Altus Commonware Research

A stdio MCP server that queries Commonware blockchain research via NotebookLM. Each teammate runs it locally — NotebookLM workspace access controls who can query.

Prerequisites

1. Google Chrome must be installed (used for the built-in login flow via Chrome DevTools Protocol).

2. (Optional) Create a GitHub personal access token (for search_implementation / suggestion / factcheck tools):

   • Go to https://github.com/settings/tokens
   • Generate a token — no scopes needed for public repos

3. Clone and build:

   git clone <repo-url>
   cd altus-commonware-research-mcp
   npm install
   cp .env_example .env
   

   Then build:

   npm run build
   

4. Build the local code search index (requires GITHUB_TOKEN and REFERENCE_REPOS in .env):

   npm run setup-index
   

   This fetches file trees and content from all REFERENCE_REPOS and stores them in a local SQLite FTS5 database (data/index.db) for fast code search. To re-index later (e.g. after upstream changes), run with --force:

   npm run setup-index -- --force
   

   You can also re-index at runtime via the setup_db MCP tool.

5. Authenticate with NotebookLM by calling the login tool. This launches Chrome, lets you sign in to your Google account, and extracts auth cookies automatically.

Configuration

Edit .env to configure the server:

NOTEBOOK_ID=<your-notebook-id>
REFERENCE_REPOS=commonwarexyz/alto,commonwarexyz/monorepo,tempoxyz/tempo,paradigmxyz/reth
GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_...

Variable	Required	Description
NOTEBOOK_ID	Yes	NotebookLM notebook ID (from the notebook URL)
REFERENCE_REPOS	Yes	Comma-separated list of GitHub repos (owner/name). These are the repos that suggestion, search_implementation, and factcheck search against.
GITHUB_TOKEN	No	GitHub personal access token. No scopes needed for public repos, but recommended to avoid rate limits.
SQLITE_DB_PATH	No	Path to SQLite database file. Default: data/index.db in the project root.

The REFERENCE_REPOS list determines which repositories the tools can search. Tools like suggestion and factcheck auto-select the most relevant repos from this list per query, or you can override with the repos argument.

Connect to MCP

Claude Code

Add to your Claude Code MCP settings (~/.claude/settings.json or project .mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "altus-research": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/altus-commonware-research-mcp/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Gemini CLI

Add to ~/.gemini/settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "altus-research": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/altus-commonware-research-mcp/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Codex CLI

Add to ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.altus-research]
command = "node"
args = ["/absolute/path/to/altus-commonware-research-mcp/dist/index.js"]

Tools

login

Authenticate with NotebookLM. Launches Chrome, waits for you to sign in to your Google account, and extracts auth cookies via CDP.

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refresh_auth

Reload NotebookLM auth tokens from disk. Use this after re-running login in another session, or if tokens were updated externally.

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query

Ask a question about Altus Commonware Research directly to NotebookLM — useful for quick lookups on concepts, design rationale, or protocol details.

• Arguments:
  • question: The research question to ask.

Example:

Q: "What is the actor pattern in Commonware and why is it preferred over mutexes?"

A: The actor pattern in Commonware uses mailbox-based async message passing where each actor owns its state exclusively. This avoids mutex contention and deadlocks — actors communicate by sending messages rather than sharing memory. The one-writer/many-readers model ensures each piece of state has a single owner, which simplifies reasoning about concurrency and improves throughput under high parallelism…

---

suggestion

Get an architectural implementation suggestion that combines NotebookLM research with actual code snippets from reference repos. This is a two-stage flow:

Example:

Q: "How would I implement a mempool in Commonware?"

A:

Summary

• Mempools in Commonware buffer pending payloads at the primitive level, partitioned by namespace.
• The Alto reference client implements this as an actor that owns a BTreeMap of pending containers, drained by the proposer on each build cycle.
• Key design decision: the mempool actor uses one-writer ownership — only the mempool actor mutates the pending set; the proposer reads a snapshot via async request.

(followed by reasoning, code examples from reference repos, and a suggested search_implementation query)

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search_implementation

Search reference repository and return source code snippets explaining how the feature is actually implemented.

Example:

Q: "How Tempo implemented Automaton trait that connect Commonware Simplex consensus engine"

A:

Summary

• Tempo connects to Commonware Simplex by using an application actor as the consensus-execution bridge, explicitly documented as implementing commonware_consensus::Automaton.
• Commonware Simplex is parameterized over A: CertifiableAutomaton, so Tempo plugs its application-side automaton adapter into that slot.
• Architecturally, the flow is Simplex consensus actors → automaton interface → Tempo application/executor/marshal actors.

Implementation Details

Tempo's consensus engine defines the Automaton bridge point — application is annotated as the component that implements the consensus automaton interface, sitting next to executor/marshal synchronization actors.

// crates/commonware-node/src/consensus/engine.rs (lines 438–454)

/// Acts as the glue between the consensus and execution layers implementing
/// the `[commonware_consensus::Automaton]` trait.
application: application::Actor<TContext>,

/// Responsible for keeping the consensus layer state and execution layer
/// states in sync.
executor: crate::executor::Actor<TContext>,
executor_mailbox: crate::executor::Mailbox,

Simplex requires an automaton type parameter — the engine is generic over A: CertifiableAutomaton, making the automaton the formal interface between consensus and the application/execution domain.

// consensus/src/simplex/engine.rs (lines 19–29)

pub struct Engine<
    E: BufferPooler + Clock + CryptoRngCore + Spawner + Storage + Metrics,
    S: Scheme<D>,
    ...
    A: CertifiableAutomaton<Context = Context<D, S::PublicKey>, Digest = D>,
    ...
> {

(truncated — full output includes construction-site evidence and flow analysis)

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factcheck

Validate a document (or a set of claims) against actual source code in reference repos.

Example:

Q: "Validate this document: [Alto architecture and Simplex consensus flow documentation...]"

A:

Result

• Core Alto/Simplex claims are mostly supported.
• A non-trivial subset came back INSUFFICIENT_EVIDENCE (tool retrieval failed to find enough code proof), not NOT_VERIFIED.
• No direct NOT_VERIFIED verdicts were returned.

Claims with strong support (Verified)

• Alto is minimal and omits transaction execution/state logic.
• Alto block type includes parent, height, timestamp, and precomputed digest.
• Simplex voter/application interaction (propose/verify) is present.
• Batcher vote verification/certificate construction behavior is supported.
• Alto fixed-epoch config (u64::MAX) and timeout constants (~256, ~32) are supported.
• Tempo has Reth/engine-validator integration evidence.

Claims not fully proven (INSUFFICIENT_EVIDENCE or Partially Verified)

• Some marshal persistence/dataflow claims (proof incomplete at flow level).
• verify → marshal.subscribe → return result path (not retrieved with sufficient evidence).
• Tempo epoch-manager and DKG epoch-transition claims (not sufficiently retrieved).
• Some conceptual/proof statements (PBFT/Simplex correctness arguments) are only partially verifiable from implementation code.

Practical conclusion

• Your document is directionally accurate for Alto architecture and Simplex flow.
• Treat Tempo epoch/DKG sections and some deep flow claims as "needs explicit code citations" before calling it fully validated.

(truncated — full output includes claim-by-claim verdict table, evidence appendix, and fix suggestions)

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setup_db

Initialize or re-index the local SQLite FTS5 search index at runtime. Same as npm run setup-index but callable as an MCP tool.

• Arguments:
  • repos (optional): Subset of REFERENCE_REPOS to index.
  • force (optional): Re-index even if already indexed.