# gold402-mcp

<!-- mcp-name: io.github.Haustorium12/gold402-mcp -->

An MCP server over **gold-402** — the curated x402 directory maintained by
[24K Labs](https://24klabs.ai). Gives any MCP-capable agent (Claude, Cursor, or
anything speaking MCP) four tools for finding x402 services and for checking an
endpoint **before it spends money against it**.

Status: **v0.1 — tested, packaged, not yet published.** Runs over stdio.

## Tools

| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| `gold402_search` | Search the shelf by free text and/or shelf name. Paginated. Every answer states how many entries it actually searched. |
| `gold402_list_sections` | All 13 shelves with their true curated counts, and how many of each are searchable here. |
| `gold402_get_entry` | One entry by name — URL, description, shelf, date first listed, permanent listing page. |
| `gold402_check_endpoint` | **Live-probe any x402 endpoint, listed or not.** One unpaid request: does it answer, is it a real 402, what are the payment terms, does the origin publish a manifest — plus whether it's on our shelf. |
| `gold402_verdict` | **Paid, $2.00 USDC on Base.** The 24K Labs editorial verdict for one resource plus aggregated independent rater grades. The judgement layer — a maintainer looked at it and put a name behind it. |

### Free vs paid

**Four of the five tools are free and stay free** — search, shelves, entry lookup,
and the live probe. No key, no wallet, no account.

**`gold402_verdict` is paid: $2.00 USDC on Base** (the live endpoint states the exact price in its 402; the number here is as of 2026-09-02). It is the only one, and it buys
the thing the free probe explicitly does not give you — a human judgement. A valid
402 proves the door works; the verdict is a maintainer saying it was worth a
stranger's money.

**This server never holds a wallet and never pays on your behalf.** Call
`gold402_verdict` once with no `payment_signature` and it hands back the decoded
x402 terms — price, network, asset, payTo, timeout. Sign them with your own wallet
and call again with the signature. The money goes from you to 24K Labs; this
process is not in the path.

`gold402_check_endpoint` is the door check the maintainers run, made callable.
It works on endpoints that are **not** in the directory, which is the point: an
agent about to pay a stranger can ask first.

## What the answers claim, and what they don't

The shelf is admitted under two rules and the difference is load-bearing. A
**service** is listed only if a maintainer probed its endpoint and it answered an
x402 request correctly at the time of review. A **library, framework, guide or
community resource** has no payable endpoint, is never asked for a 402, and is
listed on public reachability alone — do not read one of those as evidence that
it speaks the protocol. Either way we re-probe periodically. **It is not** an
audit of the provider, a guarantee of uptime, or a promise that any call will
succeed. Which entries carry a dated receipt — and which are unproven — is
published at <https://24klabs.ai/.well-known/touchstone>. A valid
402 proves the door works — not that the service delivers. Every response carries
an `as_of` stamp and the upstream it came from.

Absence from the directory is not a verdict against a service. It's a curated
list, not a census.

## Install

Works today, nothing to sign up for:

```bash
pip install git+https://github.com/Haustorium12/gold402-mcp.git
gold402-mcp
```

Or with no install step at all:

```bash
uvx --from git+https://github.com/Haustorium12/gold402-mcp.git gold402-mcp
```

From a clone:

```bash
python3 -m venv .venv && ./.venv/bin/pip install -e .
./.venv/bin/gold402-mcp
```

> Not on PyPI yet, so plain `pip install gold402-mcp` will not resolve. The git
> form above is the real install and is verified working.

## Client config

Claude Desktop / Claude Code (`claude_desktop_config.json` or `.mcp.json`):

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gold402": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "git+https://github.com/Haustorium12/gold402-mcp.git", "gold402-mcp"]
    }
  }
}
```

Installed with pip? Use `"command": "gold402-mcp"` with no args.

## Data source

Two upstreams, both public, no key, no auth, no scraping:

- `https://24klabs.ai/api/directory/search?q=<text>&section=<id>` — **full-shelf
  search, free and ungated.** `gold402_search` and `gold402_get_entry` query this
  directly, so a search runs over every curated entry, and each result carries the
  date it was last knocked.
- `https://24klabs.ai/directory.json` — a **summary view**: shelf structure, true
  per-shelf counts, and the 25 most recently listed entries. Used for
  `gold402_list_sections` and as the fallback if search is unreachable. Cached 15
  minutes; a stale cached copy is served with its age disclosed rather than hidden.

**Coverage, stated plainly.** Every response reports the curated total and how
many entries the query actually ran over. If the search endpoint is down and this
server falls back to the summary, the answer says so in its `coverage` line and a
miss is reported as *unknown*, never as *absent*. `gold402_check_endpoint` works on
**any** endpoint whether or not it is listed.

_Until 2026-09-02, search ran over the 25-entry summary only and reported that as
the whole shelf — 4.9% coverage presented as 100%. Fixed by querying the search
endpoint; the coverage line is now the shelf's own number._

## Tests

```bash
./.venv/bin/python test_tools.py    # tool-level, incl. error paths
./.venv/bin/python test_stdio.py    # end-to-end over the real MCP protocol
```

Both pass as of 2026-08-20, including against the **installed** console script
(clean venv, `pip install` from the built wheel) — not just the source file.

---

Curated by [24K Labs](https://24klabs.ai) · directory: https://github.com/Haustorium12/gold-402