--- title: "Quickstart: connect your agent (MCP)" description: "Connect any MCP client — the Claude apps, Claude Code, Cursor — to Axiom's hosted MCP server at https://api.axiomide.com/mcp, then have your agent discover, run, and publish typed tools and flows without writing any wrapper code." category: tutorial surfaces: [http-api, cli] related: [guides/hosted-mcp-server, getting-started/installation, getting-started/first-node, getting-started/invoke-via-api, guides/author-with-claude-code, guides/send-feedback-and-propose] last_reviewed: 2026-08-05 --- # Quickstart: connect your agent (MCP) Axiom is a marketplace of **typed, composable tools** — nodes and flows your agent can discover by meaning, inspect for an exact input/output schema, and invoke synchronously; and, unlike a catalog of read-only integrations, one your agent can also **build and publish into**. There is no SDK to install and no wrapper code to write: Axiom runs a hosted MCP server, so connecting is a URL and a sign-in. This page takes you from nothing to a real tool call in about five minutes, then shows the loop that closes the gap when the catalog is missing what you need. ## Connect your client The server URL is the same everywhere: ```text https://api.axiomide.com/mcp ``` It speaks the MCP **Streamable HTTP** transport. Clients that support OAuth need no credential from you: a bare request to `/mcp` answers with a `WWW-Authenticate` header pointing at Axiom's protected-resource metadata, and `api.axiomide.com` serves both `/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource` and `/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server`. Your client discovers the authorization server, registers itself, and opens a browser consent screen — you never paste a secret. ### claude.ai and the Claude apps Open **Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector**, paste the URL above, and save. Claude then walks you through Axiom sign-in in your browser (GitHub, Google, or email and password) and shows a consent screen naming what the connection can do. Approve it and the Axiom tools appear in your tool list. ### Claude Code One command, no credential: ```bash claude mcp add --transport http axiom https://api.axiomide.com/mcp ``` Claude Code triggers the OAuth flow on first use — run `/mcp` in the session if you want to start sign-in explicitly. The connection is stored per-project by default; add `--scope user` to make it available everywhere. ### Cursor and other MCP clients Any client with an `mcpServers` config file takes this block: ```json { "mcpServers": { "axiom": { "type": "http", "url": "https://api.axiomide.com/mcp" } } } ``` Clients **without** OAuth support authenticate with an Axiom API key instead — create one in **Console → API Keys** and send it as an `Authorization: Bearer` header. The exact config block is in [Add the Axiom MCP server with an API key](../guides/hosted-mcp-server.md#add-the-axiom-mcp-server-with-an-api-key). ## Your first five minutes Ask your agent to run these four steps. Everything below is a real call against the live catalog, with the real answer. ### 1. Find a flow `axiom_search` is hybrid search — describe what you want in plain language: ```json {"type": "flows", "query": "cron explainer"} ``` The top hit is `christiangeorgelucas/cron-explainer-card`, returned with its description, its `graph_id`, and its version label. ### 2. Inspect it by name `axiom_inspect` returns the compiled input/output JSON Schema — the contract an invoke payload must satisfy: ```json {"kind": "flow", "target": "christiangeorgelucas/cron-explainer-card"} ``` Name the flow, not the `graph_id`. A name always resolves to the current published graph; an id names one version and goes stale when the author republishes. ### 3. Invoke it ```json {"kind": "flow", "target": "christiangeorgelucas/cron-explainer-card", "input": {"cron": "*/15 9-17 * * 1-5"}} ``` Comes back in about two seconds with `ok: true`, a typed field breakdown, and a rendered card: ```text cron breakdown ============== description : every 15 minutes every hour between 9 and 17 every day between Monday and Friday fields: minute = */15 (every) hour = 9-17 (between) day_of_month = * (always) month = * (always) day_of_week = 1-5 (between) ``` Alongside the card the result carries the structured form your agent should actually branch on: `is_valid: true`, `normalized: "*/15 9-17 * * 1-5"`, the same `description` string, and `fields[]` — one entry per cron field with its raw sub-expression and its shape (`every`, `between`, `always`). ### 4. Invoke a node the same way Nodes take a three-segment ref, `//`: ```json {"kind": "node", "target": "christiangeorgelucas/json-canon-tools/CanonicalHash", "input": {"json": "{\"b\":2,\"a\":1}"}} ``` ```json { "algorithm": "sha256", "canonical": "{\"a\":1,\"b\":2}", "hash_base64": "QyWM/3g/5wNtikMDP4MK38YOwDc4JHNUisdCuIgpJ3c=", "hash_hex": "43258cff783fe7036d8a43033f830adfc60ec037382473548ac742b888292777" } ``` No `@version` in that ref, so it resolved to the newest published version of `json-canon-tools` — the same aliasing rule as flow names. Pin an exact one with `…/CanonicalHash@0.1.0` when you need reproducibility more than fixes. ## Let your agent build the missing tool Sooner or later `axiom_search` comes back with nothing that fits. That moment is the one Axiom is built around, and it has two answers. The cheap one is **`axiom_propose`** — file the gap right there, from the MCP client, while you are holding the real task that needs it. A proposal written mid-task is high-signal demand: it names the inputs, the outputs, and the concrete case, which is exactly what a vague feature request lacks. See [Send feedback and propose marketplace artifacts](../guides/send-feedback-and-propose.md). The better one is to **build it**. Authoring happens through the `axiom` CLI, not the MCP server — and an agent with a shell is very good at driving a CLI. Install the CLI ([Install the Axiom CLI](./installation.md)), then have your agent scaffold, test, and push a package ([Write your first node](./first-node.md)). Claude Code can install Axiom's authoring Skills and run the whole create→validate→push→publish loop for you: see [Author and consume packages and flows with Claude Code](../guides/author-with-claude-code.md). Publish it and it is in the same catalog your agent searched a minute ago. ## Costs and account Axiom is **free during public beta**. There is no card to add, no per-call price, and no quota to buy. You do not create an account ahead of time: the first OAuth sign-in from your MCP client makes one, with GitHub, Google, or email and password. Signing up accepts the [terms of service](https://axiomide.com/terms); the [privacy policy](https://axiomide.com/privacy) covers what is stored and how it is handled. Both are also linked from the consent screen you approve. Two honest caveats about beta. **Data may be reset** — the catalog, your packages, and your flows are not yet covered by a durability promise, so keep your package source in your own git repository (which is where `axiom push` builds from anyway). And the hosted MCP server is **synchronous only**: an invoke has a roughly 30-second budget, and a target that streams, pauses for human approval, or needs a secret grant returns an explicit, machine-readable *not-callable* result rather than hanging your agent. ## Going deeper - [Use Axiom from any MCP client](../guides/hosted-mcp-server.md) — the full reference: all eight tools, the OAuth and API-key paths in detail, how to name a node or flow, pinned typed tools, and what each not-callable reason means. - [Invoke a flow via API](./invoke-via-api.md) — call the same flows over plain HTTP, from code that is not an MCP client. - [Publish a flow to the marketplace](../guides/publish-a-flow.md) — take a flow you composed and make it public, so the next agent's search finds it.