Case 03056

LI.FI MCP Skill

Use this skill to run LI.FI MCP operations through uxc.

Reuse the uxc skill for generic protocol discovery, auth binding, envelope parsing, and error handling.

Prerequisites

• uxc is installed and available in PATH.
• Network access to https://mcp.li.quest/mcp.
• Optional: a LI.FI API key for higher rate limits.

Core Workflow

1. Verify endpoint and protocol with help-first probing:
   • uxc https://mcp.li.quest/mcp -h
   • Confirm protocol is MCP (protocol == "mcp" in the envelope).
2. Optional auth setup for higher rate limits:
   • uxc auth credential set lifi-mcp --auth-type bearer --secret-env LIFI_API_KEY
   • uxc auth binding add --id lifi-mcp --host mcp.li.quest --path-prefix /mcp --scheme https --credential lifi-mcp --priority 100
   • LI.FI accepts either Authorization: Bearer <key> or X-LiFi-Api-Key; prefer bearer unless endpoint behavior changes.
3. Use a fixed link command by default:
   • command -v lifi-mcp-cli
   • If missing, create it:
     • uxc link lifi-mcp-cli https://mcp.li.quest/mcp
   • lifi-mcp-cli -h
4. Inspect operation schema before execution:
   • lifi-mcp-cli get-chains -h
   • lifi-mcp-cli get-token -h
   • lifi-mcp-cli get-quote -h
   • lifi-mcp-cli get-status -h
5. Prefer discovery first, then route/quote, then execution-precheck queries.

Capability Map

• Chain and token discovery:
  • get-chains
  • get-chain-by-id
  • get-chain-by-name
  • get-tokens
  • get-token
• Route discovery and provider availability:
  • get-connections
  • get-tools
• Quotes and route planning:
  • get-quote
  • get-routes
  • get-step-transaction
  • get-quote-with-calls
• Wallet prechecks:
  • get-native-token-balance
  • get-token-balance
  • get-allowance
  • get-gas-prices
  • get-gas-suggestion
• Monitoring and service checks:
  • get-status
  • test-api-key
  • health-check

Always inspect host help and operation help in the current endpoint version before relying on an operation name or argument shape.

Recommended Usage Pattern

1. Discover chain IDs dynamically:
   • lifi-mcp-cli get-chains
   • lifi-mcp-cli get-chain-by-name name=base
2. Resolve token addresses before quoting:
   • lifi-mcp-cli get-token chain=8453 token=USDC
3. Check whether a route exists before asking for a quote:
   • lifi-mcp-cli get-connections fromChain=8453 toChain=42161
4. Generate the quote:
   • lifi-mcp-cli get-quote fromChain=8453 toChain=42161 fromToken=USDC toToken=USDC fromAddress=<wallet> fromAmount=<smallest-unit-amount>
5. Validate execution preconditions:
   • lifi-mcp-cli get-allowance ...
   • lifi-mcp-cli get-native-token-balance ...
6. Use get-status only after the externally signed transaction has been broadcast.

Guardrails

• Keep automation on JSON output envelope; do not rely on --text.
• Parse stable fields first: ok, kind, protocol, data, error.
• Use lifi-mcp-cli as the default command path.
• lifi-mcp-cli <operation> ... is equivalent to uxc https://mcp.li.quest/mcp <operation> ... when the same auth binding is configured.
• Use direct uxc "<endpoint>" ... only as a temporary fallback when link setup is unavailable.
• Prefer key=value for simple arguments and positional JSON for nested objects.
• This endpoint is read-only from the agent perspective:
  • it does not sign transactions
  • it does not broadcast transactions
  • it returns unsigned transactionRequest objects for external wallet execution
• Do not present get-quote or get-step-transaction as executed trades; they are execution plans only.
• Before suggesting an ERC20 route as ready to execute, check allowance if the route needs approval.
• Prefer get-routes only when the user explicitly wants multiple alternatives; default to get-quote for the best route.
• In live testing, chain lookup tools accepted names, but token/balance/allowance tools were more reliable with numeric chain IDs. Prefer numeric IDs after discovery.

Tested Real Scenario

The endpoint was verified through uxc host discovery and returned a live MCP tool list including:

• get-allowance
• get-chain-by-id
• get-chain-by-name
• get-chains
• get-connections
• get-gas-prices
• get-gas-suggestion
• get-quote
• get-routes
• get-status
• get-token
• get-tokens
• get-tools
• health-check

This confirms the skill target is a real hosted MCP surface accessible via UXC.

References

• Invocation patterns:
  • references/usage-patterns.md