gainium-mcp
An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for Gainium — the crypto trading bot platform. Lets AI assistants manage your bots, deals, balances, and more through a standard MCP interface.
Detailed setup and connection documentation is available in docs/using-gainium-mcp.md.
Quick Start
1. Get your API keys
Go to Gainium API Settings and create an API key pair.
2. Add to your MCP client
Add this to your MCP configuration (VS Code, Claude Desktop, etc.):
{
"gainium-mcp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "gainium-mcp"],
"env": {
"GAINIUM_API_KEY": "<your-api-key>",
"GAINIUM_API_SECRET": "<your-api-secret>"
}
}
}
That's it. The server starts automatically when your AI assistant needs it.
This local stdio mode uses GAINIUM_API_KEY and GAINIUM_API_SECRET from the server process environment.
Environment Variables
GAINIUM_API_KEY | Yes | — | Your Gainium API public key |
GAINIUM_API_SECRET | Yes | — | Your Gainium API secret |
GAINIUM_API_BASE_URL | No | https://api.gainium.io | API base URL |
GAINIUM_MCP_TRANSPORT | No | stdio | Transport mode: stdio, http, streamable-http, sse, or http-sse |
GAINIUM_MCP_HOST | No | 127.0.0.1 | Bind host for HTTP mode |
GAINIUM_MCP_PORT | No | 3000 | Bind port for HTTP mode |
GAINIUM_MCP_HTTP_PATH | No | /mcp | Streamable HTTP endpoint path |
GAINIUM_MCP_SSE_PATH | No | /sse | Deprecated SSE GET endpoint path |
GAINIUM_MCP_MESSAGES_PATH | No | /messages | Deprecated SSE POST endpoint path |
GAINIUM_OAUTH_ISSUER | No | — | Authorization-server base URL. Setting this (with MCP_INTROSPECTION_SECRET, in HTTP mode) enables OAuth protected-resource mode |
GAINIUM_INTROSPECTION_URL | No | <issuer>/oauth/introspect | Token introspection endpoint |
MCP_INTROSPECTION_SECRET | No | — | Shared secret presented to the introspection endpoint (must match the auth server) |
GAINIUM_MCP_PUBLIC_URL | No | derived from request | Public base URL used in the protected-resource metadata |
OPENAI_APPS_CHALLENGE_TOKEN | No | — | When set, served as plain text at /.well-known/openai-apps-challenge for OpenAI Apps domain verification |
Authentication Modes
gainium-mcp supports three deployment models:
- Local stdio mode: the MCP server reads
GAINIUM_API_KEY and GAINIUM_API_SECRET from env vars.
- OAuth 2.1 hosted mode (recommended for hosted/public): the server acts as an OAuth protected resource. Clients (e.g. the Claude connector) obtain an access token from the Gainium authorization server and send it as
Authorization: Bearer <token>. See OAuth 2.1 hosted mode below.
- Header hosted mode (legacy/self-hosted): each request sends
X-API-Key and X-API-Secret headers so one shared server can serve many users.
In header/stdio mode, request headers take priority, falling back to GAINIUM_API_KEY / GAINIUM_API_SECRET. When OAuth mode is enabled, the Bearer token is required and the X-API-Key/X-API-Secret headers are ignored.
OAuth 2.1 hosted mode
This is the mode used for the public https://mcp.gainium.io/mcp endpoint and the Anthropic Claude connector directory (which requires OAuth and forbids API-key headers).
Enable it by setting, in HTTP mode:
export GAINIUM_MCP_TRANSPORT=http
export GAINIUM_OAUTH_ISSUER=https://app.gainium.io
export MCP_INTROSPECTION_SECRET=<shared-secret>
export GAINIUM_MCP_PUBLIC_URL=https://mcp.gainium.io
node dist/server.js
When enabled, the server:
- Serves OAuth Protected Resource Metadata (RFC 9728) at
/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource and /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource/mcp,
advertising the authorization server.
- Rejects unauthenticated MCP requests with
401 Unauthorized and a
WWW-Authenticate: Bearer resource_metadata="…" header, so clients can discover
the auth server and run the OAuth flow (Dynamic Client Registration + PKCE).
- Validates the Bearer access token on each request via the auth server's
token introspection endpoint, resolving it to the user's Gainium
(apiKey, apiSecret) and per-key restrictions (read/write, paper-only, single-bot),
which are still enforced server-side. Introspection results are cached briefly.
The local stdio path is unaffected by these variables.
HTTP and SSE Mode
By default, gainium-mcp runs over stdio for MCP clients that spawn local processes. To run it as an HTTP server instead:
export GAINIUM_MCP_TRANSPORT=http
export GAINIUM_MCP_HOST=127.0.0.1
export GAINIUM_MCP_PORT=3000
node dist/server.js
When HTTP mode is enabled, the server exposes both transport styles:
GET|POST|DELETE /mcp for the current Streamable HTTP transport
GET /sse plus POST /messages?sessionId=... for deprecated HTTP+SSE clients
This makes one server process compatible with both modern MCP HTTP clients and older SSE-based integrations. In hosted mode, authenticate with OAuth (see OAuth 2.1 hosted mode) or, for self-hosted/legacy setups, send X-API-Key and X-API-Secret on each request.
Available Tools (17)
As of v3.0.0 the toolset is consolidated: a single tool per operation, with a
botType / dealType / action discriminator instead of one tool per variant.
Every tool carries an MCP safety annotation — read-only tools set readOnlyHint,
write tools set destructiveHint.
Bots
list_bots | read | List bots by type (dca, combo, grid) with filters and field selection |
get_bot | read | Get a single bot by id and type |
create_bot | write | Create a bot (dca, combo, or grid) |
update_bot | write | Update bot settings |
clone_bot | write | Clone a bot with optional overrides |
manage_bot | write | Lifecycle action: start, stop, archive, restore, changePairs |
Deals
list_deals | read | List deals by type (dca, combo, terminal) with filters |
get_deal | read | Get a single deal by id and type |
create_deal | write | Create a deal |
update_deal | write | Update an active deal |
manage_deal | write | Deal action: close, addFunds, reduceFunds |
Backtest
run_backtest | write | Run a backtest: validate, estimate, async, or sync (request/requestSync submit a job — not read-only) |
backtest_info | read | List backtest requests or get one by ID |
Discovery, Account & Market
discover | read | Schema discovery for bot types and indicators |
get_account | read | Balances, connected exchanges, supported exchanges, and global variables |
get_screener | read | Cryptocurrency screener with market metrics |
manage_global_variable | write | Global variable action: create, update, delete |
Field Selection
All GET endpoints support the fields parameter for efficient payloads:
- Presets:
minimal, standard (default), extended, full
- Custom: comma-separated dot-notation fields (e.g.
_id,uuid,settings.name,profit.total)
Using minimal reduces payload size by ~85%.
API Permissions
- Read-only key: read tools only (
list_*, get_*, discover, backtest_info, get_screener, list_presets)
- Write key: all tools, including
create_*, update_*, clone_bot, manage_bot, manage_deal, manage_global_variable, apply_preset, and run_backtest
- Read-only directory connector (
/mcp with GAINIUM_READONLY=true, served at mcp.gainium.io/read): exposes and allows only the 9 readOnlyHint tools — run_backtest and all write tools are excluded
- Token audience binding (OAuth mode): when
GAINIUM_MCP_PUBLIC_URL is set, the server treats <public-url><http-path> as its RFC 8707 resource. An access token whose introspected aud is a different resource is rejected — a token minted for mcp.gainium.io/read can't be replayed against mcp.gainium.io/mcp, and vice versa. Tokens with no aud (legacy grants) are still accepted.
Development
git clone https://github.com/gainium/gainium-mcp.git
cd gainium-mcp
npm install
npm run build
export GAINIUM_API_KEY=your_key
export GAINIUM_API_SECRET=your_secret
node dist/server.js
export GAINIUM_MCP_TRANSPORT=http
export GAINIUM_MCP_PORT=3000
node dist/server.js
Architecture
gainium-mcp/
├── src/
│ ├── server.ts # MCP server + tool definitions (stdio + HTTP/SSE transports)
│ └── gainium-client.ts # HMAC-authenticated HTTP client for Gainium API v2
├── dist/ # Compiled output (published to npm)
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.json
└── README.md
License
MIT