Airwallex Best Practices

Fallback skill for Airwallex tasks. Use only when no dedicated workflow skill fits. Each workflow skill (beneficiary-creation, card-provisioning, contract-to-billing, manage-cashflow) is self-contained — do NOT load this skill alongside them.

When to use

• Ad-hoc operations (list, get, update, delete, void, cancel, deactivate)
• General Airwallex API questions or troubleshooting
• Payment links, refunds, disputes, spend management, financial reports, and other domains not covered by a dedicated workflow skill

Use a workflow skill instead

Task	Skill
Create invoice from PO/contract/quote	contract-to-billing
Coupons, meters, usage events, credit notes	contract-to-billing
Onboard suppliers / create beneficiaries	beneficiary-creation
Provision corporate cards	card-provisioning
Cash position, FX, balances, rebalancing	manage-cashflow

If a workflow skill matches, use that skill instead — do NOT load this one alongside it.

Out of scope — refuse and redirect

Do NOT attempt to fulfill these by aggregating API calls. State plainly that the capability is not available, explain the closest alternative, and offer to help with it.

Request pattern	Why out of scope	Redirect
"Transaction report", "all transactions this month", "ledger export"	No skill produces accounting-grade transaction reports	Offer manage-cashflow for cash position, receivables, obligations
"Reconciliation", "P&L", "balance sheet", "accounting report"	Accounting functions outside agent capability	Same as above
"Forecast", "hedging strategy", "FX prediction"	Agent provides indicative spot rates only	Offer manage-cashflow for current exposure and indicative FX rates
"Yield", "investment advice", "idle funds", "automated top-up", "should I lock a rate?"	Financial advice or unsupported treasury action	Offer manage-cashflow for current balances, obligations, and informational indicative FX only

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Environment quickstart

See references/surface-quickstart.md for full per-surface details (auth, discovery, write safety, pagination, error handling).

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Operational rules

• NEVER fabricate or assume missing information. If any required field is uncertain — STOP and ask the user.
• Always fetch fresh data — re-fetch before every step.
• If the user supplied a file or attachment, treat it as primary ground truth unless they ask for live data.
• For ambiguous-intent requests, confirm the action before starting.
• Never overclaim unsupported capabilities. Transfers, payouts, FX execution, PAN/CVV retrieval, accounting reports, reconciliation: refuse immediately, state what is not available, offer the closest alternative.
• Do not provide financial advice. Never recommend yield, investment products, automated top-ups, hedging strategy, FX prediction, or rate-locking. For treasury questions, redirect to manage-cashflow and keep any FX discussion informational and clearly labelled as indicative.
• Split supported and unsupported asks. Complete the supported portion and clearly state what was not configured.
• Prefer business labels over raw IDs in user-facing output. Show human-readable business labels (customer names, product names, beneficiary names, card nicknames, etc.) instead of raw system IDs whenever possible. Only show IDs when they are operationally necessary for follow-up actions, verification, troubleshooting, or when the user explicitly asks for them.

Core Airwallex concepts

• One wallet, multiple currencies. Say "AUD balance" — never "AUD wallet."
• Invoices = receivables (money in). Issued BY the user TO their customers.
• Bills = payables (money out). Money the user owes to suppliers.
• FX conversions happen within one wallet — not between wallets.

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Consequential operations

These are irreversible or high-impact. Before executing ANY of them: (1) confirm and state the environment (sandbox vs production), (2) explain the effect, (3) get explicit user confirmation.

Operation	CLI	MCP	Notes
Void invoice	airwallex --confirm invoices void <id>	invoke the billing-invoice void tool	Irreversible. FINALIZED+UNPAID only.
Delete draft invoice	airwallex --confirm invoices delete <id>	not exposed	DRAFT only.
Finalize invoice	airwallex --confirm invoices finalize <id>	invoke the billing-invoice finalize tool	Irreversible — cannot edit after.
Mark invoice paid	airwallex --confirm invoices mark-as-paid <id>	invoke the billing-invoice mark-as-paid tool	Must be FINALIZED. Use when paid outside Airwallex.
Cancel subscription	airwallex --confirm subscriptions cancel <id>	invoke the subscription cancel tool	Check flags via schema.
Deactivate card	cards update <id> body {"status":"INACTIVE"}	card-update tool with card_status: INACTIVE	Reversible. See references/api_traps.md for which statuses are NOT settable here.
Close card	cards update <id> body {"status":"CLOSED"}	card-update tool with card_status: CLOSED	Permanent.
FX conversion	Airwallex Dashboard only	Airwallex Dashboard only	Not executable via either surface.
Finalize credit note	airwallex --confirm credit-notes finalize <id>	credit-note tools not exposed — use the CLI or the Airwallex Dashboard	Irreversible.
Void credit note	airwallex --confirm credit-notes void <id>	credit-note tools not exposed — use the CLI or the Airwallex Dashboard	Irreversible.
Close global account	airwallex --confirm global-accounts close <id>	invoke the global-account close tool if exposed	Permanent.
Delete cardholder	airwallex --confirm cardholders delete <id>	invoke the cardholder delete tool if exposed	Ensure no active cards.

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Error handling

Situation	Action
Required field missing or ambiguous	STOP, list gaps, ask user
API error	Show full error, ask user
API validation error	Check references/api_traps.md. IF using the CLI, THEN also run airwallex <resource> <action> --api-schema-only to verify body structure. ELSE IF using the MCP server, THEN re-inspect the tool's input schema.
401 / auth expired	IF using the CLI, THEN retry once (auto-refresh). If retry fails, ask the user which environment, immediately execute auth login (or --prod) yourself, confirm with auth whoami, then resume. ELSE IF using the MCP server, THEN the server refreshes tokens automatically; if a tool keeps returning 401, the OAuth grant has been revoked — ask the user to re-authorize the MCP server.
Duplicate detected	Show details, let user choose
Partial completion	Report what succeeded (with IDs) and what failed

References

• references/api_traps.md — non-obvious body constraints beyond what the schema/manifest surfaces.
• IF using the CLI, THEN airwallex --tree --compact [group] for command discovery and airwallex <resource> <action> --api-schema-only for command schemas (including required flags).
• Airwallex API Introduction