bailian-tools-mcp

MCP server that puts Alibaba Cloud Model Studio's built-in tools into coding agents — web search, web extractor, Python code interpreter, reverse image search and text-to-image search — using Token Plan (or pay-as-you-go) API keys.

Works with OpenCode, Claude Code, Codex, and any MCP client that speaks stdio.

Why this exists

Model Studio's built-in tools are only reachable through the Responses API (POST /compatible-mode/v1/responses with tools: [...]). Coding agents do not call it:

• enable_search: true on /chat/completions is accepted with HTTP 200 and silently ignored — the model still answers that it cannot browse.

• The official MCP gateways (https://ws-<workspace>.<region>.maas.aliyuncs.com/api/v1/mcps/EnhancedSearch/mcp) reject Token Plan keys with 401 InvalidApiKey; they need a workspace-scoped pay-as-you-go key.

• bailian CLI's search web refuses the token-plan profile, and it is a client, not an MCP server.

• OpenCode's native websearch tool only supports Exa, Firecrawl, Parallel, Tavily and TinyFish.

So this server does the one missing hop: MCP tools → Responses API built-in tools, on the key you already pay for.

Related MCP server: MiniMax Coding Plan MCP

Requirements

• Node.js 18.17 or newer (no dependencies, no build step)

• A Model Studio API key. Token Plan keys work as-is; the key needs only the model-inference scope.

Run

export BAILIAN_API_KEY=sk-...      # PowerShell: $env:BAILIAN_API_KEY = "sk-..."
npx -y github:niradler/bailian-tools-mcp

The process speaks MCP over stdio and logs to stderr. Nothing is written to disk.

If you already use the bailian CLI, you can skip the env var: with BAILIAN_API_KEY unset, the server uses the active profile in ~/.bailian/config.json.

Environment variables

Any model that supports the Responses API works (deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017, qwen3.8-max, qwen3.8-flash, qwen4-max-preview, …). Tool coverage varies by model: DeepSeek handles web_search, web_extractor and code_interpreter but rejects image_search / web_search_image, which is why the image tools use BAILIAN_IMAGE_MODEL (a Qwen model) independently of BAILIAN_MODEL. See the built-in tools docs.

Tools

web_extract always sends web_search alongside, because the API rejects web_extractor on its own (The web_extractor tool must be executed with web_search tool).

OpenCode

1.x (mcp is a map)

{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "mcp": {
    "bailian-tools": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": ["npx", "-y", "github:niradler/bailian-tools-mcp"],
      "environment": {
        "BAILIAN_API_KEY": "{env:BAILIAN_API_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}

2.x (mcp.servers)

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "bailian-tools": {
        "type": "local",
        "command": ["npx", "-y", "github:niradler/bailian-tools-mcp"],
        "environment": {
          "BAILIAN_API_KEY": "{env:BAILIAN_API_KEY}"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Or from the CLI:

opencode mcp add bailian-tools --env BAILIAN_API_KEY={env:BAILIAN_API_KEY} -- npx -y github:niradler/bailian-tools-mcp
opencode mcp list

Set BAILIAN_API_KEY in your shell profile (setx BAILIAN_API_KEY "sk-..." on Windows) — keep the key out of the config file. Start a new session after adding the server so the tools are offered to the model.

Claude Code

claude mcp add bailian-tools -e BAILIAN_API_KEY=sk-... -- npx -y github:niradler/bailian-tools-mcp

Codex

# ~/.codex/config.toml
[mcp_servers.bailian-tools]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "bailian-tools-mcp"]
env = { BAILIAN_API_KEY = "sk-..." }

[mcp_servers.bailian-tools.env]
BAILIAN_TIMEOUT_MS = "180000"

Cost

Each tool call is a model request plus the upstream tool fee, billed to your plan Credits or pay-as-you-go account. Web search is the expensive one: the agent policy is $10 per 1,000 calls in Singapore versus $0.573411 in Frankfurt, Virginia, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Keep web_search for questions that need current data; local file reads are free. Set max_output_tokens when you only need a short answer.

The server states this in its MCP instructions and appends a footer to every result, so the agent asks before bulk work instead of quietly burning Credits. Set BAILIAN_COST_NOTICE=off to silence the footer if your client already enforces its own budget.

The notices stay compact on purpose: the whole tools/list payload is about 1.5 k characters (~390 tokens), because tool descriptions ride along on every request. Run npm run describe to print exactly what your agent receives.

Troubleshooting

Security

No credentials in this repository. Keys come from the environment, the server keeps no state, and tool output is untrusted web content — see SECURITY.md.

License

MIT