Installation

Ontyx is a hosted MCP server. Point your MCP client at the Ontyx endpoint with your API key and you’re done — there’s no local server to install.

MCP Server (Claude Desktop)

Claude Desktop connects to remote MCP servers through the mcp-remote proxy. Add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json (on macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ontyx": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://mcp.ontyx.io/mcp",
        "--header",
        "Authorization:Bearer ${ONTYX_API_KEY}"
      ],
      "env": {
        "ONTYX_API_KEY": "ontyx_live_ak_..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace the env value with the key you generate in the next section. Restart Claude Desktop — the Ontyx tools (get_population, get_average_income) will appear in the tool picker.

Other MCP clients follow the same pattern — point them at https://mcp.ontyx.io/mcp with an Authorization: Bearer ontyx_live_ak_... header. Consult your client’s docs for the exact config syntax.

Generate an API key

Sign in at ontyx.io/sign-in.
Navigate to Dashboard → API Keys.
Click New key, give it a name (e.g. claude-desktop), and click Create.
Copy the key immediately. It is shown only once — the dashboard stores only an Argon2id hash, not the plaintext. If you lose it, revoke the key and create a new one.

Verify it works

Once you have a key, confirm it is valid with a quick curl against the control plane:

curl -s https://api.ontyx.io/me \
  -H "Cookie: ontyx_session=<your session cookie>" \
  | jq .

A successful response looks like:

{
  "user": { "id": "usr_...", "name": "...", "email": "..." },
  "entitlements": { "hasSubscription": true }
}

(The /me endpoint is session-cookie based, used by the dashboard. For tool calls, the bearer key flows through the MCP transport described above — you don’t call /me with the bearer.)

HTTP API only

A direct HTTP surface for the data tools (alternative to the MCP transport) ships alongside the MCP server. See Authentication for header format and API Reference for available endpoints.

Introduction Quickstart