publicaml

PublicAML MCP server

Blockchain AML screening inside Claude Desktop, Cursor, or any other MCP client. Ask about an address in plain language and the assistant checks it against PublicAML: sanctions, issuer freezes, risk propagated through the transaction graph, who funded the wallet and who it dealt with.

Chains: bitcoin, ethereum, bsc, tron.

Works without an account. An API key only lifts the rate limit and unlocks forward tracing.

Install

Claude Desktop, claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "publicaml": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@publicaml/mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

With an API key:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "publicaml": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@publicaml/mcp-server"],
      "env": { "PUBLICAML_API_KEY": "your-key" }
    }
  }
}

Cursor uses the same block in .cursor/mcp.json. Claude Code:

claude mcp add publicaml -- npx -y @publicaml/mcp-server

Tools

screen_address

Risk level and score, sanctions, Tether/Circle freezes, what the address is (exchange, mixer, gambling, bridge, personal wallet) and where its risk comes from.

chain is optional. Omit it and every chain the address format allows is screened, each result labelled with its chain: the same 0x… string is a different wallet on ethereum, bsc and tron, so it is never guessed silently.

trace_funds

direction: "incoming" walks the funding backwards to answer "who paid this wallet", stopping at labelled entities rather than walking into an exchange's other customers. direction: "outgoing" follows the largest outgoing flows to where the money left the chain's anonymous part. Outgoing needs an API key.

The walk is bounded by wall clock, so an incomplete answer is returned rather than a timeout, and the answer says which one it is.

list_counterparties

Three questions, one tool. classify enumerates counterparties and says what each one is (person, venue, hub, deposit address, contract, mint/burn). category answers "did this wallet touch any exchange / mixer / casino". check tests a list of suspect addresses against the wallet.

Reading the answers

• sanctioned: true is a blocking fact on its own, whatever the score says.
• The score is a risk reading 0-100, never a share of the funds, and its parts combine by MAX, so the breakdown does not add up to the total.
• An address absent from the data comes back as NOT FOUND. That is unknown, not clean.
• Lists are ranked and capped. A PARTIAL answer is a floor, not a census.
• USD figures cover priced tokens only and can be inflated by low-liquidity tokens. Treat them as an order of magnitude.

This is evidence for a human decision, not the decision itself.

Configuration

Variable	Default	Meaning
PUBLICAML_API_KEY	none	Lifts the anonymous rate limit, unlocks outgoing tracing.
PUBLICAML_API_BASE	https://intelapi.publicaml.org	API base URL.
PUBLICAML_TIMEOUT_MS	60000	Per-request timeout.
PUBLICAML_TRACE_CONTINUES	2	How many times an incomplete backward walk is resumed automatically.

One-click desktop install

The same server is also distributed as an MCPB bundle, which Claude Desktop installs with a double click and no JSON editing. Build it with:

npm run build:mcpb

The bundle lands in dist/. Version, description, licence and the tool list are read from package.json and from the server's own tool definitions, so the bundle cannot drift from the npm release.

Development

npm install
npm test          # unit tests, no network
node scripts/live.mjs  # end-to-end against the live API

MIT licensed. API docs: https://publicaml.org/api