MCP server

Hosts that speak Model Context Protocol can talk to Cralo directly instead of shelling out to the CLI for every call. cralo mcp serve starts a local stdio MCP server backed by the same authenticated API client as the CLI.

Setup

Authenticate first, then configure your host:

cralo auth login
cralo integrations configure <host>

<host> is one of claude-code, claude-desktop, or cursor. For claude-desktop and cursor, the command prints the configuration by default; pass --write to merge it into the host’s config file directly, and --force to overwrite an existing cralo entry. For claude-code, it prints a claude mcp add one-liner to run yourself.

Claude Code

cralo integrations configure claude-code

Prints the command to register the server directly with the Claude Code CLI:

claude mcp add cralo -- cralo mcp serve

Claude Desktop

cralo integrations configure claude-desktop
# or write directly:
cralo integrations configure claude-desktop --write

Prints the config path (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS, %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json on Windows, ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json elsewhere) and the JSON block to merge into it:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cralo": {
      "command": "cralo",
      "args": ["mcp", "serve"]
    }
  }
}

--write merges this into the existing file without disturbing other configured servers. If a cralo entry already exists with different content, it refuses to overwrite unless --force is passed.

Cursor

cralo integrations configure cursor
# or write directly:
cralo integrations configure cursor --write

Prints the config path (~/.cursor/mcp.json) and the same mcpServers.cralo JSON block shown above.

Meta-tools

cralo mcp serve exposes a small, fixed set of meta-tools rather than one MCP tool per catalog entry, so newly published tools are usable immediately without a host restart or a new MCP tool definition.

Tool	Cost	Purpose
`opentooler_list_tools`	Free	List available tools (names and summaries only).
`opentooler_search_tools`	Free	Search tools by query; empty query lists tools.
`opentooler_describe_tool`	Free	Full schema, price, and documentation for one tool.
`opentooler_call_tool`	Costs credits	Execute a tool with an automatic quote-based price guard.
`opentooler_get_invocation`	Free	Get the current state or final result of an asynchronous invocation.
`opentooler_wait_invocation`	Free	Wait (bounded, cancellable) for an asynchronous invocation to finish.
`opentooler_get_balance`	Free	Get prepaid credit balance.

Agents should describe a tool before calling it (the same discipline as the CLI’s tools describe before tools call). opentooler_call_tool applies a quote-based price guard automatically and accepts an optional max_price_microusd cap. The opentooler_* MCP tool names are stable protocol identifiers and remain unchanged so existing host prompts and automations continue to work.

Authentication

The MCP server uses the same credential as the CLI: the device-flow key stored after cralo auth login, or CRALO_API_KEY for headless hosts that can’t complete an interactive login. If no credential is available when a tool is called, every meta-tool returns an AUTH_REQUIRED error asking the human to run cralo auth login in a terminal. The MCP server never prompts for login itself.

Getting started

Using Cralo

CLI reference

Setup

Claude Code

Claude Desktop

Cursor

Meta-tools

Authentication

​Setup

​Claude Code

​Claude Desktop

​Cursor

​Meta-tools

​Authentication

Setup

Claude Code

Claude Desktop

Cursor

Meta-tools

Authentication