Research MCP server

research-mcp

Paid cited research remote MCP for coding / research agents (API key auth, not OAuth).

Why pay: query-tied excerpt packs from allowlisted primaries; refuse uncited — that call is $0. Prepaid packs; meters only on billable successes.

Repo may be private; treat this README as the agent-facing contract. Live Fly host is unchanged.

Marketing site (Cloudflare Pages)

Source of truth: research-mcp-hq/www (public/). Live site: https://researchmcp.dev.

The www/ tree in this repo is a stub / mirror note only — do not point Cloudflare Pages here. MCP API origin remains on Fly; branded install URL is https://mcp.researchmcp.dev/mcp.

MCP URL (production)

https://mcp.researchmcp.dev/mcp

Health: https://mcp.researchmcp.dev/health Server card: https://mcp.researchmcp.dev/.well-known/mcp/server-card.json Credits meter: GET https://mcp.researchmcp.dev/billing/credits (auth’d)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "research-mcp": {
      "url": "https://mcp.researchmcp.dev/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Auth

Every /mcp and /billing/credits request:

• Authorization: Bearer or
• X-API-Key:

Keys: prepaid customer key (from Checkout success page) or break-glass API_KEYS (ops; no ledger debit).

Privacy (demand signals)

We log category mix (tool, topic bucket, host, billable vs fail=$0) — not your questions. Opt-in via DEMAND_LOG=1 on the server; default off.

Pricing (locked)

fail = $0: sample/demo, quote-gate fail, density fail, COGS abort, cancel, depth-mismatched golden, preview/parked paths (meta.billable=false, charge_usd=0).

Inspect balance + tables: GET /billing/credits → balancecents, packs, metersusd, failusd: 0. Break-glass returns { breakglass: true, balance_cents: null } (no fake balance).

When to call each tool

Live (default paid surface)

Both return the shared envelope: tldr, body, confidence, sources, gaps, asof, plus schemaversion (2026-09-14). Optional failgate: { reason, retryable }, claims / excerpts, retrievedat. If quotes fail verification on sourceurl, the run is refused and not billed**.

Preview / parked (ENABLEPREVIEWTOOLS=1)

Without the flag: compareoptions is not registered; depth=deep is rejected (previewrequired). Directory card still says do-not-call for compare/deep.

No stub billing. No 25-tool kitchen sink — two live tools by default.

Published contract

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.