Drain MCP

DRAIN MCP Server

Payments for AI Agents — No API keys, no credit cards, no subscriptions.

MCP server for the Handshake58 AI Marketplace. Agents discover service providers, pay automatically, and call any service — LLM inference, web scraping, image generation, search, and more.

Supports two payment protocols:

• DRAIN — Payment channels on Polygon. Open once, send many requests, close when done.
• MPP — Per-request payments via Tempo. Each request is paid individually. No channel needed.

When to Use

Use drain-mcp when you need to:

• Call any service (LLM, search, scraping, image gen, etc.) without API keys
• Pay per-request with USDC — no subscriptions, no credit cards
• Access 30+ providers through one unified interface

Do NOT use drain-mcp when:

• You already have API keys for the service you need
• The task doesn't require external services

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TL;DR - Minimum Viable Workflow

MPP Providers (per-request, no channel)

1. drain_providers(protocol: "mpp")  → Find MPP providers

1. drain_provider_info(id) → Read docs (essential for REST APIs)
2. mpp_chat(provider, messages) → LLM providers (auto-pay via Tempo) — OR — mpp_request(url, body) → REST API providers (auto-pay via Tempo)
3. drain_feedback(providerId, outcome) → Optional: report success/failure

DRAIN Providers (payment channels)

1. drain_providers(protocol: "drain") → Find DRAIN providers

1. drain_provider_info(id) → Get provider details + usage docs
2. drain_balance() → Check USDC + POL
3. drain_approve() → Approve USDC spending (once)
4. drain_open_channel(...) → Deposit USDC, get channelId
5. drain_chat(...) → Send requests (repeat as needed)
6. drain_cooperative_close(...) → Close early, instant refund (when done) — OR after expiry —
7. drain_close_channel(...) → Reclaim funds (after expiry)

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When to Close a Channel

• Done with your task? → Use drain_cooperative_close(channelId). Instant refund of unspent deposit. Always do this when finished.

• Planning more requests soon? → Keep the channel open. No need to close and reopen — saves $0.04 in gas fees.

• Channel expired? → Use drain_close_channel(channelId). Reclaims unspent USDC after the expiry timestamp. Funds do NOT return automatically.

Rule of thumb: Close when the task is done. Keep open while working.

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Already Hit a 402?

MPP providers: drain-mcp handles 402 automatically via mppx/Tempo. Just use mpp_chat or mpp_request — payment is resolved transparently.

DRAIN providers return 402 Payment Required with headers when no payment voucher is sent:

DRAIN Flow:

1. Call a provider endpoint (no voucher) → get 402 with headers
2. Install drain-mcp or use the signing API at the X-Payment-Signing URL
3. Open a channel to the X-Payment-Provider address
4. Retry the request with an X-DRAIN-Voucher header

Everything you need is in the 402 response. No prior registration required.

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Tools Reference

Discovery

drain_providers

Find service providers. Filter by model name, category, or online status.

{

"model": "gpt-4o", "category": "scraping", "onlineOnly": true }

Categories: llm, image, audio, code, scraping, vpn, multi-modal, other

drain_provider_info

Get details about a provider including usage instructions (docs). The docs explain how to format requests for that provider.

{ "provider": "hs58-openai" }

Wallet

drain_balance

Check wallet USDC balance, POL for gas, and DRAIN contract allowance.

drain_approve

Approve USDC spending for the DRAIN contract. Required once before opening channels.

{ "amount": "100" }

Channels

drain_open_channel

Open a payment channel. Locks USDC for the specified duration.

{

"provider": "hs58-openai", "amount": "5.00", "duration": "24h" }

Returns channelId, expiry time, and provider usage docs.

drain_channel_status

Check a channel's deposit, spending, remaining balance, and expiry.

drain_channels

List all known channels with status (active/expired/closed). Find expired channels that need closing.

Usage (DRAIN)

drain_chat

Send a paid request through a DRAIN channel. Works for ALL DRAIN provider types:

• LLM providers: Standard chat messages
• Non-LLM providers: JSON payload in the user message content (check provider docs)

{

"channelId": "0x...", "model": "gpt-4o", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}] }

Usage (MPP)

mpp_chat

Send a chat request to an MPP LLM provider. Payment is automatic via Tempo — no channel, no setup.

{

"provider": "provider-id-or-url", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}], "model": "optional-model-id" }

mpp_request

Send a request to an MPP REST API service (Tavily, Brave, Wolfram, etc.). Payment is automatic via Tempo.

{

"url": "https://tavily.mpp.paywithlocus.com/tavily/search", "body": {"query": "AI agents", "max_results": 5} }

Read the provider's docs first (drain_provider_info) to find the correct endpoint paths and request format.

Quality Feedback

drain_feedback

Report success or failure after using any provider (DRAIN or MPP). Feeds the marketplace quality scoring system.

{

"providerId": "provider-id", "outcome": "success", "reason": "accurate_result" }

Settlement

drain_cooperative_close

Close a channel early with provider consent. Use this when your task is done — instant refund of unspent deposit. No need to wait for expiry.

{ "channelId": "0x..." }

drain_close_channel

Close an expired channel and reclaim unspent USDC. Use when the channel has passed its expiry timestamp.

{ "channelId": "0x..." }

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Economics Example

Opening a GPT-4o channel:

Gas to open channel:     $0.02   (one-time)

Deposit: $0.50 (refundable remainder) Per request: ~$0.001755 Requests possible: ~285

Cost for 10 requests: $0.02 gas + $0.01755 usage = $0.04 Refund after close: $0.50 - $0.01755 = $0.48 Gas to close: $0.02

• Protocol fee: 2% on provider claims (on-chain)
• Session fee: none
• Live pricing: GET https://handshake58.com/api/mcp/providers

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Provider Categories

Providers are not limited to LLM chat. Each provider has a category field and a docs endpoint explaining how to format requests.

Rule: For any category other than `llm`, call `drain_provider_info` first to read the docs.

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Decision Trees

Choosing a Protocol

What provider do I want?

├── MPP provider (protocol="mpp") │ ├── mppType="llm" → mpp_chat(provider, messages) │ └── mppType="rest" → mpp_request(url, body) │ └── Done. Payment was automatic. │ └── DRAIN provider (protocol="drain") └── See DRAIN flow below

Starting a DRAIN Session

Do I have an active channel?

├── YES → Use drain_chat() with existing channelId └── NO → ├── drain_balance() → Do I have USDC? │ ├── NO → Cannot proceed. Need USDC on Polygon. │ └── YES → │ ├── drain_providers() → Find provider │ │ ├── NO providers → Cannot proceed. │ │ └── Found provider → │ │ ├── drain_approve() → First time only │ │ └── drain_open_channel() → Get channelId │ │ └── drain_chat() → Send requests

Ending a DRAIN Session

Am I done with this task?

├── YES → drain_cooperative_close(channelId) → Instant refund └── NO → ├── More requests soon? → Keep channel open └── Channel expired? → drain_close_channel(channelId) → Reclaim funds

Choosing Amount and Duration

Handling Errors

"Insufficient balance"

→ Need more USDC. Check drain_balance().

"Insufficient allowance" → Run drain_approve().

"Channel not found" → channelId is wrong or channel was closed. Open new channel.

"Channel expired" → For drain_chat: Open a new channel. → For drain_close_channel: Expected. Proceed with close.

"Insufficient channel balance" → Channel deposit used up. Open new channel with more funds.

"Provider offline" → Use drain_providers() to find alternative provider.

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Setup

1. Install

npm install -g drain-mcp

2. Create a Wallet (locally)

Generate a key on your own machine — nothing is sent over the network:

node -e "const w=require('ethers').Wallet.createRandom();console.log('Address:', w.address, '\nKey:', w.privateKey)"

3. Fund the Wallet

Send $1–5 USDC on Polygon Mainnet to your wallet address. Use a dedicated low-value wallet — never your main wallet.

No POL needed — if your wallet holds $5+ USDC, free gas is provided:

curl -X POST https://handshake58.com/api/gas-station \

-H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"address": "0x_your_wallet_address"}'

Returns 0.1 POL (~10K transactions). Sends only your public address.

4. Configure MCP Client

{

"mcpServers": { "drain": { "command": "drain-mcp", "env": { "DRAIN_PRIVATE_KEY": "0x..." } } } }

Environment Variables

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Security & Privacy

Key Handling

DRAIN_PRIVATE_KEY is loaded into memory by the local MCP process. It is used for:

1. EIP-712 voucher signing for DRAIN channels (off-chain, no network call)
2. On-chain transaction signing (signed locally, only the signature is broadcast)
3. Tempo payment signing for MPP requests (handled by mppx, signed locally)

The key is never transmitted to any server. Providers verify signatures against on-chain state.

Spending Limits

DRAIN: Exposure is capped by the smart contract:

• Maximum spend = channel deposit (you choose the amount)
• Channel has a fixed duration (you choose)
• After expiry, unspent funds are reclaimable via drain_close_channel

MPP: Each request is paid individually at the provider's advertised price. No pre-d