Agent Renewal Guard - Alexa+ MCP server for recurring-payment control

Self-hosted MCP server (spec 2025-11-25+, Streamable HTTP) that lets an Alexa+-style voice agent watch recurring payments and PROPOSE renew/degrade/cancel recommendations without ever being able to move money itself. Every consequential action is a proposal that waits for human approval - the agent can advise, never execute.

Built for the Amazon Developer Hackathon 2026, Alexa+ track.

Why

Recurring payments drain money quietly: the gym membership from February, the 2TB cloud plan holding 180GB, the family streaming tier after the kids moved out. Voice is the natural surface for this - "Alexa, what renewals need a decision this week?" - but you do not want a voice agent holding your wallet. This server gives the agent eyes (read-only spend facts) and a pen for suggestions, never keys to the till.

Related MCP server: Subscription Sniper — AI Agent for Recurring Spend Audits

What it is

• A single-file Python MCP server (server.py) built on the official mcp SDK (v1.29.1, Streamable HTTP transport, stateless mode). Negotiates MCP protocol version 2025-11-25 over Streamable HTTP (verified live: initialize returns protocolVersion 2025-11-25).

• Tools are split into two privilege tiers so an Alexa+ orchestrator can be configured least-privilege:

  • list_upcoming_renewals (read-only): renewals inside a decision window with monthly-cost facts, utilisation signals and days-until-renewal.

  • get_renewal_detail (read-only): one renewal, full record including cost history.

  • propose_decision (proposals): record a recommend/dromote/cancel/keep suggestion with reasons. Writes to state/proposals.json ONLY. Nothing here touches a bank.

  • list_proposals (read-only): the pending human-approval tray, so a companion skill can speak them back and the human can approve/reject from the Alexa app.

  • record_decision (human-gated): marks a proposal approved/rejected. Intended to be called only by the approval surface (app/CLI), not exposed to the advising agent.

• Data lives in state/renewals.json (a documented, editable JSON file - bank CSV import scripts are possible but out of scope for the PoC).

• The server never holds bank credentials, never makes payments, never cancels anything. The strongest thing the agent can do is write a suggestion to a local file.

Quick start

Requires Python 3.11+.

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install "mcp[cli]>=1.29.1"
python server.py            # serves Streamable HTTP on http://localhost:8787/mcp

Smoke-test with the MCP inspector:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector python server.py

Or a raw Streamable HTTP POST:

curl -s http://localhost:8787/mcp -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2025-11-25","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"curl","version":"0"}}}'

Then list tools:

curl -s http://localhost:8787/mcp -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -H 'Mcp-Session-Id: <from initialize response>' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/list"}'

State files

• state/renewals.json - the subscription ledger. Edit by hand or generate from a bank export. Schema documented at the top of the file.

• state/proposals.json - the proposal tray. Written by propose_decision, read by list_proposals, resolved by record_decision. Nothing else ever writes here.

Agent Skills integration

The skill/ directory contains an Alexa+ Agent Skill package (renewal-guard-skill/SKILL.md + resources/) that teaches an Alexa+ orchestrator when to call each tool and the approval-flow guardrails. Drop it into an agent runtime that supports Agent Skills (open standard) and point it at this server's /mcp endpoint.

Security model

• Two-tier tool split: advising tools cannot mutate proposals' approval state; the approval tool is documented for the human-side surface only.

• No bank credentials, no payment rails, no cancel APIs. The agent physically cannot spend money through this server.

• Proposals carry an audit trail: who proposed, when, reasons, and the exact facts the proposal was based on (replayable from the ledger).

License

MIT