MCP Server

What It Is

The RAMP MCP Server is a convenience interface layer that exposes ExchangeService RPCs as MCP tools. Any AI agent with MCP support can discover and access resources without custom SDK integration — just add the MCP server to the agent’s tool configuration.

The MCP server is a thin proxy, not a performance layer. It translates simplified MCP tool calls into full RAMP protocol messages, forwards them to a Exchange via Connect-Go, and translates responses back into agent-friendly JSON. High-throughput production workloads use gRPC/Connect directly (via the Agent SDK or Broker).

Value proposition: Zero-SDK resource access. An agent operator adds a server entry to their MCP config, sets an API key, and the agent gains six tools. No dependency, no generated code, no RAMP-specific client library.

MCP Tools

Tool	Maps To	Scope	Description
`discover_supply`	`DiscoverResources`	`ramp:discover`	Search for content offers by URI
`execute_transaction`	`ExecuteTransaction`	`ramp:transact`	Commit to offers and receive delivery info
`report_usage`	`ReportUsage`	`ramp:report`	File a post-usage report
`dispute_transaction`	`DisputeTransaction`	`ramp:report`	File a content dispute
`check_health`	(synthetic)	`ramp:discover`	Check Exchange connectivity
`get_rate_limit_status`	(synthetic)	`ramp:discover`	Return cached rate limit info

The MCP server auto-populates protocol fields that agents should not need to know about: ver, id (ULID), aisystem (from OAuth context), agent_signature (proxy Ed25519 key), and agent_signature_algorithm.

Input Simplification

A full ResourceQuery proto has 12 fields. The discover_supply tool has 3:

{
  "uris": ["https://example.com/article-1"],
  "functions": ["inference", "summary"],
  "deadline_ms": 500
}

The MCP server bridges the gap — translating simplified JSON inputs into full proto messages and stripping internal fields from responses.

Authentication Model

The MCP server uses a delegated proxy key model:

Agent --OAuth 2.1--> MCP Server --Ed25519 signed request--> Exchange

Agents authenticate to the MCP server via OAuth 2.1
The MCP server signs outbound requests with its own registered Ed25519 key
The Exchange knows both who signed (proxy) and on whose behalf (agent from OAuth claims)

Scopes

Scope	Tools Allowed	Description
`ramp:discover`	`discover_supply`, `check_health`, `get_rate_limit_status`	Read-only discovery
`ramp:transact`	`execute_transaction`	Financial commitment
`ramp:report`	`report_usage`, `dispute_transaction`	Post-transaction reporting

An agent with ramp:discover only can search and evaluate offers without committing to transactions.

Deployment

Local (stdio) — Claude Desktop

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ramp": {
      "command": "ramp-mcp-server",
      "args": ["--transport", "stdio"],
      "env": {
        "RAMP_MARKETPLACE_URL": "https://exchange.example.com",
        "RAMP_PROXY_KEY_PATH": "/path/to/ed25519-private.pem",
        "RAMP_OAUTH_TOKEN": "eyJhbGciOi..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Remote (Streamable HTTP)

For shared deployment behind a load balancer:

ramp-mcp-server \
  --transport http \
  --listen :8080 \
  --exchange-url https://exchange.example.com \
  --proxy-key-path /secrets/ed25519-private.pem \
  --oauth-jwks-url https://auth.example.com/.well-known/jwks.json

The MCP server is fully stateless — no database, no persistent storage. Deploy N replicas behind a load balancer with no session affinity required.

Schema Generation

Tool definitions are generated from ramp.proto via protoc-gen-go-mcp. Zero schema duplication — if the proto changes, tool schemas update automatically on rebuild. The MCP server never manually defines tool input/output schemas.

What Is NOT Exposed

The MCP server exposes agent-facing RPCs only. Provider onboarding (RequestDomainVerification, ConfirmDomainVerification), CatalogService RPCs, and internal protocol fields (signatures, ext payloads) are deliberately excluded.

Next Steps

Agent SDK Overview — for high-throughput production use
Transaction Flow — the underlying protocol
Authentication — Ed25519 signature chain