About Rhumb
Rhumb is an MCP server for discovering, evaluating, and executing external service capabilities. It targets agents that need provider routing based on quality, availability, cost, and constraints, with execution receipts and credential controls.
Key features
- 01Search and score services
- 02Inspect failure modes and alternatives
- 03Route capabilities by cost and health
- 04Estimate and execute provider calls
- 05Manage credentials, budgets, and receipts
Use cases
- 01Compare email API providers
- 02Route a capability call by cost and quality
- 03Check provider readiness before execution
- 04Review usage costs and execution receipts
MCP support
Rhumb exposes discovery, execution, financial, and operations tools to MCP clients. Discovery is available without authentication; governed execution and account tools require authentication, while x402 supports per-call payment.
Configuration
Local server config is the same for every client. Copy it into your client’s MCP config file.
npx -y rhumb-mcpRHUMB_API_KEYSecretGoverned API key for authenticated repeat traffic on X-Rhumb-Key (optional — discovery works without auth; execution otherwise needs x402 payment)Local servers need a runtime on your machine (e.g. Node.js 18+). Config file locations differ by client; see your client’s docs.
Tools
21Saved tool list · updated 3w ago
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| query | string | Yes | What you need the Service to do, in natural language. Examples: 'send email', 'process payments', 'generate images', 'web scraping' |
| limit | number | No | Max results (default 10). Each result includes a slug you can pass to get_score, get_alternatives, or get_failure_modes. |
Details
From the project READMERhumb MCP Server
Agent-native tool intelligence for the Model Context Protocol.
Three execution layers: raw provider access (Layer 1), intelligent routing (Layer 2), and deterministic composed recipes (Layer 3, beta with a truthful public catalog). Every provider rated with the AN Score. Every execution produces a chain-hashed receipt.
- Website: https://rhumb.dev
- Docs: https://rhumb.dev/blog/getting-started-mcp
- Pricing: https://rhumb.dev/pricing
- Repo: https://github.com/supertrained/rhumb
Zero-config quickstart
No governed API key needed for discovery. Install and start immediately:
npx -y --package rhumb-mcp@latest rhumb-mcp
Or add to Claude Desktop / Cursor / any MCP client:
{
"mcpServers": {
"rhumb": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "--package", "rhumb-mcp@latest", "rhumb-mcp"]
}
}
}
Ask your agent:
- "Find me the best email API for agents"
- "What's the AN Score for Stripe?"
- "Check whether any Rhumb recipes are published yet"
Current callable scope
Rhumb is strongest today for research, extraction, generation, and narrow enrichment.
Treat it as capability infrastructure first, not as a general business-agent automation layer yet. Layer 2 is the real production surface today; Layer 3 is still beta with an intentionally sparse public catalog.
Discovery breadth is wider than current execution breadth: Rhumb scores 999 services and exposes 435 capability definitions, but current governed execution is concentrated in 28 callable providers.
Resolve mental model
- Service = vendor Rhumb evaluates and compares
- Capability = executable action your MCP client can route and execute
- Recipe = deterministic multi-step workflow on top of capabilities (beta, sparse public catalog)
- Layer 2 is the default path — discover → resolve → estimate → execute
- Default auth for repeat traffic = governed API key or wallet-prefund on
X-Rhumb-Key - Bring BYOK or Agent Vault only when provider control is the point
- Use x402 only when zero-signup per-call payment is the point
Canonical onboarding map: https://rhumb.dev/docs#resolve-mental-model
What's new in v2.0.0
Rhumb Resolve — three execution layers:
| Layer | What | How |
|---|---|---|
| Layer 1 | Raw provider access | You pick the provider. Escape hatch + trust anchor. |
| Layer 2 | Capability routing | Rhumb routes to the best-fit supported provider for the call, using AN Score, availability / circuit state, estimated cost, latency proxy, credential mode, and explicit policy constraints. |
| Layer 3 | Deterministic recipes (beta) | Compiled DAG workflows. Multi-step, budget-enforced, content-firewalled. No published recipes yet. |
New infrastructure:
- Execution receipts (chain-hashed, HMAC-signed)
- Route explanations (why this provider was chosen)
- AN Score structural separation (read-only cache, auditable)
- Billing event stream (chain-hashed, 15+ event types)
- Trust dashboard inputs for observed availability, costs, and reliability
- Recipe safety controls (content firewall, idempotency, nesting depth, fan-out rate limiting)
- Kill switches (per-agent, per-provider, per-recipe, global with authenticated two-person auth)
- Audit trail (append-only, chain-hash verification, export API)
Migration from 0.x
- All v1 endpoints remain fully backward compatible — no breaking changes
- New v2 endpoints available alongside v1
execute_capabilitynow returns_rhumb_v2metadata with attribution and receipts- New tools for recipe-catalog inspection, receipts, and telemetry
- Update:
npx -y --package rhumb-mcp@latest rhumb-mcp
Discovery tools (no auth, 6 tools)
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
find_services | Search indexed Services by what you need them to do |
get_score | Get the full AN Score breakdown for a Service: execution quality, access readiness, autonomy level, tier label, and freshness |
get_alternatives | Find alternative Services, ranked by AN Score |
get_failure_modes | Get known failure patterns, impact severity, and workarounds for a service |
discover_capabilities | Browse Capabilities by domain or search text |
resolve_capability | Given a Capability ID, and optionally a credential mode, returns ranked providers with health status, cost per call, auth methods, endpoint patterns, execute guidance, and 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, plus typo recovery when the capability ID is wrong |
Execution tools (auth required, 8 tools)
{
"mcpServers": {
"rhumb": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "rhumb-mcp@latest"],
"env": {
"RHUMB_API_KEY": "rk_your_key_here"
}
}
}
}
Get a governed API key at https://rhumb.dev/auth/login (GitHub, Google, or email — 30 seconds).
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
execute_capability | Call a Capability through Rhumb Resolve |
estimate_capability | Estimate the active execution rail, cost, and health before a Capability call; anonymous direct system-of-record paths also preserve machine-readable execute_readiness handoffs |
credential_ceremony | Get step-by-step instructions to obtain API credentials for a Service |
check_credentials | Inspect live credential-mode readiness, globally or for a specific Capability |
rhumb_list_recipes | List the current published Rhumb Layer 3 recipe catalog |
rhumb_get_recipe | Get the full published definition for a Rhumb recipe, including input/output schemas and step topology |
rhumb_recipe_execute | Execute a published Rhumb Layer 3 recipe once one is live in the public catalog |
get_receipt | Retrieve an execution receipt by ID |
Financial tools (auth required, 5 tools)
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
budget | Check or set your call spending limit |
spend | Get your spending breakdown for a billing period: total USD spent, call count, average cost per call, broken down by Capability and by provider |
check_balance | Check your current Rhumb credit balance in USD |
get_payment_url | Get a checkout URL to add credits to your Rhumb balance |
get_ledger | Get your billing history: charges (debits), top-ups (credits), and auto-reload events |
Operations tools (auth required, 2 tools)
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
routing | Get or set how Rhumb auto-selects providers when you don't specify one in execute_capability |
usage_telemetry | Get your execution analytics — calls, latency, errors, costs, and provider health for your Rhumb usage |
21 MCP tools
Discovery (free): find_services, get_score, get_alternatives, get_failure_modes, discover_capabilities, resolve_capability
Execution (auth): execute_capability, estimate_capability, credential_ceremony, check_credentials, rhumb_list_recipes, rhumb_get_recipe, rhumb_recipe_execute, get_receipt
Financial (auth): budget, spend, check_balance, get_payment_url, get_ledger
Operations (auth): routing, usage_telemetry
Discovery spans 999 scored services, but current governed execution spans 28 callable providers.
Best current fit: research, extraction, generation, and narrow enrichment. Treat general business-agent automation as future scope, not the current callable promise.
Common workflows
1) Discover tools (no auth)
"I need an email provider for agents."
find_services→ search the landscapeget_score→ inspect a specific providerget_failure_modes→ see where it breaks in practice
2) Route a capability (no auth)
"I need
email.send. What should I use?"
discover_capabilities→ find the capability IDresolve_capability→ get ranked providers, optional credential-mode filtering, machine-readable recovery fields likerecovery_hint.resolve_url,recovery_hint.credential_modes_url, and, when applicable,recovery_hint.alternate_execute_hintorrecovery_hint.setup_handoff, or search suggestions when the capability ID is wrong
3) Check readiness (auth required)
"Can I call
deployment.listright now, and on which rail?"
check_credentials→ call without params for account-wide configured BYOK/direct-bundle readiness, or pass a capability to inspect provider-level mode status and ceremony availability
4) Execute (auth required)
"Send the email with the cheapest provider above my quality floor."
estimate_capability→ check the active execution rail, health, and cost before executionexecute_capability→ perform the actionget_receipt→ verify the HMAC-signed execution record
5) Check recipe availability / run a recipe (auth required)
"Is there already a published Rhumb workflow for this?"
rhumb_list_recipes→ check what is actually live in the public catalogrhumb_get_recipe→ inspect a recipe only after it appears thererhumb_recipe_execute→ run the compiled recipe once it is published- Public note: the Layer 3 catalog is currently sparse/empty, so most real work should use Layer 2 capabilities today
x402 micropayments
No account needed — pay per call with USDC on Base:
{
"env": {
"RHUMB_X402_WALLET_ADDRESS": "0x...",
"RHUMB_X402_PRIVATE_KEY": "0x..."
}
}
Local development
cd packages/mcp
npm ci
npm run dev
Test and build
npm test # 84+ tests
npm run type-check
npm run build
Related
- API:
https://api.rhumb.dev/v1(v1 compat) /https://api.rhumb.dev/v2(Resolve v2) - npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/rhumb-mcp
- MCP Registry: https://registry.modelcontextprotocol.io (search "rhumb")
- GitHub: https://github.com/supertrained/rhumb
License
MIT
Comments
New to MCP?
From what the protocol is to installing your first server, these answers cover most first questions.
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.