Aries

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Aries is a Model Context Protocol server that gives any MCP-capable assistant — Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor — a knowledge and live-chain-data layer for the Alkanes metaprotocol and the Subfrost network. Point your assistant at Aries and it can read the protocol docs, query the live chain, and scaffold contracts without leaving the editor.

There are two ways to use it: the hosted API (recommended) and a bring-your-own-key local install.

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The hosted API — the living Aries

Subscribe to hosted Aries  ·  bragi.build/aries

The hosted edition is live now and it is the way to get the full Aries. It is a continuously-learning instance: on top of the baseline docs it carries an ever-growing corpus of real-world lessons — reviewed incident knowledge contributed by every connected agent — that a fresh local clone does not have. Connect one URL and your assistant inherits the whole shared brain, which gets smarter every day.

Living corpus	Accumulated, reviewed real-world gotchas and fixes — not just static docs.
Zero setup	No clone, no build, no key to provision. Connect and go.
Tiered, managed access	From a free tier up to production throughput, with rate limits handled for you.
Always current	The corpus and tools update server-side.

Prefer to run everything yourself? The open, bring-your-own-key edition in this repo is below.

Hosted vs. local

Both editions ship the same 21 tools and the same 75-doc baseline. The difference is the living corpus — and who manages the keys.

	Hosted  ·  bragi.build/aries	Local  ·  this repo
All 21 tools	Yes	Yes
75-doc baseline knowledge	Yes	Yes
Live Subfrost chain data	Yes — managed	Yes — your own key
Living corpus of real-world lessons	Yes — ever-growing	No
Accumulated incident learning	Yes	No (local store only)
Setup	Connect a URL	Clone, install, build
Subfrost key	Managed for you	You provide
Access	Free to production tiers	Unlimited, local

Local gives you a complete, self-contained companion on the static baseline. Hosted adds the continuously-learning brain on top. Start local if you like; move to hosted when you want the living corpus.

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Run it locally (bring your own key)

Clone this repo and run Aries on your own machine with your own Subfrost API key. You get the full toolset and the complete 75-doc static baseline knowledge — without the hosted instance's accumulated learning.

Get a Subfrost API key

Aries talks to the Subfrost gateway with your key.

Sign up for a Subfrost API key — sign up with our Subfrost referral link and get 50% off your first month.

Quickstart

Requirements: Node.js >= 20 and a Subfrost API key (sign up with our referral link for 50% off your first month).

git clone https://github.com/bitbragi/alkanes-aries.git
cd alkanes-aries
npm install
cp .env.example .env        # then set SUBFROST_API_KEY (see below)
npm run build

Set your key in .env:

SUBFROST_API_KEY=your-key-here
# optional override:
# SUBFROST_RPC=https://mainnet.subfrost.io/v4/jsonrpc

The key is sent as the x-subfrost-api-key header (never in a URL) and never leaves your machine except as that outbound header. .env is gitignored.

Connect your MCP client

Claude Code

claude mcp add --scope local --transport stdio aries \
  -e SUBFROST_API_KEY=YOUR_KEY \
  -- node /absolute/path/to/alkanes-aries/dist/index.js

Verify with claude mcp list, then /mcp in a session. (-- separates Claude's flags from the launch command; keep -e KEY=value right before -- — it is variadic and will otherwise swallow the server name.)

Cursor / Claude Desktop — any client that takes a JSON server config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "aries": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/alkanes-aries/dist/index.js"],
      "env": { "SUBFROST_API_KEY": "your-key-here" }
    }
  }
}

Your assistant now has all 21 Aries tools.

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What's inside — 21 tools, four layers

Layer	Tools
Knowledge — a searchable corpus of 75 curated docs: the Alkanes metaprotocol, the Subfrost JSON-RPC/REST reference, alkanes-rs, tutorials, oracle docs, reference contracts	aries_search, aries_doc, aries_full_doc, aries_catalog, aries_tutorials
Chain data — live, read-only queries against the Subfrost gateway: holdings, contract metadata, bytecode, simulate, frBTC peg + DIESEL status, oracle reads, AMM pools, guarded RPC	aries_tokens_by_address, aries_token, aries_contract_meta, aries_bytecode, aries_simulate, aries_frbtc_status, aries_diesel_status, aries_oracle_read, aries_oracle_price, aries_pools, aries_pool_info, aries_rpc
Dev — protocol constants and contract scaffolds, including orbital NFTs	aries_constants, aries_scaffold
Learning — a local incident loop that records gotchas to your own machine as you work	aries_incident_report, aries_incident_query

Ask your assistant things like

"Is the frBTC peg live, who's the signer, and how much frBTC exists?"

"What Alkanes tokens does bc1p… hold?"

"Show the AMM pools and a pool's reserves."

"How do I build a token / oracle / stablecoin / AMM / Orbital?"

"Scaffold an Orbital NFT contract."

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Safety — read-only by design

Aries is analytics only. It never signs, broadcasts, or touches wallets or keys:

• The aries_rpc passthrough is allowlisted to read methods and explicitly blocks broadcast / spend / admin calls.
• Scaffolds and constants are emitted for you to run in your own alkanes CLI, where you hold the keys.
• The local incident loop writes only to your machine and sanitizes secrets, keys, and paths out of any report.

Your keys stay yours. Aries only reads and advises.

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Configuration

Variable	Purpose
SUBFROST_API_KEY	Required — auth for the live chain-data tools.
SUBFROST_RPC / SUBFROST_REST	Optional gateway overrides (default to mainnet JSON-RPC / REST).
ARIES_INCIDENTS_PATH	Optional path for your local incident store (default data/incidents.jsonl, gitignored).

Logs go to stderr only — stdout is the MCP protocol channel. The doc index is built from corpus/ at startup.

Good to know

• Alkane ids are {block, tx} / block:tx. frBTC = 32:0, DIESEL (genesis) = 2:0. Protocol tag is always 1.
• Read contract state with aries_simulate: the opcode goes in inputs (e.g. [103]), not data.
• Orbitals (Alkanes NFTs) are a Token with total supply 1 + opcode 1000 for media; read them with aries_oracle_read, scaffold one with aries_scaffold orbital.
• Extend the corpus by editing corpus/ or adding URLs to scripts/ingest.ts (HTML cleaned via turndown + jsdom; raw .md/.rs taken verbatim).

Links

Hosted, continuously-learning Aries	bragi.build/aries
Subfrost API keys (50% off first month)	api.subfrost.io
Model Context Protocol	modelcontextprotocol.io

License

MIT