mcp-kraken

[!WARNING] Alpha software. Interfaces and defaults may change in any minor release until v1.0. No liability for any financial loss, missed trades or misrouted withdrawals. Not financial advice. Not affiliated with Kraken or Payward Inc. See the full Disclaimer below before granting the server credentials with trading or withdrawal permissions.

An MCP server that exposes the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange Spot REST API over HTTP, secured with bearer tokens you manage locally.

• Full Kraken Spot REST surface, mapped to typed MCP tools.
• Proactive API-key permission detection — calls that the key cannot perform are rejected before they leave the box, with a clear error.
• Built-in token CLI: generate, list, and revoke bearer tokens used by HTTP clients to authenticate against the MCP itself.
• Single-process, stateless beyond the SQLite token store; ready for containerised deployment behind a reverse proxy.

WebSocket v2 and FIX transports are explicitly out of scope for the first release — see TODO.md.

Architecture

┌────────────┐    HTTPS / bearer    ┌───────────────┐    HMAC-signed    ┌─────────┐
│ MCP client │ ───────────────────▶ │  mcp-kraken   │ ─────────────────▶│ Kraken  │
│ (Claude…)  │ ◀─────────────────── │  FastMCP HTTP │ ◀───────────────  │ REST v0 │
└────────────┘                      └───────────────┘                   └─────────┘
                                          │
                                          ▼
                                   SQLite (bearer-token hashes)

Two authentication boundaries:

Boundary	Mechanism
MCP client → mcp-kraken (you control)	Opaque bearer tokens (SHA-256)
mcp-kraken → Kraken (you control)	KRAKEN_API_KEY + HMAC signature

Requirements

• Python >=3.12
• uv for dependency management
• just for the dev command runner (optional)
• A Kraken Spot API key — generate one in Account → Security → API. The permissions you enable on the key directly determine which MCP tools succeed (see Permissions below).

Quick start

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/XavierBeheydt/mcp-kraken.git
cd mcp-kraken
uv sync --dev

# Configure
cp .env.example .env
$EDITOR .env  # set KRAKEN_API_KEY and KRAKEN_API_SECRET

# Issue a bearer token for your MCP client
uv run mcp-kraken token create "claude-desktop" --expires-in 90d
# → copy the printed token; it will never be shown again

# Start the HTTP server (defaults to 0.0.0.0:8765/mcp)
uv run mcp-kraken serve

Point your MCP client at http://localhost:8765/mcp/ with the header Authorization: Bearer mck_….

CLI

mcp-kraken serve              # run the HTTP server
mcp-kraken token create NAME  # mint a new bearer token (printed once)
mcp-kraken token list         # list known tokens (hashes only)
mcp-kraken token revoke ID    # revoke a token by id
mcp-kraken version            # print the installed version

token create accepts --expires-in 90d (or 12h, 30m, 3600 seconds). Omit it for a token that never expires. The full plaintext is only shown once at creation — the server only stores the SHA-256 hash plus the short id.

Local testing with Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop accepts MCP servers either as a remote HTTPS connector or as a local command (stdio). Pure self-signed certs are rejected — the cert has to be signed by a CA the OS trusts.

Option A — HTTPS via mkcert (Custom Connector)

mkcert creates a local CA, installs it into the system trust store, and signs certs from it.

brew install mkcert            # or your package manager's equivalent
just cert-local                # mkcert -install + generates certs/{key,cert}.pem
just serve-https               # serves HTTPS on 0.0.0.0:8765/mcp

Then in Claude Desktop: Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, with URL https://localhost:8765/mcp/ and the bearer token from mcp-kraken token create.

Option B — stdio (Command Connector)

For purely local use you can skip HTTPS entirely:

uv run mcp-kraken serve --stdio

Wire it into Claude Desktop's config file (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kraken": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["--directory", "/abs/path/to/mcp-kraken", "run", "mcp-kraken", "serve", "--stdio"],
      "env": {
        "KRAKEN_API_KEY": "...",
        "KRAKEN_API_SECRET": "..."
      }
    }
  }
}

stdio sessions are inherently local — the bearer-token layer is bypassed.

Configuration

Settings come from environment variables, optionally loaded from .env:

Variable	Default	Purpose
KRAKEN_API_KEY	—	Kraken API public key.
KRAKEN_API_SECRET	—	Kraken API private key (base64).
KRAKEN_BASE_URL	https://api.kraken.com	Override for testing.
MCP_KRAKEN_HOST	0.0.0.0	Bind address.
MCP_KRAKEN_PORT	8765	TCP port.
MCP_KRAKEN_PATH	/mcp	HTTP path the MCP transport mounts on.
MCP_KRAKEN_TOKEN_DB	./data/tokens.db	SQLite file holding bearer-token metadata.
MCP_KRAKEN_SSL_KEYFILE	—	TLS private key (PEM). Pair with _SSL_CERTFILE.
MCP_KRAKEN_SSL_CERTFILE	—	TLS certificate (PEM). Pair with _SSL_KEYFILE.
MCP_KRAKEN_HTTP_TIMEOUT	30	Seconds before outbound Kraken calls time out.
MCP_KRAKEN_LOG_LEVEL	INFO	Standard Python log level.
MCP_KRAKEN_AUTH_DISABLED	false	Dev only. Skip bearer-token enforcement.

The full sample lives in .env.example.

Tools

Public market-data tools (no Kraken credentials needed):

get_server_time, get_system_status, get_assets, get_asset_pairs, get_ticker, get_ohlc, get_order_book, get_recent_trades, get_recent_spreads.

Private tools (require KRAKEN_API_KEY + KRAKEN_API_SECRET):

• Account: get_account_balance, get_extended_balance, get_trade_balance, get_trade_volume, get_ledgers, query_ledgers, get_credit_lines, get_api_key_info, request_export_report, get_export_status, retrieve_export, remove_export.
• Trading: get_open_orders, get_closed_orders, query_orders, get_trade_history, query_trades, get_open_positions, add_order, add_order_batch, amend_order, edit_order, cancel_order, cancel_all_orders, cancel_all_orders_after, cancel_order_batch.
• Funding: get_deposit_methods, get_deposit_addresses, get_deposit_status, get_withdrawal_methods, get_withdrawal_addresses, get_withdrawal_info, withdraw, get_withdrawal_status, cancel_withdrawal, wallet_transfer.
• Earn: list_earn_strategies, list_earn_allocations, allocate_earn, deallocate_earn, get_earn_allocation_status, get_earn_deallocation_status.
• Subaccounts: create_subaccount, account_transfer.
• WebSocket auth: get_websockets_token (token for the future WS layer — see TODO.md).

Kraken API key permissions

Kraken keys can be issued with any subset of:

UI label	Capability flag
Query funds	query_funds
Deposit	deposit
Withdraw	withdraw
Earn	earn
View open orders & trades	query_open_orders
View closed orders & trades	query_closed_orders
Create & modify orders	create_modify_orders
Cancel & close orders	cancel_orders
View ledger entries	query_ledger
Export data	export_data
WebSocket interface	websocket

On the first private call, mcp-kraken introspects the key via GetAPIKeyInfo and caches the resulting permission set. Subsequent tool invocations are checked against that cache; missing permissions raise KrakenPermissionError with the list of flags the key would need. If the introspection itself fails (older keys may not support GetAPIKeyInfo), the server falls back to letting Kraken enforce permissions over the wire.

IP restrictions, expiry, query date ranges, and custom nonce windows are configured on the key itself in the Kraken UI; the server passes through whatever the key allows.

Development

just sync          # uv sync --all-extras --dev
just test          # pytest
just check         # lint + format-check + mypy + tests
just fix           # auto-fix lint and format
just docker-build  # local image build

Run just with no arguments for the full recipe list.

Docker

The published image is ghcr.io/xavierbeheydt/mcp-kraken:

Tag	Pushed by	Notes
latest	release workflow	Latest non-prerelease tag.
vX.Y.Z, vX.Y, vX	release workflow	Semver tags on every release.
dev	dev-publish workflow	Tip of the dev branch.
dev-<sha7>	dev-publish workflow	Per-commit tag on dev.

The reference deployment uses compose.yml:

cp .env.example .env  # set KRAKEN_API_KEY / KRAKEN_API_SECRET
docker compose up -d

The container runs as a non-root user (uid 10001), with a read-only root filesystem, no added capabilities, and a SQLite token-store volume at /data. Put it behind a TLS-terminating reverse proxy in production — the server speaks plain HTTP internally.

Versioning & release flow

Versions are derived from git tags via hatch-vcs; there is no version number to bump in pyproject.toml.

        feature → PR → dev   →  dev-publish workflow → ghcr.io/…:dev[-sha]
                                                      ↑
                                                test workflow

                  tag v1.2.3  →  release workflow    → ghcr.io/…:1.2.3, :latest
                                                      + GitHub Release
                                                      + fast-forward main to the tag

Branch conventions:

• main — protected; always equals the latest released commit.
• dev — default integration branch; every push runs tests and republishes the :dev image.
• topic branches → PR into dev.
• Releases are cut by tagging the desired dev commit vX.Y.Z. The release workflow tests it, builds and pushes the image with semver tags, opens a GitHub Release with auto-generated notes, and fast-forwards main to the tag. If main cannot be fast-forwarded (e.g. main has diverged) the workflow emits a warning and leaves the merge for a human.

To prerelease, tag v1.2.3-rc1: the workflow builds and pushes 1.2.3-rc1, 1.2-rc1, 1-rc1, marks the GitHub Release as prerelease, and does not publish the :latest tag.

Disclaimer

[!CAUTION] Read this section before pointing mcp-kraken at a Kraken API key with trading or withdrawal permissions.

Alpha software. Tool signatures, default behaviours, configuration keys and the on-disk token format may change in any minor release until v1.0. Run a non-production instance against a read-only Kraken API key first, and read each tool's docstring before granting the server credentials with trading or withdrawal permissions.

No liability. The software is provided as is, without warranty of any kind, express or implied. The author is not responsible for any direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential financial loss arising from the use, misuse or unavailability of this software — including but not limited to misrouted withdrawals, unintended trades, missed executions, exchange downtime, API rate-limit hits, or compromised credentials.

Not financial advice. Nothing in this software, its documentation, or any tool output constitutes investment, trading, tax or legal advice. You are solely responsible for the decisions you make and the orders you submit.

Not affiliated with Kraken or Payward Inc. "Kraken" is a trademark of its respective owner. This project is an independent client of the public Kraken REST API, written against the publicly documented API surface.