“This essay traces how “procurement” is moving into the runtime path of software. In today’s agent workflows, service selection is often manual, improvised, and weakly governed: developers paste API docs into LLMs, hardcode keys, upload PDFs as ad hoc context stores, and rely on interfaces that auto-route models or browse the web. The resulting system is efficient only locally and often fails institutionally across cost control, licensing, security, and auditability. Historical precedents—AppExchange-style connector selection, AWS Marketplace entitlement/metering APIs, service meshes, and API-native payments—suggest a missing layer: runtime procurement for agent capability exchange. The essay names its incentives, failure modes, and likely choke points.” https://npcmemo.substack.com/p/liquid-services-and-runtime-procurement