mcp-name: io.github.Squidboy30/boltwork-mcp

boltwork-mcp

MCP server for Boltwork — AI services that pay for themselves via Bitcoin Lightning.

Give your AI agent PDF summarisation, code review, translation, web extraction, document comparison, and persistent memory — all paid autonomously in sats. No API keys. No subscriptions. No accounts.

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What this is

Boltwork is a pay-per-call AI services API that uses the L402 protocol — your agent makes a request, receives a Lightning invoice, pays it automatically, and gets the result back. No human involved.

This package wraps Boltwork as an MCP server so any MCP-compatible AI (Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.) can use it as a tool — with payments handled transparently in the background.

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Install

pip install boltwork-mcp

# If using NWC (Nostr Wallet Connect):
pip install "boltwork-mcp[nwc]"

Or use directly with uvx — no install needed:

uvx boltwork-mcp

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Try it immediately — no wallet required

Two tools work right now with zero setup. Add boltwork to your MCP config (no env vars needed):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "boltwork": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["boltwork-mcp"],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

Then ask your AI:

"Use trial_review_code to review this: def add(a, b): return a + b"
"Use trial_summarise to summarise this text: <paste any text>"

You'll get a real AI result instantly. No Lightning wallet. No setup. Rate limited to 5 calls/hour.

When you're ready to use the full suite of tools without limits, set up a Lightning wallet below.

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Setup (for paid tools)

1. Get a Lightning wallet

You need a Lightning wallet that supports either:

Option A — NWC (recommended, easiest)

• Alby — go to nwc.getalby.com, create a budget, copy the connection string
• Mutiny Wallet — self-custodial mobile wallet

Option B — Phoenixd

• Phoenixd — self-hosted Lightning node, simple REST API

2. Add to your MCP config

Claude Desktop — edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "boltwork": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["boltwork-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "NWC_CONNECTION_STRING": "nostr+walletconnect://your-connection-string-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor — edit .cursor/mcp.json in your project:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "boltwork": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["boltwork-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "NWC_CONNECTION_STRING": "nostr+walletconnect://your-connection-string-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Using Phoenixd instead of NWC:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "boltwork": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["boltwork-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "PHOENIXD_URL": "http://localhost:9740",
        "PHOENIXD_PASSWORD": "your-phoenixd-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

3. Restart your AI and start using tools

That's it. Your agent now has access to all Boltwork tools and will pay invoices automatically when it uses them.

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Available tools

Tool	What it does	Cost
trial_review_code	Free trial code review — no wallet needed	free
trial_summarise	Free trial text summarisation — no wallet needed	free
summarise_pdf	Summarise a PDF from URL	500 sats
review_code	Review code for bugs, security, quality	2000 sats
review_code_url	Review code from GitHub/GitLab URL	2000 sats
summarise_webpage	Summarise any web page	100 sats
extract_data	Extract structured data from PDF	200 sats
translate	Translate text or document to 24 languages	150 sats
extract_tables	Extract tables from PDF as structured JSON	300 sats
compare_documents	Diff two PDFs	500 sats
explain_code	Explain code in plain English	500 sats
memory_store	Store persistent key-value memory	10 sats
memory_retrieve	Read stored memory	5 sats
memory_delete	Delete a memory key	free
run_workflow	Chain services in a single pipeline	1000 sats

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Example prompts

Once configured, just talk to your AI naturally:

"Summarise this research paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2301.00000"

"Review the code at https://github.com/me/repo/blob/main/app.py"

"Translate this contract to Spanish: https://example.com/contract.pdf"

"Compare these two versions of our terms of service:
  v1: https://example.com/tos-v1.pdf
  v2: https://example.com/tos-v2.pdf"

"Remember that the last file I asked you to review was app.py 
 and the score was 7/10"

Your agent handles the payment automatically — you just see the result.

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Workflow pipelines

Chain multiple services in one call with run_workflow:

"Fetch the Bitcoin whitepaper, translate the summary to French,
 and store the translation in my agent memory"

The $from syntax passes outputs between steps:

{
  "steps": [
    {"service": "pdf",       "input": {"url": "https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf"}},
    {"service": "translate", "input": {"text": {"$from": 0}, "target_language": "french"}}
  ]
}

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Environment variables

Variable	Required	Description
NWC_CONNECTION_STRING	One of these two	Nostr Wallet Connect string from Alby/Mutiny
PHOENIXD_URL	One of these two	Phoenixd base URL e.g. http://localhost:9740
PHOENIXD_PASSWORD	With Phoenixd	Phoenixd HTTP Basic auth password
BOLTWORK_GATEWAY	Optional	Override gateway URL (default: https://parsebit-lnd.fly.dev)

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Pricing

All prices are in satoshis (sats). At current rates, 1000 sats ≈ $0.60 — but this varies with Bitcoin's price.

There is no subscription, no monthly fee, no minimum spend. You pay exactly for what your agent uses, nothing more.

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How L402 works

1. Agent calls a Boltwork tool
2. boltwork-mcp sends the request to parsebit-lnd.fly.dev
3. Receives HTTP 402 with a Lightning invoice (e.g. 500 sats for PDF summarisation)
4. Pays the invoice via your configured wallet (NWC or Phoenixd)
5. Retries the request with the payment proof
6. Returns the result to your agent

The whole flow takes 1-3 seconds. Your agent sees only the final result.

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Links

• Boltwork API — the service this MCP server wraps
• Agent spec — full API reference
• L402 Index — directory of L402 services
• MCP documentation — learn about MCP
• Cracked Minds — the team behind Boltwork

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License

MIT