Claude Desktop

Install the Crypto Brain MCP server in Claude Desktop in under a minute. Once installed, Claude can call any of the 105 tools directly from a chat: no extra UI, no copy-paste.

1. Install

BCA ships as a zero-install npx package. No global install, no Docker, no Python.

npx -y @blockchainacademics/mcp

The first run downloads the package and prints a usage banner. Press Ctrl+C: you only ran it once to prime the npm cache. Claude Desktop invokes it on demand.

2. Add to your Claude Desktop config

Open your Claude Desktop config file:

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

%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Paste this for the zero-config demo (10 marquee tools, 100 calls/day shared globally):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "blockchainacademics": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@blockchainacademics/mcp"]
    }
  }
}

When you are ready for all 105 tools, add the env block with your key:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "blockchainacademics": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@blockchainacademics/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "BCA_API_KEY": "bca_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
      }
    }
  }
}

See Demo tier for the full list of 10 zero-config tools and what falls under the upgrade.

3. Restart Claude Desktop

Fully quit Claude Desktop (not just the window: Cmd+Q on macOS) and relaunch. You should see a small hammer icon in the chat input bar. Click it and confirm blockchainacademics appears with 105 tools listed.

4. Try it

In a new chat, paste:

"Use the BCA tools to summarize this week's regulatory news on Circle, with citations."

Claude will call search_news with entity="circle" and topic="regulation", then assemble a cited summary. Every quoted fact links back to a blockchainacademics.com article via attribution.citations[0].cite_url in the response envelope.

Troubleshooting

Next up

• Browse the tool reference →
• Read the attribution contract →
• Try the LangChain quickstart →