x402 Research

x402-research-mcp

MCP (stdio) server for the x402-research pay-per-call API. Testnet (Base Sepolia) by default. Base mainnet only if you explicitly set X402_NETWORK=eip155:8453. The publisher never holds keys: payments come from your wallet key, supplied by you via env var, and are capped per call and per session.

[!WARNING] Use a dedicated, low-balance wallet: never your main wallet. Create a fresh key just for this server and fund it with only a few USDC (on mainnet, a little more than your session cap). Anyone or anything that can read your MCP client config or this process's environment can spend that wallet's funds. The caps limit what this server signs, not what a leaked key can do.

Tools (prices per call, USDC on Base, from /llms.txt)

Assets: btc eth sol xrp doge ada avax link dot ltc bch uni aave xlm hbar shib sui near atom fil. Every paid tool also accepts preview: true (return the 402 terms, pay nothing) and max_price_usdc.

Safety

• Preview mode is on whenever X402_BUYER_PRIVATE_KEY is unset or X402_PREVIEW=1: tools return the decoded 402 terms and never sign.
• Per-call max X402_MAX_PRICE_USDC (default 0.10). A tool's max_price_usdc can only lower it.
• Session cap X402_SESSION_CAP_USDC (default 0.50). A call that would push spend over the cap is refused before signing. Spend is counted when a signed payment is sent. It resets when the server process restarts.
• Offers are refused if they're above the advertised price, on another network, not the exact scheme, or in a non-canonical USDC asset.
• payTo allowlist (hardcoded): every paid tool (signal, signal_batch, brief, risk_snapshot, invoice_decode, settlement_status, approval_enumerate, preflight) pays only the Agent Firm treasury 0xa26f179e42836bc4ae0cea997fdfc9602d5b8147. Since 0.5.0; 0.4.x expected a different address for signal, signal_batch and brief and refuses the treasury there, so upgrade. Any other recipient is refused, even if X402_RESEARCH_URL points elsewhere.
• The server never logs its environment or the key, and error messages don't echo config.
• There is no way to pass in a pre-signed payment: every payment is signed by this server under the caps above.
• Use a dedicated hot wallet holding only a few USDC. The key stays in the local process and is never logged or returned.

Config

Install

Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json) or Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json):

{  "mcpServers": {    "x402-research": {      "command": "npx",      "args": ["-y", "@agentfirm402/x402-research-mcp"],      "env": {        "X402_NETWORK": "eip155:8453",        "X402_PREVIEW": "1"      }    }  }}

Start in preview. To pay, remove X402_PREVIEW and add "X402_BUYER_PRIVATE_KEY": "0x…" (a dedicated low-balance wallet, never your main one), and optionally "X402_SESSION_CAP_USDC": "0.25".

Tests

npm test runs offline against local mocks with throwaway keys and no funds. It covers unit refusals for each check, preview with no key, and a stdio leak test that greps all stdout and stderr for /0x[0-9a-fA-F]{64}/. npm run test:mainnet-preview makes live mainnet 402 calls in preview mode and pays nothing.

Release

Dependencies are pinned exactly, with a committed lockfile. Publishing happens only through .github/workflows/mcp-publish.yml (manual dispatch, npm publish --provenance).

Informational only. Not financial advice. MIT.