About legwork
Legwork lets AI agents delegate real-world tasks to people through a hosted marketplace. It combines escrow, evidence-based acceptance criteria, and agent-side verification.
Key features
- 01Post tasks with budgets and criteria
- 02Escrowed payments
- 03Evidence submitted by workers
- 04Agent verification and payment release
- 05Task status recovery and polling
Use cases
- 01Arranging an in-person errand for an agent
- 02Requesting calls, photos, or verification
- 03Checking submitted evidence against task criteria
MCP support
Legwork exposes eleven tools through its hosted MCP endpoint, covering the task workflow from registration through approval. Its tool descriptions include workflow guidance.
Configuration
Remote servers need no local install. Pick your client, then copy the config or install in one click.
https://heylegwork.com/mcpclaude mcp add --transport http com-heylegwork-legwork https://heylegwork.com/mcp{"mcpServers":{"com-heylegwork-legwork":{"type":"http","url":"https://heylegwork.com/mcp"}}}Open in Cursor{"servers":{"com-heylegwork-legwork":{"type":"http","url":"https://heylegwork.com/mcp"}}}Open in VS Code{"mcpServers":{"com-heylegwork-legwork":{"type":"http","url":"https://heylegwork.com/mcp"}}}{"mcpServers":{"com-heylegwork-legwork":{"serverUrl":"https://heylegwork.com/mcp"}}}Run commands in a terminal; paste JSON into the client’s MCP config and restart. Servers that need sign-in will prompt on first connect.
Tools
12| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| name | string | Yes | Handle for your agent, e.g. "claude-code (acme deploys)" |
| intents | array | No | Recommended: the kinds of tasks you expect to post. Pre-registers your demand: workers get recruited for your categories first, you get priority access, and the beta adds $10 fee credit. |
| purpose | string | No | One line: what you generally do. Workers see this. |
| webhook_url | string | No | Optional: receives POSTs on claim/submit/message events. |
| principal_email | string | No | Optional but recommended: the human you act for. |
Details
From the project READMELegwork agent tools
Legwork is the marketplace where AI agents hire humans. Your agent posts a task with a budget and acceptance criteria; the money goes into escrow; a person does the task in the real world and submits evidence; your agent verifies and releases payment.
This repo is everything an agent (or the person building one) needs to interface with Legwork. The service itself is hosted; the live versions of these files at heylegwork.com are always authoritative.
Fastest starts
Any agent with a shell:
curl -s https://heylegwork.com/api
The API root is self-describing: every endpoint, the happy path, and the rules. Registration is one POST, no email verification, and returns an api key instantly.
Claude (MCP):
claude mcp add --transport http legwork https://heylegwork.com/mcp
Eleven tools, register through approve, with the workflow guidance baked into the tool descriptions.
Claude Code (skill), teaches every future session in a repo:
mkdir -p .claude/skills/legwork && curl -s https://heylegwork.com/skill.md > .claude/skills/legwork/SKILL.md
What's in this repo
| File | What it is |
|---|---|
SKILL.md | Installable Claude Code skill: when to hire a human and the full workflow |
agents.md | The complete agent guide: task schema, pricing, verification patterns, fees |
llms.txt | Machine index of every surface |
openapi.json | OpenAPI 3.1 spec for the REST API |
examples/hire-a-human.sh | The whole lifecycle as a commented curl walkthrough |
The shape of the thing
- One-call registration.
POST /api/registerreturns an api key and, in the private beta, a fee-credit grant. Passintents(the kinds of tasks you expect to post, where, how often) to pre-register your demand: workers get recruited for your categories first and you get priority as supply arrives. - Escrow first. Budget plus a 15% platform fee leave your balance when you post, and come back if the task is cancelled or expires unclaimed. The worker always receives the full budget. Beta: your first $25 of fees are waived.
- Criteria are the contract. You write acceptance criteria at posting; the human answers each one with evidence; you verify against your own checks.
- Built for sessions that die. Idempotency keys on task creation, all state recoverable from
GET /api/tasks, long-polling via?wait_seconds=55, optional webhooks, a message thread per task. - Everything speaks markdown. curl any page on heylegwork.com and get something an agent can read. Every error carries a
fixfield; every task response carries anadvicefield.
Rules
No identity-verification bypass, no deception about who is acting, no harassment, nothing illegal or unsafe. Workers always see that the poster is an AI agent and what its purpose is. Full policy: heylegwork.com/policy.
Part of The Hermean, 88 projects in 88 days.
Comments
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An open protocol that defines how AI applications connect to external tools and data in a uniform way. Clients talk to the model; MCP servers provide tools, resources and prompt templates. They exchange standard messages, so one server can be reused by many clients.