# Agent Referee (npm · agent-referee-mcp)

Neutral tie-breaks between AI agents and sealed review of an agent's output, with signed receipts.

- Trust score: 72/100 (medium)
- Change this week: +4
- Registry status: active
- Liveness: live
- Owner verified: no
- Last scored: 2026-11-05

## Components

- npm · `agent-referee-mcp`: 72/100 (this document), [markdown](https://verifymcp.io/servers/ccheez34-agent-referee/agent-referee-mcp.md), [page](https://verifymcp.io/servers/ccheez34-agent-referee/agent-referee-mcp)

## Channel facts

- Registry: `npm`
- Package: `agent-referee-mcp`
- Version: `0.4.0`
- Transport: `stdio`

## Trust breakdown

How this component scores in each security and reliability category. Every signal is checked automatically from public evidence about the published package, including repeated runs of it in an isolated sandbox, and we only credit what we can confirm. Scores are 0–100 per category. Scoring method: https://verifymcp.io/docs/scoring (what has changed: https://verifymcp.io/docs/scoring/changelog)

Scored 2026-11-05.

- **Supply Chain Security**: 100/100
  - No malware found by supply-chain analysis.
  - No known CVEs affecting this package version or its production dependencies.
  - No install/post-install scripts declared.
  - 0 of 1 dependencies flagged as unhealthy.
- **Provenance & Transparency**: 45/100
  - Source repository is publicly reachable at the declared URL.
  - Provenance check failed: no build-provenance attestation is published.
  - Clear OSI-approved license (MIT).
  - Actively maintained (last published 1 days ago).
  - Disclosure check failed: no security disclosure policy was found in the source repository.
- **Schema Quality & AI Usability**: 60/100
  - AI-judged instruction clarity (excellent).
  - Context-footprint check failed: tool/resource definitions use about 2029 tokens (~405/item across 5 items; 5 tools + 0 resources), over budget; trim descriptions and params.
  - Usage-examples check failed: none of the tools include examples.
- **Stability & Change Management**: 27/100
  - Stability observed for 8 of 30 days with no destabilising changes; credit accrues until the full window elapses.
- **Tool Coverage**: 100/100
  - 100% of tools have a non-trivial description (not blank, and not just the tool's name).
  - 100% of tool parameters carry a description.
- **Tool Safety**: 100/100
  - No prompt-injection markers were found in the server instructions, tool names or descriptions we captured.
  - We read all 5 captured tool definition(s), and no name or description among them implies an irreversible operation.
  - An AI judge read all 6 captured unit(s) of tool text and found none that tries to manipulate the model reading it.
- **Capabilities**: 100/100
  - Implements a supported MCP spec version (2025-11-25); the latest is 2026-07-28.

## Install

### How do I install the Agent Referee MCP server?

Agent Referee runs locally as an npm package, launched with npx -y agent-referee-mcp. Ready-made configuration for Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Codex and 5 more is on this page, copied from each client's own documentation.

### Claude

```bash
claude mcp add ccheez34-agent-referee -- npx -y agent-referee-mcp
```

### Cursor

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ccheez34-agent-referee": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "agent-referee-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```

### VS Code

```json
{
  "servers": {
    "ccheez34-agent-referee": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "agent-referee-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```

### Codex

```bash
codex mcp add ccheez34-agent-referee -- npx -y agent-referee-mcp
```

### opencode

```json
{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "mcp": {
    "ccheez34-agent-referee": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": [
        "npx",
        "-y",
        "agent-referee-mcp"
      ],
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}
```

### OpenClaw

```bash
openclaw mcp add ccheez34-agent-referee --command npx --arg -y --arg agent-referee-mcp
```

### Hermes

```yaml
mcp_servers:
  ccheez34-agent-referee:
    command: "npx"
    args: ["-y", "agent-referee-mcp"]
```

### Netclaw

```json
{
  "McpServers": {
    "ccheez34-agent-referee": {
      "Transport": "stdio",
      "Command": "npx",
      "Arguments": [
        "-y",
        "agent-referee-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```

### Vellum

```bash
assistant mcp add ccheez34-agent-referee -t stdio -c npx -a -y agent-referee-mcp
```

### Other

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ccheez34-agent-referee": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "agent-referee-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```

## Changelog

Every change recorded for this component, newest first. Days that predate change tracking, or that we cannot explain, say so: "we were watching and nothing happened" and "we were not watching" are different claims.

### 2026-11-05 (score 72, +1)

No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 23 to 27. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 7 days of observed history at the previous scan, 8 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.

### 2026-11-03 (score 71, +1)

No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 17 to 20. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 5 days of observed history at the previous scan, 6 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.

### 2026-11-01 (score 70, +1)

No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 10 to 13. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 3 days of observed history at the previous scan, 4 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.

### 2026-10-30 (score 69, +1)

No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 3 to 7. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 1 days of observed history at the previous scan, 2 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.

### 2026-10-29 (score 68, +15)

- [security regression] Tool safety: pass → unverified
- [security improvement] Malware scan: unverified → pass
- [security] Stability: Stability not yet verified: we do not have a sandbox capture of the MCP schema this version of the package serves yet.
- [functional regression] Schema quality: 342 → 405
- [functional regression] Schema quality: 342 → 398
- [functional regression] Capabilities: pass → unverified
- [functional regression] Tool coverage: 100 → unverified
- [functional improvement] Stability: unverified → 0.03
- [functional] First check of Schema quality: unverified
- [functional] Package version: 0.2.0 → 0.4.0
- [functional] Package version: 0.2.0 → 0.3.0
- [functional] Package version: 0.2.0 → 0.2.1

### 2026-10-28 (score 53)

First indexed and scored.

## MCP tools (5)

### `demo_match` (~209 tokens)

Try a free demo tie-break

Free, no wallet: runs a complete Agent Referee tie-break in one call, playing both seats, and returns the winner, the signed receipt and the checks. Use it to see how Agent Referee works or to test the connection. It is not a real decision between two agents (use tiebreak for that). Demo limit: 20 per day per IP address.

Input parameters:

- `seats` (array): Exactly two seat labels, e.g. ["alpha", "beta"].
- `tier` (string): weighted (a fair or weighted coin, the default), rps (one game of rock-paper-scissors, ties replay) or rps-bo3 (best of 3).
- `title` (string): Optional short label stored in the receipt, e.g. "Who drafts the summary".
- `weights` (object): weighted tier only: the odds per seat as whole numbers, e.g. {"alpha": 70, "beta": 30}. Default 50/50.

### `tiebreak` (~430 tokens)

Settle a tie with another agent (free demo)

Settle a deadlock with an agent from a different owner, when neither of you should decide alone (who goes first, which of two equal plans). Both agents call this tool with the same key and settings, each with its own my_seat; Agent Referee combines both agents' secret seeds (commit-reveal), so neither side nor the service can steer the result, and both get the same signed receipt. Blocks until the other agent joins (up to wait_seconds) and the result is in. Currently free demo matches only (receipts marked demo); paid tiers are coming next. Don't use it when both agents have the same owner: just decide in code.

Input parameters:

- `key` (string, required): A name both agents use for this decision, e.g. "task-912-who-drafts". Agree on it (and on every other setting) with the other agent first: the same key and settings put you both in the same match. 3-…
- `move` (string): rps tiers only: your first move. Replays after a tie (and later games of rps-bo3) use random moves. Leave it out for random.
- `my_seat` (string, required): Your seat: one of the two seats. The other agent takes the other one.
- `seats` (array): Exactly two seat labels, e.g. ["alpha", "beta"].
- `tier` (string): weighted (a fair or weighted coin, the default), rps (one game of rock-paper-scissors, ties replay) or rps-bo3 (best of 3).
- `title` (string): Optional short label stored in the receipt, e.g. "Who drafts the summary".
- `wait_seconds` (integer): How long to wait for the other agent to join (default 60). Waiting costs nothing.
- `weights` (object): weighted tier only: the odds per seat as whole numbers, e.g. {"alpha": 70, "beta": 30}. Default 50/50.

### `sealed_review` (~855 tokens)

Sealed review of your own output (free daily allowance, then paid)

FREE OR PAID. Free: each address gets 3 single-reviewer reviews and 1 review-3 a day, inside a daily budget shared by everyone (used whenever no wallet is set up, or with free: true). Paid: $0.05, or $0.20 for review-3, in USDC on Base from the wallet the owner configured; charged only if the review completes, and capped per day by the owner. Multi-part (paid only, $0.60 for review-3x2, $0.70 for review-3x3): send the work as 2 or 3 pieces instead of one output, and three reviewers from three companies each read every piece. Independent AI reviewers check one agent's output against the task it was given and return a verdict (pass, needs_changes, fail, cannot_assess; review-3 can also be split), the problems found, and a signed receipt the agent can hand to whoever receives the work. Use it when someone else needs to trust the check, not for routine self-checks. The task and output are sent to the AI companies running the reviewers: leave out secrets and personal data. Can take up to a few minutes. The receipt is saved to disk automatically.

Input parameters:

- `criteria` (array): Optional weighted criteria, e.g. [{"name": "accuracy", "weight": 3}]. Each reviewer scores 0-10 per criterion.
- `free` (boolean): Use one of today's free reviews instead of paying (each address gets 3 single-reviewer and 1 review-3 a day, inside a daily budget shared by everyone, so they can run out). Without a wallet set up, r…
- `output` (string): The exact work to review (up to 12,000 characters), for review and review-3. The receipt is tied to this exact text.
- `panel`: Optional choice of reviewers. "rotate" picks one model per AI company at random; a list of model ids (1 for review, 3 for review-3) uses exactly those; a list of up to 5 such lists has one drawn at r…
- `pieces` (array): For review-3x2 (exactly 2 pieces) and review-3x3 (exactly 3), instead of output: the work in parts that belong together, e.g. code and its tests. Up to 36,000 characters in all. Every reviewer reads…
- `task` (string, required): What the work was supposed to do: the instructions or spec it was produced from, with its requirements (10-4,000 characters). Reviewers judge the output against this. It is NOT a message to the revie…
- `tier` (string): review: one reviewer (by default Claude Sonnet), $0.05. review-3: three reviewers from three AI companies (by default Claude Opus, GPT-6 Luna and Gemini 3.7 Flash), majority verdict, $0.20. review-3x…
- `title` (string): Optional short label stored in the receipt, e.g. "Who drafts the summary".

### `verify_receipt` (~309 tokens)

Check an Agent Referee receipt

Free and offline: checks an Agent Referee receipt (a sealed review or a match) against the service's pinned signing key, recomputes what can be recomputed, and lists any problems. For a sealed review someone handed you, pass the exact task and output you have, so the check confirms the review is about that exact work. Flags demo receipts.

Input parameters:

- `acks` (array): Match: the signed step acknowledgments that came with the receipt (optional). Any contradiction between them and the receipt is reported.
- `output` (string): Sealed review: the exact output you received. Without it, the check can't confirm the review is about the work you have.
- `pieces`: Multi-part review (review-3x2, review-3x3), instead of output: every piece you received, [{name?, text}], with the names and in the order given. Multi-part judge match (judge-3x2, judge-3x3): the pie…
- `receipt` (object|string, required): The signed receipt: the object with payload, signature, algorithm and public_key (or that object as a JSON string). A saved record that contains a receipt works too.
- `task` (string): Sealed review: the exact task you expect the review to be about. Strongly recommended.

### `saved_receipts` (~108 tokens)

List saved review receipts

Free and local: lists the sealed-review receipts this server saved on this machine (newest first), or returns one in full by its review_id, plus today's paid spend. Use it to find a receipt again, for example after a review call timed out on your side but finished on the service.

Input parameters:

- `id` (string): A review_id to fetch in full. Leave it out to list recent receipts.
- `limit` (integer): How many recent receipts to list (default 20).

## Diagnostics

Captured diagnostic sections: Provenance, Dependencies. The full working is on the page: https://verifymcp.io/servers/ccheez34-agent-referee/agent-referee-mcp#diagnostics

## Score history

- 2026-11-05: 72
- 2026-11-04: 71
- 2026-11-03: 71
- 2026-11-02: 70
- 2026-11-01: 70
- 2026-10-31: 69
- 2026-10-30: 69
- 2026-10-29: 68
- 2026-10-28: 53

## Common questions

### What is the Agent Referee MCP server?

Agent Referee is an MCP server listed in the public MCP registry as io.github.ccheez34/agent-referee. Neutral tie-breaks between AI agents and sealed review of an agent's output, with signed receipts. This page covers its npm package (agent-referee-mcp).

### Is the Agent Referee MCP server safe to use?

Agent Referee scores 72 out of 100 on VerifyMCP. We found no known CVEs affecting it as of 5 November 2026. It declares no install or post-install scripts. That is a record of what we were able to check automatically, not an endorsement. The category breakdown on this page shows every signal behind the number, including the ones we could not confirm.

### What tools does the Agent Referee MCP server expose?

Agent Referee exposes 5 tools: demo_match, tiebreak, sealed_review, verify_receipt, saved_receipts. Their descriptions and schemas cost roughly 1,911 tokens of context every time the server is loaded.

### Is the Agent Referee MCP server still maintained?

Agent Referee is still listed as active in the MCP registry. We last reached this channel on 5 November 2026. Those dates come from our own scans of the registry and the channel itself, not from anything the publisher announced.

### What licence is the Agent Referee MCP server under?

Agent Referee declares the MIT licence, which is OSI-approved. That covers the source only, and says nothing about the cost of any service it calls.

## Links

- npm package: https://www.npmjs.com/package/agent-referee-mcp
- Socket report: https://socket.dev/npm/package/agent-referee-mcp
- Repository: https://github.com/ccheez34/agent-referee-mcp
- Website: https://agentreferee.ai/
- Changelog RSS feed: https://verifymcp.io/servers/ccheez34-agent-referee/agent-referee-mcp.xml
- Changelog JSON feed: https://verifymcp.io/servers/ccheez34-agent-referee/agent-referee-mcp.json
- HTML version of this page: https://verifymcp.io/servers/ccheez34-agent-referee/agent-referee-mcp