@three-ws/ibm-x402-mcp
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<h1 align="center">@three-ws/ibm-x402-mcp</h1>
<p align="center"><strong>Pay-per-use IBM Granite AI over MCP — chat, code, embeddings, analysis, and forecasting, billed in USDC on Solana. No IBM account required.</strong></p>
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<p align="center">
<a href="#install">Install</a> ·
<a href="#quick-start">Quick start</a> ·
<a href="#tools">Tools</a> ·
<a href="#payment-flow">Payment flow</a> ·
<a href="#requirements">Requirements</a> ·
<a href="https://three.ws">three.ws</a>
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---
> A [Model Context Protocol](https://modelcontextprotocol.io) server that exposes IBM Granite foundation models as pay-per-use tools via the [x402](https://x402.org) payment protocol. End users pay **USDC on Solana** per call — no IBM Cloud account of their own. The server operator supplies IBM credentials (`WATSONX_*`) and a receiving Solana wallet (`MCP_SVM_PAYMENT_ADDRESS`); callers supply only USDC. One free tool (`ibm_granite_getting_started`) explains prices and the flow before any payment.
> Built by [three.ws](https://three.ws). Community-built and not affiliated with IBM.
## How it works
1. An MCP client (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, or an agent) connects to this server.
2. The client calls a tool — e.g. `ibm_granite_chat`.
3. Without an x402 payment payload, the server returns a `402 PaymentRequired` envelope quoting the USDC price and the Solana receiving address.
4. The client signs a Solana USDC transfer and retries with the payment in `_meta["x402/payment"]`.
5. The server verifies and settles the payment via the facilitator, calls IBM watsonx.ai, and returns the result with a settlement receipt in `_meta["x402/payment-response"]`.
x402-capable MCP clients handle this loop automatically.
## Install
```bash
npm install @three-ws/ibm-x402-mcp
```
Run it directly with `npx` (no install needed):
```bash
MCP_SVM_PAYMENT_ADDRESS=<your-solana-wallet> \
WATSONX_API_KEY=<ibm-api-key> \
WATSONX_PROJECT_ID=<watsonx-project-id> \
npx @three-ws/ibm-x402-mcp
```
Or install globally for the `ibm-x402-mcp` binary on your `PATH`:
```bash
npm install -g @three-ws/ibm-x402-mcp
```
## Quick start
With Claude Code, one command (as an end user paying per call, no env vars needed):
```bash
claude mcp add ibm-granite-x402 -- npx -y @three-ws/ibm-x402-mcp
```
Server operators add `-e MCP_SVM_PAYMENT_ADDRESS=... -e WATSONX_API_KEY=... -e WATSONX_PROJECT_ID=...` before the `--`.
Or wire the server into your MCP client config (`claude_desktop_config.json`, Cursor's `mcp.json`):
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"ibm-x402": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@three-ws/ibm-x402-mcp"],
"env": {
"MCP_SVM_PAYMENT_ADDRESS": "your-solana-wallet-address",
"WATSONX_API_KEY": "your-ibm-cloud-api-key",
"WATSONX_PROJECT_ID": "your-watsonx-project-id"
}
}
}
}
```
Inspect the tool surface with the MCP Inspector:
```bash
npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/inspector npx @three-ws/ibm-x402-mcp
```
## Tools
| Tool | What it does | Price |
| ----------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------- |
| `ibm_granite_getting_started` | Overview, prices, and the x402 payment flow. No payment or IBM account required. | Free |
| `ibm_granite_chat` | Conversational AI via IBM Granite (default `ibm/granite-3-8b-instruct`). | $0.02 USDC |
| `ibm_granite_code` | Code generate, review, refactor, explain, test, document. | $0.025 USDC |
| `ibm_granite_embed` | Batch text embeddings for RAG, search, and clustering (1–64 texts). | $0.005 USDC |
| `ibm_granite_analyze` | Structured document analysis: entities, sentiment, risk flags, summary, next steps. | $0.04 USDC |
| `ibm_granite_forecast` | Zero-shot time-series forecasting via IBM Granite TTM (Tiny Time Mixer). | $0.05 USDC |
Every tool is a read-only model-inference call — nothing on your machine or in any account is modified — and declares MCP tool annotations (`readOnlyHint`, `openWorldHint`, `idempotentHint`) so clients can reason about side effects before paying.
### Input parameters
**`ibm_granite_chat`** — `messages` (required: 1–50 `{ role, content }` pairs), `model`, `max_new_tokens` (1–4096, default 1024), `temperature` (0–2, default 0.7).
**`ibm_granite_code`** — `task` (required: `generate`/`review`/`refactor`/`explain`/`test`/`document`), `prompt` (required), `language`, `context`.
**`ibm_granite_embed`** — `inputs` (required: 1–64 texts, ≤8000 chars each), `model`.
**`ibm_granite_analyze`** — `document` (required), `analysis_type` (`general`/`contract`/`financial`/`technical`/`medical`/`sentiment`, default `general`), `language`.
**`ibm_granite_forecast`** — `timestamps` (required: 64–1024 ISO-8601, uniform cadence, oldest first), `values` (required: 64–1024 numbers, same length), `freq` (required: pandas cadence, e.g. `1h`, `1D`), `prediction_length` (1–96), `label`.
### Example calls
```jsonc
// ibm_granite_chat
{
"messages": [
{ "role": "system", "content": "You are an expert data engineer." },
{ "role": "user", "content": "Design a lakehouse schema for IoT sensor telemetry." }
],
"max_new_tokens": 1024,
"temperature": 0.7
}
// ibm_granite_code
{ "task": "review", "prompt": "def calculate_roi(revenue, cost): return revenue / cost", "language": "Python" }
// ibm_granite_embed
{ "inputs": ["enterprise data governance", "cloud-native AI pipeline", "real-time analytics"] }
// ibm_granite_analyze
{ "document": "This Software License Agreement is entered into between...", "analysis_type": "contract" }
// ibm_granite_forecast (timestamps/values must be 64–1024 points; abbreviated here)
{ "timestamps": ["2025-01-01T00:00:00Z", "...", "2025-03-05T00:00:00Z"], "values": [12500, "...", 13200], "freq": "1D", "prediction_length": 14, "label": "daily_revenue_usd" }
```
## Payment flow
This server uses the [x402 protocol](https://x402.org) for micropayments:
1. Client calls a tool without payment → `402 PaymentRequired` with the USDC amount and Solana address.
2. Client builds and signs a Solana USDC transfer transaction.
3. Client retries with the signed tx in `_meta["x402/payment"]`.
4. Server verifies and settles via the configured facilitator (default PayAI).
5. Server calls IBM watsonx.ai and returns the result with `_meta["x402/payment-response"]` (settlement receipt).
```
MCP Client (Claude Desktop / Cursor / agent)
│ tools/call (with x402 payment in _meta)
▼
ibm-x402-mcp (stdio MCP server)
│ verify + settle USDC on Solana
├──► x402 facilitator (default https://facilitator.payai.network)
│
│ inference call with IAM Bearer token
└──► IBM watsonx.ai (us-south.ml.cloud.ibm.com)
└── IBM Granite 3 8B Instruct / Embedding / TTM
```
## Requirements
- **Node.js >= 20.**
- A Solana wallet address to receive USDC (`MCP_SVM_PAYMENT_ADDRESS`).
- IBM Cloud credentials: an API key ([create one](https://cloud.ibm.com/iam/apikeys)) and a watsonx.ai project id (Project → Manage → General → Project ID), or a deployment space id.
### Environment variables
| Variable | Required | Default |
| ------------------------- | ----------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- |
| `MCP_SVM_PAYMENT_ADDRESS` | yes | — |
| `WATSONX_API_KEY` | yes | — |
| `WATSONX_PROJECT_ID` | yes (or `WATSONX_SPACE_ID`) | — |
| `WATSONX_SPACE_ID` | alternative to `WATSONX_PROJECT_ID` | — |
| `WATSONX_URL` | no | `https://us-south.ml.cloud.ibm.com` |
| `WATSONX_MODEL_ID` | no | `ibm/granite-3-8b-instruct` |
| `WATSONX_EMBED_MODEL_ID` | no | `ibm/granite-embedding-278m-multilingual` |
| `X402_FEE_PAYER_SOLANA` | no | three.ws fee payer |
| `X402_FACILITATOR_URL` | no | `https://facilitator.payai.network` |
Regional hosts: `us-south`, `eu-de`, `eu-gb`, `jp-tok`, `au-syd`, `ca-tor` — e.g. `https://eu-de.ml.cloud.ibm.com`.
## Related
- [`@three-ws/ibm-watsonx-mcp`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@three-ws/ibm-watsonx-mcp) — the same IBM Granite tools driven by your own IBM Cloud credentials (no x402, no per-call payment).
## Links
- Homepage: https://three.ws
- Changelog: https://three.ws/changelog
- Issues: https://github.com/nirholas/three.ws/issues
- License: Apache-2.0 — see [LICENSE](./LICENSE)
---
<p align="center">
<sub>
Part of the <a href="https://three.ws">three.ws</a> SDK suite — 3D AI agents, on-chain identity, and agent payments.<br/>
<a href="https://three.ws">Website</a> · <a href="https://three.ws/changelog">Changelog</a> · <a href="https://github.com/nirholas/three.ws">GitHub</a>
</sub>
</p>
## License
All rights reserved. See [LICENSE](LICENSE).
TDQS
Scored across 6 tools
Each tool has a uniquely defined purpose (analysis, chat, code, embedding, forecasting, and getting started) with no ambiguity between them. An agent can easily distinguish which tool to invoke.
All tool names follow the consistent pattern 'ibm_granite_<action>', using snake_case and a clear verb describing the operation. This pattern is uniform across all 6 tools.
The server has 6 tools, which is well-scoped for a focused MCP server offering IBM Granite model capabilities. Each tool covers a distinct use case without being overwhelming or insufficient.
The tool set covers common AI tasks (chat, code, analysis, embeddings, forecasting) and includes a getting started guide. Minor gaps like model customization or batch operations are absent, but core functionality is complete for the stated purpose.