# Mercator

Give your agent access to tools on demand. Mercator finds the right services, composes the workflow, and pays through MPP or x402.

## Setup

Start with [Set up Mercator](https://mercator.sh/setup).
The guide includes client-specific commands, OAuth, activation, and free verification.
If the client is unclear, ask which app and mode they are using.

### Local terminal agents

For Claude Code, Codex CLI, Cursor, Muse Code, or another supported local agent,
run the installer on the computer where that agent runs:

```sh
curl -fsSL https://mercator.sh/install.sh | sh
```

To target one client, append `-s -- --client <client>` after `sh`;
claude means Claude Code, not Desktop chat.
See [all client instructions](https://mercator.sh/docs#agent-setup).

### Hosted and managed agents

Use the host's connector controls with Streamable HTTP and OAuth:

```text
https://mercator.sh/mcp/auth
```

- Claude Desktop or claude.ai: open Customize → Connectors → Add custom connector.
  Name it Mercator, enter the endpoint above, and complete authorization.
- ChatGPT web: where custom apps are available, create a developer-mode app
  using the endpoint above and OAuth.
- Managed or cloud agents: use the host's connector and OAuth controls.
  If unavailable, give the user a supported-client path instead of retrying.

Do not run the terminal installer in a chat sandbox;
installing a CLI in its sandbox does not configure the user's desktop.

### Verify the connection

- Call `search_services` and `get_connection_status` in the intended client.
- Both checks are free. Setup does not require a paid job.
- Report connection and payment readiness separately.
- Do not claim readiness before these checks succeed.

## When to use Mercator

Use Mercator for fresh external research, data extraction, enrichment, media,
financial data, travel, maps, communications, or another API action.

Do not use it for local files, repository work, or reasoning over supplied content.
Respect requests that forbid external or paid services.

## Run a workflow

1. Search with the user's complete intended outcome.
2. Inspect the returned services and quote the plan.
3. Respect access-key limits and any explicit user budget.
4. Create one job with a stable idempotency key.
5. Poll for the durable result and follow returned next steps.

## Costs and payment

- Search and quotes are free.
- Hosted OAuth access-key limits authorize spending without per-job approval.
- Legacy MCP challenge clients need quote approval or a sufficient explicit budget
  before paying, including after price changes or for local REST fallback.

## Pages

- [Mercator - Docs](/docs): Install Mercator, connect an agent through MCP or the REST API, discover external services, quote and run jobs, manage payments, and send service feedback.
- [Mercator](/): Give your agent access to tools on demand. Mercator finds the right services, composes the workflow, and pays through MPP or x402.
- [About Mercator](/about): Learn who operates Mercator, how agents discover and purchase external services through its API and MCP server, and where the product's payment boundaries lie.
- [Contact Mercator](/contact): Contact the Mercator team for product support, integration help, service listings, bug reports, privacy questions, and partnership inquiries.
- [Mercator Privacy](/privacy): A plain-language summary of data handling for the Mercator website, API, MCP server, and Account flow.
- [Set up Mercator](/setup): Connect your agent to Mercator
- [Use cases](/use-cases/): Practical examples of what you can do with Mercator. Explore prompts, possible workflows, and the tools that connect them.
- [Business Prospecting](/use-cases/business-prospecting): Give your agent company records, technology usage, hiring evidence, and contact data to investigate each prospect against your criteria.
- [Company Data](/use-cases/company-data): Give your agent complementary business records and web research to resolve identities, fill gaps, and investigate conflicting fields.
- [Crypto Data](/use-cases/crypto-data): Bring wallet activity, token markets, underlying asset prices, and issuer disclosures into the same investigation.
- [Deep Research](/use-cases/deep-research): Give your agent search, page retrieval, and specialist data to follow a question back to its original evidence.
- [Finance](/use-cases/finance): Combine market quotes, company financials, and filings to build comparisons with explicit periods and traceable evidence.
- [People Search](/use-cases/people-search): Combine employment research, contact enrichment, and email checks so your agent can separate a possible match from a usable contact.
- [Social Data](/use-cases/social-data): Give your agent platform-specific posts, advertising, and conversation context to investigate what people are actually saying.
- [Travel Search](/use-cases/travel-search): Give your agent cash fares, award inventory, and flight conditions to compare with explicit dates, cabins, and availability.
- [Web Extraction](/use-cases/web-extraction): Give your agent search, rendering, and extraction options suited to the page and the fields you need.