🧪 Almega MCP — the demonstrator

A wallet & guardrail for AI agents, exposed as a Model Context Protocol

(MCP) server. Drop it into Claude Desktop, the Claude Agent SDK, or any

MCP-compatible client, and your agent has a wallet with hard limits, a

human approval step, and a full ledger — instantly.

Ships with two backends out of the box:

• memory (default): everything in-process. Zero setup.

• • stripe: real Stripe Issuing test-mode Cardholders + virtual Cards.

  • No real money. You watch the dashboard light up live.

    ---

    Tools the server exposes

    Tool	What it does
    open_wallet(agent_id, monthly_limit, allow, approve_above)	Give an agent a wallet (and a real Stripe card if backend=stripe)
    pay(agent_id, merchant, amount, category)	Agent tries to spend — gets APPROVED, BLOCKED, or AWAITING_YOU
    approve_pending(transaction_id)	Human says yes to a held transaction
    reject_pending(transaction_id, reason)	Human says no
    get_wallet(agent_id)	Current balance & rules
    list_transactions(agent_id?, status?, limit)	View the ledger
    reset()	Wipe the local index (Stripe entities are kept)

    Plus two resources: almega://wallets and almega://ledger.

    ---

    Install

    pip install -r requirements.txt
    

    Python 3.10+ recommended.

    ---

    Option A — Memory backend (30-second demo)

    No accounts, no env vars. Just run:

    mcp dev almega_mcp.py     # opens the MCP Inspector
    # or
    python demo.py            # runs the Exhibit A scenario
    

    ---

    Option B — Stripe Issuing test mode (5 minutes, still $0)

    The wallet maps to a real Stripe Cardholder + virtual Card and every approved pay() creates a real test-mode authorization. You can open the Stripe dashboard and see Almega's decisions reflected on Stripe live.

    Setup

    1. Free Stripe account: https://dashboard.stripe.com/register
    2. 2. Activate Issuing in test mode: https://dashboard.stripe.com/test/issuing/overview

       3. 3. Grab your TEST secret key: https://dashboard.stripe.com/test/apikeys

          4. Run

          5. export STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=sk_test_...
             export ALMEGA_BACKEND=stripe
             python stripe_demo.py
             

    Almega refuses to start if your key isn't sk_test_... — there's no path to accidentally hit live cards from this code.

    What you'll see in your Stripe dashboard

    • one virtual card per agent

    • • every approved pay() as a real Stripe authorization on the card

      • • BLOCKED and AWAITING_YOU transactions stay at Almega's gate and never
        • touch Stripe — exactly how it would behave in production

        ---

    Wire it into Claude Desktop

    {
      "mcpServers": {
        "almega": {
          "command": "python",
          "args": ["/absolute/path/to/almega_mcp.py"],
          "env": {
            "ALMEGA_BACKEND": "stripe",
            "STRIPE_SECRET_KEY": "sk_test_..."
          }
        }
      }
    }
    

    Restart Claude Desktop. Claude can now open wallets, attempt payments, and ask you to approve sensitive ones.

    ---

    Demo prompt for Claude

    Open a wallet for research-bot with a $50 monthly limit, allowing

    api and saas categories, and requiring approval above $25. Then try:

    1. $12 to openai.com (api)

    2. 2. $30 to vercel.com (saas)

       3. 3. $800 to luxury-store.io (retail)

          4. Show me the ledger.

             First approves, second held for sign-off, third blocked — exactly like the landing's "Exhibit A". On the Stripe backend, refresh https://dashboard.stripe.com/test/issuing/authorizations while it runs.

             ---

             Landing

             https://alemgaai.netlify.app

             ---

             License

             MIT.

             Almega MCP — wallet & guardrail for AI agents

             The MCP server behind https://alemgaai.netlify.app

             Two backends ship in one file:

             • python demo.py — in-memory mode, 30 seconds, zero setup

             • • python stripe_demo.py — real Stripe Issuing test mode (free, $0)

               • Install: pip install -r requirements.txt

               • License: MIT.