Getting Started · March 18, 2026 · Updated March 18, 2026

Give your agent tool intelligence

One command. 21 tools. 999 scored services. 18 callable providers today.

Rhumb MCP gives your AI agent live access to tool scores, failure modes, route, health, and cost checks, plus governed execution where Rhumb is actually callable today. Install it in 30 seconds and your agent knows which API to pick, what will break, what rail it will use, and how much it will cost before making a single call.

Honest current state

Discovery breadth: 999 scored services and 435 capability definitions. Current runtime-callable surface: 18 callable providers, strongest today for research, extraction, generation, and narrow enrichment.

Install
npx rhumb-mcp@latest

No governed API key required for discovery and scoring. Add to any MCP-compatible client.

Before you wire this into an agent loop

Want to inspect the trust story first? Read Trust, inspect the public Methodology, or use the provider dispute path if a score or claim looks wrong.

Default path for agents

Default path: start with governed API key or wallet-prefund on `X-Rhumb-Key`, discover a Service, choose a Capability, estimate the call, then execute through Layer 2. One governed surface, many managed capabilities: start with Rhumb-managed capabilities first, bring your systems only when needed, and keep one surface instead of a tool graveyard. Bring BYOK or Agent Vault only when the workflow touches your own systems. Use x402 only when zero-signup per-call matters. Use Layer 1 only when you must pin the provider. Use Layer 3 only when a published recipe already exists.

Entities
Service = vendor
Capability = executable action
Recipe = compiled workflow
Default layer

Start with Layer 2. It is the main production surface today.

Default auth

For repeat traffic, use governed API key or wallet-prefund on X-Rhumb-Key. Bring BYOK or Agent Vault only when provider control is the point.

Use x402 when

Zero-signup per-call payment matters more than repeat throughput.

What your agent gets

21 MCP tools organized into four categories. Your agent can discover tools, check their quality, execute capabilities through Rhumb's proxy, manage budgets, and work with receipts plus the live recipe-catalog status — all through natural tool calls.

Discover
find_services
Search for services by what you need
discover_capabilities
Browse capabilities by domain
resolve_capability
Rank providers, filter by credential mode, surface machine-readable recovery fields like recovery_hint.resolve_url, recovery_hint.credential_modes_url, and, when applicable, recovery_hint.alternate_execute_hint or recovery_hint.setup_handoff, and recover typoed capability IDs with search suggestions
Score
get_score
Full AN Score breakdown for a service
get_alternatives
Similar services, ranked
get_failure_modes
Known failure patterns
Execute
estimate_capability
Estimate the active execution rail, cost, and health before execution, with direct-rail execute_readiness handoffs when applicable
execute_capability
Execute through Rhumb proxy
credential_ceremony
Get step-by-step instructions for obtaining provider credentials
check_credentials
Inspect live credential-mode readiness, globally or for a specific Capability
routing
Routing strategy configuration
usage_telemetry
Execution analytics and provider health
get_receipt
Execution receipt lookup
rhumb_list_recipes
Check the current published Layer 3 recipe catalog (which may still be empty)
rhumb_get_recipe
Inspect a published recipe only after confirming it is live
rhumb_recipe_execute
Execute a published recipe once it is actually live in the public catalog
Budget
budget
Budget status and limits
spend
Spend breakdown by capability
check_balance
Current credit balance
get_payment_url
Top up via Stripe checkout
get_ledger
Transaction history

Setup

Add Rhumb MCP to your agent framework. Same config works everywhere.

Claude Desktop

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rhumb": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["rhumb-mcp@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (Windows). Restart Claude Desktop.

Cursor / Windsurf / any MCP host

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rhumb": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["rhumb-mcp@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Same configuration format. Add to your editor's MCP settings file.

Direct stdio (any framework)

npx rhumb-mcp@latest

The server speaks MCP over stdio. Pipe it into any MCP-compatible client: LangChain MCP Adapters, CrewAI, AutoGen, or custom implementations.

Workflows

Three real workflows showing how an agent uses Rhumb MCP tools together. Each starts with a scenario and walks through the tool calls step by step.

1

Find the best tool for a job

Your agent needs to send an email but doesn't know which provider to use.

1
find_services ("send transactional email")

Returns ranked services: Resend (7.8), SendGrid (5.5), Postmark (7.5), Amazon SES (7.5) — sorted by AN Score.

2
get_score ("resend")

Full breakdown: execution 8.7, access readiness 6.8, confidence 93%. Explanation of why it scores high.

3
get_failure_modes ("resend")

Known failure patterns — webhook delivery delays under burst, 429 rate limit behavior, etc.

2

Execute a capability through Rhumb

Your agent decides Resend is the right choice and wants to send an email through Rhumb's proxy.

1
resolve_capability ({ capability: "email.send", credential_mode: "byok" })

Returns ranked providers plus machine-readable execute guidance like cost per call, auth method, endpoint pattern, configured state, and preferred credential mode. If the requested mode dead-ends, Rhumb also returns machine-readable recovery fields like recovery_hint.resolve_url, recovery_hint.credential_modes_url, and, when applicable, recovery_hint.alternate_execute_hint or recovery_hint.setup_handoff. If the capability ID is wrong, Rhumb returns search suggestions instead of a blank dead end.

2
estimate_capability ({ capability_id: "email.send", provider: "resend" })

Estimate returns the active execution rail, cost, and health before execution, plus machine-readable execute_readiness handoffs on anonymous direct system-of-record paths: $0.001/call, budget remaining, can_afford: true.

3
execute_capability ({ capability_id: "email.send", body: { to: "user@example.com", subject: "Hello", html: "<p>Hi</p>" } })

Email sent through Resend via Rhumb proxy. Response includes execution time, cost, and upstream status.

3

Manage agent budget and spend

Your agent has a daily budget and needs to track spend across providers.

1
budget ((no args))

Current budget status: daily limit, remaining, period reset time.

2
spend ((no args))

Spend breakdown by capability and provider. Which tools cost the most, where budget is going.

3
check_balance ((no args))

Credit balance in USD. If low, use get_payment_url to top up via Stripe or x402 USDC.

What's in the dataset

999
Services scored
435
Capabilities
50+
Domains

Domains include: payments, email, CRM, auth, databases, analytics, communication, storage, search, monitoring, e-commerce, AI/ML, and 18 more. Every service is scored on the same 20-dimension methodology.

Scores update as we gather new evidence. When you call get_score, you get the latest data — not a static snapshot.

Direct API access

Prefer REST? The same data is available via HTTP. No governed API key needed for read endpoints.

GET https://api.rhumb.dev/v1/services

List all 999 scored services

GET https://api.rhumb.dev/v1/services/stripe/score

Full score breakdown with failure modes

GET https://api.rhumb.dev/v1/capabilities/email.send/resolve

Ranked providers for a capability

GET https://api.rhumb.dev/v1/leaderboard/payments

Category leaderboard, sorted by AN Score

Full API reference at rhumb.dev/docs. Machine-readable description at rhumb.dev/llms.txt.

Credential paths that match your trust boundary

Rhumb supports three live credential paths. Start with the Rhumb-managed path when zero-config governed execution is the point, then bring BYOK or Agent Vault in only when provider control matters.

Governed path Rhumb-managed

Rhumb holds the upstream credential. Agent provides capability + body, Rhumb handles auth. Zero-config for the agent. Per-call pricing with pre-call estimates.

Provider-controlled BYOK

Pass your own provider API key at execution time. Rhumb routes the request, you keep control of the provider credential. Full control, no credential storage.

Provider-controlled Agent Vault

Agent brings a JWE-encrypted credential token. Rhumb decrypts at execution time, never stores. Highest security — the credential is never at rest in Rhumb.

Next honest step

Start with one bounded execution lane, not connector sprawl

If Rhumb MCP already fits your stack, the next useful test is not wiring every provider at once. Start with capability-first onboarding or jump into the managed lane and inspect what is actually callable today.