Official Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for the Verity API. It gives AI assistants controlled access to Medicare coverage policies, medical code intelligence, prior authorization checks, claim validation, compliance review, drug formulary evidence, and webhook operations.

Current Setup

The fastest setup is the hosted Streamable HTTP MCP endpoint:

export VERITY_API_KEY=vrt_live_YOUR_API_KEY
codex mcp add verity --url https://mcp.verity.backworkai.com/mcp --bearer-token-env-var VERITY_API_KEY

Use the local stdio setup when your MCP client does not support remote Streamable HTTP yet, or when you want to run the server entirely on your machine.

Codex

Codex supports Streamable HTTP MCP servers and can source the bearer token from an environment variable:

export VERITY_API_KEY=vrt_live_YOUR_API_KEY
codex mcp add verity --url https://mcp.verity.backworkai.com/mcp --bearer-token-env-var VERITY_API_KEY

For local stdio:

codex mcp add verity --env VERITY_API_KEY=vrt_live_YOUR_API_KEY -- npx -y github:backworkai/verity_mcp

Claude Code

For hosted Streamable HTTP:

export VERITY_API_KEY=vrt_live_YOUR_API_KEY
claude mcp add --transport http verity https://mcp.verity.backworkai.com/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer $VERITY_API_KEY"

Claude stores HTTP headers in its MCP config. Use a scoped Verity key and rotate it if you later remove this server.

For local stdio:

claude mcp add verity -e VERITY_API_KEY=vrt_live_YOUR_API_KEY -- npx -y github:backworkai/verity_mcp

Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, and Other MCP Clients

For clients that only support stdio commands:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "verity": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "github:backworkai/verity_mcp"],
      "env": {
        "VERITY_API_KEY": "vrt_live_YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

For clients that support remote URLs and headers, set the bearer header using the client's documented secret or environment mechanism. If the client only accepts static JSON, replace the placeholder directly:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "verity": {
      "url": "https://mcp.verity.backworkai.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer vrt_live_YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Self-Hosting

Run a Streamable HTTP server:

git clone https://github.com/backworkai/verity_mcp.git
cd verity_mcp
npm install
npm run build
npm run start:http

Defaults:

Setting	Default	Override
Transport	`stdio`	`--http` or `VERITY_MCP_TRANSPORT=http`
Host	`127.0.0.1`	`--host` or `VERITY_MCP_HOST`
Port	`3000`	`--port` or `VERITY_MCP_PORT` or `PORT`
MCP path	`/mcp`	`--path` or `VERITY_MCP_PATH`
Allowed hosts	loopback/private hosts, `VERCEL_URL`, or configured public host	`VERITY_MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS` or `VERITY_MCP_PUBLIC_HOST`

HTTP mode requires Authorization: Bearer per request. By default this bearer is a Verity API key for backward compatibility. For hosted remote MCP deployments, enable OAuth protected-resource discovery so Claude-compatible clients can authenticate users through your authorization server:

VERITY_MCP_AUTH_MODE=oauth \
VERITY_MCP_OAUTH_AUTHORIZATION_SERVERS=https://auth.example.com \
VERITY_MCP_OAUTH_SCOPES=verity:mcp \
npm run start:http

The server publishes OAuth Protected Resource Metadata at /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource and includes that URL in WWW-Authenticate challenges. If your Verity API accepts OAuth access tokens directly, no extra mapping is needed; the MCP server forwards the OAuth bearer downstream. If your authorization server exposes a Verity API key in token introspection, set VERITY_MCP_OAUTH_INTROSPECTION_URL and VERITY_MCP_OAUTH_API_KEY_CLAIM to validate the access token and map it to the downstream Verity credential.

For a private single-tenant deployment where the server environment supplies the key, set:

VERITY_MCP_ALLOW_ENV_KEY=true VERITY_API_KEY=vrt_live_YOUR_API_KEY npm run start:http

Only use VERITY_MCP_ALLOW_ENV_KEY=true on loopback or private-network deployments protected by network access control. Public deployments should require a bearer token per request, set VERITY_MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS/VERITY_MCP_PUBLIC_HOST, and set VERITY_MCP_ALLOWED_ORIGINS only to exact browser origins that may connect.

Vercel Hosting

This repo can deploy as an API-only Vercel project. The production project uses:

VERITY_MCP_PUBLIC_HOST=mcp.verity.backworkai.com
VERITY_MCP_PUBLIC_URL=https://mcp.verity.backworkai.com
VERITY_MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS=mcp.verity.backworkai.com,verity-mcp.vercel.app

The Vercel functions expose:

Path	Purpose
`/mcp`	Streamable HTTP MCP endpoint
`/health`	Lightweight MCP server health check
`/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource`	OAuth protected-resource metadata when OAuth is configured
`/`	Basic endpoint metadata

Health check:

curl http://localhost:3000/health

Local Development

npm install
npm run build
VERITY_API_KEY=vrt_live_YOUR_API_KEY npm start

Useful commands:

npm run start:http
node build/src/index.js --help

Requires Node.js 18 or newer.

Available Tools

Tool names use the verity_ prefix for discoverability when this server is installed alongside other MCP servers. The default surface is intentionally workflow-level rather than a 1:1 API wrapper, so agents see fewer choices and common tasks require fewer tool calls.

All tools include title, description, inputSchema, outputSchema, and MCP annotations. Successful calls return readable text plus structuredContent with message, and when available, raw Verity API data and meta. Tool-level failures return isError: true. For tools that combine read and write actions, annotations are conservative at the tool level.

Primary tool	Purpose
`verity_coverage_lookup`	Look up procedure codes and combine code details, policy evidence, prior authorization, claim risk, jurisdiction comparison, and spending evidence
`verity_policy_research`	Search policies, fetch one policy, search extracted criteria, review policy changes, or map MAC jurisdictions
`verity_claim_validation`	Validate claim coverage, documentation requirements, denial risk, and optional policy-specific criteria
`verity_prior_auth_research`	Check Medicare prior authorization, start payer website research, or poll an async research task
`verity_drug_formulary_research`	Search commercial pharmacy-benefit evidence from CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and UnitedHealthcare / Optum Rx
`verity_compliance_review`	Review compliance stats, list unreviewed policy changes, or acknowledge changes
`verity_webhook_management`	List, create, update, delete, or test webhook endpoints
`verity_system_health`	Check Verity API health and dependency status

Response Format

Every tool accepts:

{
  "response_format": "markdown"
}

Use "markdown" for readable output or "json" to make the text content mirror the returned structuredContent.

Example Prompts

Is CPT 76942 covered in Texas, and does it require prior authorization?

Compare coverage for J0585 across JM and JH.

Validate denial risk for 99213 with diagnosis E11.9 for Medicare in Texas.

Search formulary evidence for Ozempic across commercial PBMs.

Testing and Evaluations

Run the build and MCP metadata smoke test:

npm test

The smoke test starts the built stdio server with a dummy key, verifies the 8 workflow tools, checks titles, schemas, annotations, output schemas, response_format, and verifies local validation failures are reported with isError: true.

The evals/ directory includes a tool-discoverability evaluation and a read-only data evaluation built from fixed source-backed policy/code records. Refresh the read-only answers intentionally when Verity source data is updated.

Release

The package will publish to npm as @backwork/verity-mcp.

The npm package is prepared to publish under the Backwork scope as @backwork/verity-mcp. Until that package is indexed on npm, use the GitHub npx install path below.

Configure npm Trusted Publishing for backworkai/verity_mcp, workflow release.yml, environment npm, package @backwork/verity-mcp.
Update package.json and package-lock.json to the new version.
Push a matching tag, for example v1.1.1.
The release workflow installs with npm ci, runs the build/smoke test, verifies npm pack --dry-run, and publishes with npm provenance.

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Description
`VERITY_API_KEY`	Stdio yes; HTTP no	Verity API key. In HTTP mode, prefer `Authorization: Bearer` per request.
`VERITY_API_BASE`	No	Override the API base URL.
`VERITY_MCP_TRANSPORT`	No	`stdio` or `http`.
`VERITY_MCP_HOST`	No	HTTP bind host. Defaults to `127.0.0.1`.
`VERITY_MCP_PORT`	No	HTTP bind port.
`VERITY_MCP_PATH`	No	HTTP MCP path.
`VERITY_MCP_ALLOWED_ORIGINS`	No	Comma-separated allowed HTTP origins. Loopback origins are allowed for loopback requests.
`VERITY_MCP_ALLOW_ORIGIN`	No	Backward-compatible alias for `VERITY_MCP_ALLOWED_ORIGINS`.
`VERITY_MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS`	No	Comma-separated allowed HTTP Host headers for public deployments.
`VERITY_MCP_ALLOW_HOST`	No	Backward-compatible alias for `VERITY_MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS`.
`VERITY_MCP_PUBLIC_HOST`	No	Primary public host allowed for HTTP requests.
`VERITY_MCP_PUBLIC_URL`	No	Canonical public origin for OAuth metadata, e.g. `https://mcp.verity.backworkai.com`.
`VERITY_MCP_ALLOW_ENV_KEY`	No	Allow private HTTP requests without bearer auth to use `VERITY_API_KEY`.
`VERITY_MCP_AUTH_MODE`	No	HTTP bearer mode: `api-key`, `oauth`, or `dual`. Defaults to `dual` when OAuth authorization servers are configured, otherwise `api-key`.
`VERITY_MCP_OAUTH_AUTHORIZATION_SERVERS`	OAuth	Comma-separated OAuth issuer / authorization server URLs advertised in protected-resource metadata.
`VERITY_MCP_OAUTH_RESOURCE`	No	Override the RFC 8707 resource identifier. Defaults to the public MCP URL.
`VERITY_MCP_OAUTH_SCOPES`	No	Space- or comma-separated scopes advertised to clients. Defaults to `verity:mcp`.
`VERITY_MCP_OAUTH_REQUIRED_SCOPES`	No	Space- or comma-separated scopes required after token introspection.
`VERITY_MCP_OAUTH_INTROSPECTION_URL`	No	RFC 7662 token introspection endpoint used to validate OAuth access tokens.
`VERITY_MCP_OAUTH_INTROSPECTION_CLIENT_ID`	No	Client ID for introspection basic auth.
`VERITY_MCP_OAUTH_INTROSPECTION_CLIENT_SECRET`	No	Client secret for introspection basic auth.
`VERITY_MCP_OAUTH_INTROSPECTION_TOKEN`	No	Bearer token for introspection when basic auth is not used.
`VERITY_MCP_OAUTH_API_KEY_CLAIM`	No	Dot-path claim from introspection response to use as the downstream Verity credential. If omitted, the OAuth access token is forwarded.
`VERITY_MCP_OAUTH_EXPECTED_AUDIENCE`	No	Comma-separated allowed `aud` values when introspection responses include an audience.

Troubleshooting

Missing API Key

For stdio, set VERITY_API_KEY in the MCP client configuration. For HTTP API-key mode, send Authorization: Bearer <key>. For HTTP OAuth mode, configure VERITY_MCP_OAUTH_AUTHORIZATION_SERVERS and send Authorization: Bearer <access_token>.

401 From HTTP MCP

The remote server did not receive a bearer token. Configure your MCP client to authenticate with OAuth or send an Authorization header. OAuth-enabled deployments include resource_metadata in the WWW-Authenticate header to point clients at /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource.