that need different evidence.
1. Name the stream and the exact operation
“Stop paying this wallet” is not a complete instruction. It might mean stop creating new streams, cancel a particular existing stream, renounce a cancellation right, withdraw an available balance or change an open-ended payment rate. Those actions need different evidence and can produce different results.
Sablier describes Lockup as a pre-funded distribution with a start, end, amount and stream shape. Its documentation directs open-ended payments to the separate Flow protocol. [2] Keep that product boundary in the instruction before considering an agent integration.
Write one operation in a change record: actor, stream, intended effect and excluded effects. For example, “review whether the sender may cancel STREAM-A” is narrower than “terminate the contractor.” The first is a technical question. The second introduces a relationship and obligations that a stream interface cannot resolve. The local instrument below handles only a pre-cancellation Lockup snapshot.
2. Pin the network, deployment and snapshot
A familiar product name is not enough to identify the object being changed. Record the network, contract address, stream identifier and the block or other observation reference used for the review. Put sensitive operational details in your controlled records; the public worksheet can use aliases that point to them.
Sablier’s current deployment page distinguishes multiple Lockup releases and states that its listed contracts are non-upgradeable. New protocol features require a new deployment. [3] A document about one release therefore cannot silently supply the behavior of another.
The snapshot also creates a time boundary. Vesting can advance between a review and a transaction. A quantity recorded at one block is useful evidence, but it is not a promise about a later execution. If an agent reloads its context or a reviewer takes over, preserve the same reference rather than mixing an old amount with a new status.
3. Separate the sender’s authority from the agent’s access
The ability to connect a wallet, call a tool or describe a transaction does not establish permission to make the proposed change. Identify the actual sender role, the signing path and the human or organizational delegation behind that path.
The Lockup operations guide assigns cancellation and renunciation to the sender when the stream is cancelable. [4] That is more precise than assuming the recipient or the software that created the transaction has the same power.
Where a Safe account is involved, inspect the path that would execute the action. Safe documents owner-threshold transactions and enabled modules as different routes; a module can operate without collecting the usual owner confirmations. [8] A screenshot of an owner threshold does not answer whether this action uses that threshold.
The worksheet asks for a reported authority state and an evidence alias. It does not inspect signers or validate that evidence. A missing authority record stays unresolved even if all amounts reconcile.
4. Check whether cancellation exists and remains available
A stream can have an unvested balance without giving the current actor a cancellation right. This is the central reason to keep quantity and authority in separate parts of the record.
Sablier’s Lockup documentation distinguishes cancelable and uncancelable streams. It describes returning unstreamed funds on cancellation while retaining already vested funds for the recipient. Renouncing cancelability cannot be reversed, and a canceled stream cannot simply be restarted. [5] These are product mechanics; they do not determine what a separate contract or law requires the parties to pay.
Record the actual proposed operation and its current availability. Do not translate “the budget owner wants to stop” into a claim that the deployed stream can be stopped. If a new stream is proposed instead, give it a separate authorization and record. A replacement is not proof that the old arrangement has disappeared.
5. Reconcile deposited, vested and withdrawn amounts
Three numbers answer different questions. The deposited amount is the allocation placed into the scoped stream. The vested or streamed amount describes the part released under its schedule at the snapshot. Withdrawn describes the part already taken out. Keep them in the same token and at the same observation boundary.
For a valid pre-cancellation snapshot, the arithmetic is: vested but not withdrawn equals vested minus withdrawn; unvested equals deposited minus vested; deposit less withdrawals equals deposited minus withdrawn. These are conditional inventory calculations, not a legal payroll calculation or a forecast of token value.
The fictional example uses 1,000 TOK deposited, 400 TOK vested and 150 TOK withdrawn. It therefore has 250 TOK vested but not withdrawn and 600 TOK unvested. Adding those amounts gives 850 TOK, the deposit less withdrawals. The 600 TOK does not become an available refund merely because the subtraction is correct.
The guide requires token decimals in contract amounts. [4] This tool converts the entered decimal amounts to exact smallest-unit integers using your declared precision; it never guesses precision from a ticker.
6. Preserve recipient rights and check the observed state
Do not treat “canceled” as “nothing remains.” Sablier distinguishes settled streams awaiting withdrawal, canceled streams with recipient funds remaining, and depleted streams whose funds have been withdrawn or refunded. [6] The calculation below excludes already canceled and depleted records because it does not collect the necessary refund history.
Identify the recipient at the relevant observation time as well. Sablier says the owner of a transferable stream NFT becomes its recipient. [7] An old contact list or the wallet named in an original planning document might therefore be insufficient to identify the current technical recipient.
These checks do not decide whether a transfer was permitted under an employment agreement or other offchain arrangement. They keep the technical evidence specific. Record the recipient observation, any unresolved dispute and the person responsible for resolving it before letting a change record masquerade as a complete settlement.
7. Record the outcome and keep unresolved obligations visible
A review record is the start of an evidence trail. After an authorized action, a separate operational process needs to record the actual transaction result, the resulting stream state and any amounts paid or refunded. This worksheet sends no transaction and cannot provide that final evidence.
Keep the before-and-after records linked but separate. If the action fails, the original review should not be overwritten with a fictional successful state. If it succeeds with different amounts because vesting progressed, record the observed result and its timestamp rather than altering the earlier snapshot to make the two agree.
Reconcile the technical change with the wider payment obligation through the appropriate owner. Outstanding invoices, contractual disputes, taxes, final wages and accounting treatment are outside this model. Cancellation of a mechanism is not a conclusion about those obligations.
A useful handoff states which fact is known, which document supports it and which question is still open. That is more actionable than an agent-generated narrative saying the payment problem has been “resolved.”
DN Payment Stream Change Record
Enter one pre-cancellation Lockup snapshot, using one token and a single observation reference. Blank means unknown; zero means a supplied zero. Amounts are reported in exact smallest units. Canceled or depleted streams require a different reconciliation.
No current calculation. Enter a record or load a labelled example.
This worksheet sends no entered values to a server, connects to no account and stores no input in browser storage. Downloads contain the entries you supplied. Use aliases rather than private data. Other site services remain subject to the site’s privacy policy.
Labelled examples and practical use
The open-stream example contains 1,000 TOK deposited, 400 vested and 150 withdrawn, with six declared decimals. Its smallest-unit results are250,000,000 vested but not withdrawn,600,000,000 unvested and850,000,000 deposited less withdrawals. A conditional 600,000,000-unit refund appears only with the entered open state, cancelability, authority and evidence references. It is not a quotation or an execution forecast.
The remaining examples isolate an uncancelable stream, missing authority, an already canceled record, unknown withdrawals and an inconsistent settled state. They are deliberately small counterexamples: complete quantities cannot replace missing authority; a known unvested amount can remain calculable when withdrawals are unknown; a post-cancellation record cannot be forced into a pre-cancellation model.
Methodology, assumptions and limits
The pure calculation uses integer token units after parsing plain decimal strings. The worksheet accepts precision 0–18 and at most 18 whole-number digits per amount; these are interface limits, not venue or protocol limits. It rejects negative amounts, exponent notation, excess precision, vested greater than deposited, and withdrawn greater than vested when the relevant values are known.
For reported pending, streaming or settled snapshots, the arithmetic uses D−V, V−W and D−W. A settled claim with V≠D is retained as a conflict and suppresses the quantities. Canceled/depleted states are outside scope. Missing quantities propagate only into dependent results. Refund output additionally requires pending/streaming state, reported cancelability and sender authority, both evidence aliases, and known D and V. Those conditions are reader assertions, not authenticated permission checks.
No time-based vesting interpolation, transaction simulation, fee calculation, Flow debt model, tax calculation or legal assessment is performed. Exact integer arithmetic does not authenticate inputs. Source review used public documentation on 13 November 2026; no stream, wallet, deployment or payroll was tested. Download time is separate from that source-review date.
Frequently asked questions
Does an unvested balance mean I can cancel?
No. Quantity, current cancelability and actor authority are separate. The worksheet keeps the amount distinct from its conditional refund field. [5]
Can a canceled stream still have funds for its recipient?
Yes. The documented canceled state can retain recipient funds awaiting withdrawal. Already canceled records are outside this worksheet’s pre-cancellation arithmetic. [6]
Does the tool calculate legal wages or contractor compensation?
No. It describes a declared technical snapshot. It does not interpret an employment agreement, decide performance or determine a legal amount owed.
Why use smallest-unit integers?
They preserve the precision the reader declared without binary floating-point rounding. A wrong token identity or precision still produces an unreliable real-world record.
Can I use the same record for Sablier Flow?
No. This model is limited to a pre-funded Lockup snapshot. Open-ended rate and debt arrangements need a different model. [2]
Primary sources
Reviewed13November2026. A publication or export time does not refresh the evidence.
- Sablier AI-agent documentation — Documents agent skills for distinct protocols; availability does not establish successful deployment or legal authority.
- Sablier Lockup overview — Pre-funded, scheduled token distribution; distinct from open-ended Flow.
- Sablier Lockup deployments — Release and contract-address distinctions, including non-upgradeable deployments.
- Sablier Lockup operations — Sender authority, token units and parameter semantics; tutorial sample booleans are not treated as authoritative configuration.
- Sablier cancelability — Lockup cancellation and renunciation; no legal employment or wage conclusion.
- Sablier Lockup stream statuses — Pending, streaming, settled, canceled and depleted are distinct states.
- Sablier transferability — Recipient identity follows the stream NFT where transferable; not evidence of a particular holder.
- Safe smart-account architecture — Owner confirmations and enabled-module execution are separate authority routes.
Turn the unresolved question into a research brief
For a scoped review of the public documents behind a claim, explore the DN Research Desk. An enquiry is subject to agreed scope and capacity; it does not certify a deployment, establish an entitlement or commit you to a paid service.
Disclosure: this article promotes DN’s own research service. Commercial enquiries do not purchase a favorable conclusion. No external provider is promoted through an affiliate link here.
Related DN research
About the Author
