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spendctl

REMOTE · MCP.SPENDCTL.DEV

Spend policy for AI agents that pay (x402, MPP). Login-free sandbox, real sidecar, no real funds.

Available components

+3 this week 70 Trust /100

Last scanned (9 hours ago)

Scores higher than 55% of remote servers

Reachable. Last reached 5 Nov 2026.

Category Finance and Payments

Trust breakdown (7 categories)

How this component scores in each security and reliability category. Every signal is checked automatically against the live server, and we only credit what we can confirm. How we score → Why this is hard to score →

Endpoint Security63
Transport & Reachability100
Schema Quality & AI Usability69
  • AI-judged instruction clarity (excellent).Pass
  • Context-footprint check failed: tool/resource definitions use about 1754 tokens (~219/item across 8 items; 8 tools + 0 resources), over budget; trim descriptions and params. See how to fix → Fail
  • Usage-examples check failed: none of the tools include examples. See how to fix → Fail
Stability & Change Management33
  • Stability observed for 10 of 30 days with no destabilising changes; credit accrues until the full window elapses.Partial
Tool Coverage100
  • 100% of tools have a non-trivial description (not blank, and not just the tool's name).Pass
  • 100% of tool parameters carry a description.Pass
Tool Safety100
  • No prompt-injection markers were found in the server instructions, tool names or descriptions we captured.Pass
  • All 2 tool(s) whose name or description implies an irreversible operation declare an MCP destructiveHint annotation.Pass
  • An AI judge read all 9 captured unit(s) of tool text and found none that tries to manipulate the model reading it.Pass
Capabilities100
  • Implements a current MCP spec version (2026-07-28).Pass
Changelog

Every change we have recorded for this component, newest first. Security-relevant changes are always shown. ▲ marks a change for the better, ▼ a change for the worse; unmarked changes are neutral.

  • 4 Nov 26 +1

    No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 27 to 30. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 8 days of observed history at the previous scan, 9 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.

  • 3 Nov 26 0
    • The server rewrote its instructions, which are the text every model session reads security
    • Schema quality: 1329 → 1754 ▼ functional
    • New tool “await_approval” functional
    • New tool “withdraw_approval” functional
  • 2 Nov 26 +1

    No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 20 to 23. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 6 days of observed history at the previous scan, 7 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.

  • 31 Oct 26 +1

    No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 13 to 17. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 4 days of observed history at the previous scan, 5 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.

  • 28 Oct 26 +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.

  • 27 Oct 26 +1
    • The server rewrote its instructions, which are the text every model session reads security
    • Tool “list_receipts” rewrote its description, which is the text the model reads security
    • Tool “approve” rewrote its description, which is the text the model reads security
    • Tool “check_budget” rewrote its description, which is the text the model reads security
    • Tool “get_policy” rewrote its description, which is the text the model reads security
    • Tool “sandbox_create” rewrote its description, which is the text the model reads security
    • Tool “sandbox_pay” rewrote its description, which is the text the model reads security
    • Schema quality: pass → fail ▼ functional
    • Tool coverage: 76% → 100% ▲ functional
    • Stability: unverified → 0.03 ▲ functional
    • Schema quality: good → excellent functional
    • “approve” reworded the description of “approvalId” cosmetic
    • “approve” reworded the description of “decision” cosmetic
    • “approve” reworded the description of “note” cosmetic
    • “approve” reworded the description of “sandbox_id” cosmetic
    • “check_budget” reworded the description of “sandbox_id” cosmetic
    • “get_policy” reworded the description of “sandbox_id” cosmetic
    • “list_receipts” reworded the description of “limit” cosmetic
    • “list_receipts” reworded the description of “sandbox_id” cosmetic
    • “sandbox_create” reworded the description of “preset” cosmetic
    • “sandbox_pay” reworded the description of “approvalId” cosmetic
    • “sandbox_pay” reworded the description of “dryRun” cosmetic
    • “sandbox_pay” reworded the description of “idempotencyKey” cosmetic
    • “sandbox_pay” reworded the description of “sandbox_id” cosmetic
    • “sandbox_pay” dropped the optional parameter “body” cosmetic
    • “sandbox_pay” dropped the optional parameter “headers” cosmetic
    • “sandbox_pay” dropped the optional parameter “method” cosmetic
  • 26 Oct 26 65

    First indexed and scored.

Diagnostics

Diagnostic detail from the automated scan of this channel: what the scanner observed at each step, so you can see exactly where a check passed or failed. It is informational only and never changes the trust score.

Captured 5 Nov 2026 · Probed https://mcp.spendctl.dev/mcp

TLS valid

Negotiated TLS 1.3 with TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 .

Subject Issuer Valid from Valid until Key Signature Serial
CN=spendctl.dev CN=WE1,O=Google Trust Services,C=US 26 Oct 2026 24 Jan 2027 ECDSA 256 ECDSA-SHA256 7bc4b69da46c7e2d13e97a0e163043bb
SANs: spendctl.dev, mcp.spendctl.dev, *.mcp.spendctl.dev
CN=WE1,O=Google Trust Services,C=US (CA) CN=GTS Root R4,O=Google Trust Services LLC,C=US 13 Dec 2023 20 Feb 2029 ECDSA 256 ECDSA-SHA384 7ff31977972c224a76155d13b6d685e3
CN=GTS Root R4,O=Google Trust Services LLC,C=US (CA) CN=GlobalSign Root CA,OU=Root CA,O=GlobalSign nv-sa,C=BE 15 Nov 2023 28 Jan 2028 ECDSA 384 SHA256-RSA 7fe530bf331343bedd821610493d8a1b

Background: What to check on a remote MCP endpoint →

DNSSEC insecure

Validation of mcp.spendctl.dev. — Not signed

Zone DS Keys Algorithms Outcome
. trust_anchor 20326, 38696 8, 8 Verified
dev. present 60074 8 Verified
spendctl.dev. absent Unsigned (proven) parent-signed NSEC/NSEC3 proves an unsigned delegation
Authentication No authorisation required

The endpoint answered without asking for a token. Anyone who knows the URL can reach it.

Result No authorisation required
HTTP status 200

Background: How OAuth 2.1 works in the 2026 MCP spec →

Transports 2 probes
Transport URL Outcome Status Location
streamable-http https://mcp.spendctl.dev/mcp Verified 200
http (plaintext) http://mcp.spendctl.dev/mcp Inconclusive 405
MCP tools · 8 exposed · ~1,554 tokens

The tools this component advertises to a client, with an estimated token cost for each. Expand a tool to see its parameters and schema. The per-tool counts are indicative and are not scored directly; the schema's total context footprint is one signal in Schema Quality & AI Usability. A tool's description is untrusted text the model reads on every call, which is what makes this list a security surface and not just an inventory: how tool poisoning works →

Tool Tokens
approve ~192

Approves or denies a payment that sandbox_pay reported as waiting for approval, as the human approver would with `spendctl approve`. Use it only with an approval id from this sandbox; in the real product a human decides, in the sandbox the model plays that role. Returns the approval id and its new status (approved or denied). An approved payment completes when sandbox_pay is called again with the same approvalId; a denied one stays refused. Deciding the same approval twice keeps the first decision.

NameTypeReqDescription
approvalIdstringyesThe approval id returned by sandbox_pay in its "waiting for approval" result (Approval id: ...)
decisionstring–approve releases the held payment; deny refuses it for good
notestring–Optional reason recorded with the decision, up to 200 characters
sandbox_idstringyesThe sandbox_id returned by sandbox_create (32 hex characters)

No output schema declared.

No examples provided.

await_approval ~204

Waits for the decision on a payment that sandbox_pay reported as held, without paying again: long-polls the sandbox sidecar for up to timeoutSeconds (default 10, at most 20) and returns pending, approved, denied, expired or withdrawn, with the ledger entry and the decision deadline. This is what an agent does in the real product while a human decides; in the sandbox the model is also the approver (approve), so call approve from another turn or first. After approved, repeat sandbox_pay with approvalId to complete the payment. Read-only; never pays and never decides.

NameTypeReqDescription
approvalIdstringyesThe approval id returned by sandbox_pay in its "waiting for approval" result (Approval id: ...)
sandbox_idstringyesThe sandbox_id returned by sandbox_create (32 hex characters)
timeoutSecondsinteger–How long to wait for a decision before answering pending (1 to 20, default 10)

No output schema declared.

No examples provided.

check_budget ~120

Shows the sandbox agent's spending limits, what has been spent in each window and what is left. Use it before a paid call when the remaining budget matters, or after a refusal to see which limit was hit. Returns the agent name and mode, the per-request limit, the approval threshold, what happens when a budget is exceeded, the allowed hosts and one line per window (hourly, daily: spent, limit, remaining). Read-only; changes nothing.

NameTypeReqDescription
sandbox_idstringyesThe sandbox_id returned by sandbox_create (32 hex characters)

No output schema declared.

No examples provided.

get_policy ~94

Returns the sandbox's spendctl.yaml as text: the preset name and the agent's budgets, allowed hosts and approval rules. Use it to explain why a payment was refused or held, or to show what a spendctl policy file looks like. Read-only; the sandbox policy cannot be changed, create a sandbox with another preset instead.

NameTypeReqDescription
sandbox_idstringyesThe sandbox_id returned by sandbox_create (32 hex characters)

No output schema declared.

No examples provided.

list_receipts ~147

Lists the sandbox agent's most recent payment attempts, newest first: paid (amount and mock transaction hash), refused (reason codes) and waiting for approval. Use it to report what happened so far or to find a receipt id; after a hold, the approval id is in the sandbox_pay result. Returns up to `limit` lines, one per attempt, with time, receipt id, method, URL, amount and status, or "No payments yet." Read-only.

NameTypeReqDescription
limitinteger–How many attempts to return, newest first (1 to 100, default 10)
sandbox_idstringyesThe sandbox_id returned by sandbox_create (32 hex characters)

No output schema declared.

No examples provided.

sandbox_create ~227

Creates an isolated spendctl sandbox and returns its sandbox_id. Call it first: every other tool needs the sandbox_id, and one sandbox serves a whole conversation (create another only to try a different preset). The sandbox is a real spendctl sidecar with a throwaway wallet, a mock x402 facilitator and two mock paid APIs; no real money moves and nothing outside the sandbox is reachable. Returns the sandbox_id, the agent's policy (budgets, allowed hosts, approval rule) and the paid endpoints with their prices. Limits: 5 sandboxes per minute per client; a sandbox expires after 2 hours without calls (24 hours at most). Example: preset "strict" to see refusals, "approvals" to see a payment held for a human.

NameTypeReqDescription
presetstring–Policy preset. default: comfortable caps, both endpoints allowed; strict: $0.015 per request and $0.03 per day, weather only, so the search API and a fourth weather call are refused; approvals: payme…

No output schema declared.

No examples provided.

sandbox_pay ~387

Fetches one of the sandbox's paid endpoints (HTTP 402, x402) through the spendctl sidecar, which applies the sandbox agent's budget, allowlist and approval policy, pays with the throwaway wallet if allowed, and returns the response. Use it for every paid call in the sandbox: with dryRun to see the decision without paying, with approvalId to complete a payment that was held and then approved. The endpoints are https://weather.sandbox.spendctl.dev/weather?city=<name> ($0.01) and https://search.sandbox.spendctl.dev/search?q=<query> ($0.02), as listed by sandbox_create and documented at https://spendctl.dev/docs/sandbox/; any other host is refused. Returns a one-line summary (HTTP status, amount paid, decision, receipt id) followed by the response body, or the refusal with its reason, or an approval id when the payment is waiting for a human. Only sandbox hosts exist and no real funds are involved; the request is always a GET and responses are clipped at 20,000 characters. Example: url https://weather.sandbox.spendctl.dev/weather?city=Kyoto

NameTypeReqDescription
approvalIdstring–The approval id from an earlier sandbox_pay result, after approve accepted it, to complete that held payment
dryRunboolean–true: only report what spendctl would decide; never pay
idempotencyKeystring–Reuse the same key when retrying a call so the sandbox is never charged twice, e.g. "kyoto-1"
sandbox_idstringyesThe sandbox_id returned by sandbox_create (32 hex characters)
urlstringyesAbsolute URL of a sandbox endpoint, e.g. https://weather.sandbox.spendctl.dev/weather?city=Kyoto

No output schema declared.

No examples provided.

withdraw_approval ~183

Takes back a payment that sandbox_pay reported as held, as a real agent does when the task that needed the payment was cancelled or superseded: nothing is paid, the approval closes as withdrawn (distinct from deny), a later approve on that id is refused and await_approval answers withdrawn at once. Use it with an approval id from this sandbox; a new sandbox_pay call opens a fresh approval if the payment is wanted after all. Withdrawing an id that was already decided reports that decision as an error.

NameTypeReqDescription
approvalIdstringyesThe approval id returned by sandbox_pay in its "waiting for approval" result (Approval id: ...)
notestring–Optional reason recorded with the withdrawal, e.g. "task cancelled", up to 200 characters
sandbox_idstringyesThe sandbox_id returned by sandbox_create (32 hex characters)

No output schema declared.

No examples provided.

Install

How do I install the spendctl MCP server?

spendctl is a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.spendctl.dev/mcp, so there is nothing to install locally. Ready-made configuration for Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Codex and 5 more is on this page, copied from each client's own documentation.

remote · mcp.spendctl.dev

# add to Claude Code
claude mcp add --transport http dev-spendctl-spendctl 'https://mcp.spendctl.dev/mcp'
Common questions

What is the spendctl MCP server?

spendctl is an MCP server listed in the public MCP registry as dev.spendctl/spendctl. Spend policy for AI agents that pay (x402, MPP). Login-free sandbox, real sidecar, no real funds. This page covers its hosted endpoint (https://mcp.spendctl.dev/mcp).

Is the spendctl MCP server safe to use?

spendctl scores 70 out of 100 on VerifyMCP. 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 spendctl MCP server expose?

spendctl exposes 8 tools: sandbox_create, sandbox_pay, await_approval, withdraw_approval, check_budget, and 3 more. Their descriptions and schemas cost roughly 1,554 tokens of context every time the server is loaded.

Does the spendctl MCP server require authentication?

No. We connected to spendctl without credentials and it answered, so anything it exposes is reachable by anyone who knows the address.

Is the spendctl MCP server still maintained?

spendctl 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.