MCP server - Kraken Developers

kraken-cli ships a Model Context Protocol server, kraken-mcp, over stdio. It serves 152 of the CLI’s commands as MCP tools that any MCP-compatible AI agent can call — Claude, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf, and others. Streams (WebSocket feeds, recording, replay, session start), interactive commands, and the local credential commands auth switch and auth reset stay CLI-only. A tool call is one request and one response; a stream never returns. Run streams with the CLI, for example kraken record, and read the results back with tools such as kraken_tape_list and kraken_explain_pnl, or kraken_session_show with the workspace service. kraken-mcp comes with the CLI install. Install the CLI first.

Quickstart

kraken-mcp -s market,paper,feedback

This starts the server with market data, paper trading, and the feedback tool, which uploads the text you give it to Kraken. No credentials are required, and no tool can trade live or move funds.

Client setup

Claude Code
Claude Desktop
Cursor
VS Code (Copilot)
Windsurf

Install the plugin, which adds the MCP server and the CLI’s agent skills:

/plugin marketplace add krakenfx/kraken-cli
/plugin install kraken-cli@kraken

Or register only the MCP server for your user:

claude mcp add --scope user kraken -- kraken-mcp -s market,paper,feedback

The plugin asks for no API key. To add live trading, use -s market,paper,trade with a least-privilege API key (see Authentication).Verify it is registered:

claude mcp list

If it shows “Failed to connect”, Claude Code cannot find kraken-mcp on its PATH. Quit Claude Code and start it again from a new terminal window, or register the full path, which works before kraken-mcp is on your PATH:

claude mcp add --scope user kraken -- "$HOME/.cargo/bin/kraken-mcp" -s market,paper,feedback

If you set CARGO_HOME, use $CARGO_HOME/bin/kraken-mcp instead.

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kraken": {
      "command": "kraken-mcp",
      "args": ["-s", "market,paper,feedback"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop to pick up the change.

Create or edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) or .cursor/mcp.json in your project:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kraken": {
      "command": "kraken-mcp",
      "args": ["-s", "market,paper,feedback"]
    }
  }
}

Reload the Cursor window after saving.

Create or edit .vscode/mcp.json in your workspace:

{
  "servers": {
    "kraken": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "kraken-mcp",
      "args": ["-s", "market,paper,feedback"]
    }
  }
}

Edit ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kraken": {
      "command": "kraken-mcp",
      "args": ["-s", "market,paper,feedback"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Windsurf to apply.

Other MCP clients take the same command and arguments: kraken-mcp -s market,paper,feedback. Gemini CLI users can install the extension instead: gemini extensions install https://github.com/krakenfx/kraken-cli. If a client reports “Failed to connect” or cannot start the server, set command to the full path that command -v kraken-mcp prints. Desktop apps often do not see the PATH your terminal uses.

Services

Pass -s <services> to control which command groups are exposed. Multiple services are comma-separated.

Service	Tools	Auth	Risk level	What it exposes
`market`	11	No	None	Ticker, orderbook, trades, OHLC, spreads, asset info, tape library
`account`	18	Yes	Read-only, except `export-retrieve` and `export-delete` (dangerous)	Balances, orders, trade history, ledgers, positions, exports
`paper`	17	No	Simulation; `reset` is dangerous	Spot paper trading with live prices, P&L explanation, research lab
`workspace`	20	No	`reset` and `promote` are dangerous; live workspaces reach the real account	Paper and live workspaces, sessions, recipes, reports, extensions
`futures-paper`	17	No	None (simulation)	Futures paper trading
`feedback`	1	No	Uploads text to Kraken	Product feedback upload to Kraken
`trade`	9	Yes	Dangerous	Place, amend, and cancel live Spot orders
`futures`	39	Mixed	Dangerous	Futures market data and order entry
`earn`	6	Yes	Dangerous	Staking allocations and deallocations
`funding`	10	Yes	Dangerous	Deposits, withdrawals, and transfers
`subaccount`	2	Yes	Dangerous	Subaccount creation and transfers
`auth`	2	Mixed	Read-only	Credential status and validation
`all`	152	Mixed	Mixed	All of the above

Default (no -s flag): market, account, paper, workspace, feedback.

Dangerous tools

Tools marked dangerous (order placement, withdrawals, transfers, workspace promotion) need your approval for every call. The server asks you through MCP elicitation and runs the call only if you approve. A client that cannot show an elicitation gets no prompt from the server: the call runs when the model sets acknowledged: true in its arguments, so on such a client rely on the client’s own tool-approval prompt. Start the server with --allow-dangerous to turn the gate off.

# Ask for approval on every dangerous call
kraken-mcp -s all

# Turn the approval gate off (use in trusted, controlled environments only)
kraken-mcp -s all --allow-dangerous

Authentication

Set credentials as environment variables in the client’s MCP configuration, or in the shell that starts the server:

export KRAKEN_API_KEY="your-key"
export KRAKEN_API_SECRET="your-secret"
kraken-mcp -s market,account,trade

Or store a key once in a terminal, with kraken auth login (browser sign-in, a restricted key with no withdrawal rights) or kraken setup (a key you created). The server reads the same active stored key as the CLI. kraken-mcp takes no --api-key or --api-secret flags.

What agents can do

With market, paper, and feedback, an agent can:

Query live prices, orderbooks, and recent trades for any pair
Place and cancel paper trades against live prices
List recorded tapes and explain a stopped session’s P&L

With account, it can read balances and open orders. With trade added, it can place, amend, and cancel live orders. With funding, it can initiate withdrawals. Scope services to the minimum your workflow requires.

Safety notes

The MCP server runs locally over stdio and is not exposed as a network service
Use minimum-permission API keys scoped to what the agent actually needs
The default service set places no live orders and moves no funds; its few dangerous tools (workspace promotion and reset, paper reset, export retrieval and deletion) still need approval, and so does creating a live workspace
Treat agent sessions with live trading scope the same as a logged-in user session
Set position size limits and pair allowlists at the API key level on Kraken’s settings page

Agent resources

The CLI ships supplementary resources for agent integration:

Resource	Purpose
AGENTS.md	Full integration guide with patterns and constraints
CONTEXT.md	Runtime context injected at session start
agents/tool-catalog.json	All 188 commands with parameter schemas; the `reach` field marks the 152 MCP tools
agents/error-catalog.json	10 error categories with retry guidance
skills/	59 pre-built workflow packages for common trading tasks
CLAUDE.md	Claude-specific guidance for the CLI

​Quickstart

​Client setup

​Services

​Dangerous tools

​Authentication

​What agents can do

​Safety notes

​Agent resources