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Emilia Protocol MCP Server

Official
Exact-action approval and verifiable signed receipts for consequential agent actions.
GitHub source repository ↗
★ 650 Stars Category · Other Very popular
49FMRS · D

An upstream-maintained MCP server for the Emilia Protocol authority control plane: it requests, tracks, and verifies signed receipts for exact agent actions at protected executor boundaries. It suits security teams that need finite agent mandates and portable evidence. It is not an identity system, policy engine, settlement rail, or certifier, and its preventive property depends on complete mediation of the protected path. The default tool surface is small, with broader tool sets behind explicit environment switches.

Reliability
8/20
Security and permissions
9/20
Maintenance
11/20
Documentation
12/20
Setup experience
9/20
Read the FMRS scoring method →

The Emilia Protocol MCP server provides exact-action approval for consequential agent actions. It runs over stdio and is launched with npx from the npm package @emilia-protocol/mcp-server. Per the manifest, it lets clients request, track, and verify signed receipts, and it acts as the MCP-facing front door to the Emilia Gate authority control plane, which enforces finite customer-owned mandates at protected executor boundaries. It advertises a default three-tool action front door, with optional environment switches for handshake, commit, and delegation tools and for the legacy 36-tool registry and reputation catalog. The server is maintained by the upstream Emilia Protocol project (official). It is authorization and evidence infrastructure, not an identity system, wallet, reputation score, settlement rail, or universal policy engine, and it does not require that a human approve every action: authority can come from a bounded mandate, a bounded capability, a quorum, or a relying-party composition of native evidence. Preventive control holds only where the deployment completely mediates the protected path; it constrains no path that bypasses the enforcement point.

Setup

  1. Launch the server from your MCP client with npx: npx -y @emilia-protocol/mcp-server.
  2. For live action-guard, signoff, and write operations, set EP_API_KEY (secret, optional; public receipt lookup may work without it).
  3. To advertise handshake, commit, and delegation tools alongside the default three-tool action front door, set EP_INCLUDE_PROTOCOL_TOOLS=true.
  4. To advertise the complete 36-tool legacy registry and reputation catalog, set EP_INCLUDE_REGISTRY_TOOLS=true.
  5. Restart the client and confirm the server is connected.
claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "emilia-protocol": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@emilia-protocol/mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "EP_API_KEY": ""
      }
    }
  }
}

Fit and risk

Best for

  • Teams building autonomous agents on MCP that need an authority control plane
  • Security and platform engineering teams that need exact-action approval and verifiable evidence
  • Enterprise deployments that bind human or institutional authorization to one exact executable action

Not for

  • Projects expecting a replacement for OAuth/OIDC, workload identity, or policy engines
  • Users expecting the server itself to be an auditor, accredited certifier, or settlement rail
  • Deployments that do not place Gate on the credential-owning path yet expect preventive control

Required permissions

  • EP_API_KEY is the key needed for write and live action-guard operations (optional; public receipt lookup may work without it)
  • The server runs as a local stdio process and can read the environment variables configured for it
  • Enabling EP_INCLUDE_REGISTRY_TOOLS exposes additional registry and reputation tool interfaces

Risks and side effects

  • Preventive control holds only under complete mediation; paths that bypass the enforcement point are unconstrained
  • Without EP_API_KEY, write operations and live action guarding may be unavailable
  • Admission is not execution and execution is not effect; unknown results must be reconciled, not blindly retried
  • Environment switches that broaden the advertised tool set widen the exposed surface
  • The referenced IETF documents are individual Internet-Drafts, not RFCs or IETF endorsement

Troubleshooting

  1. Confirm npx can fetch @emilia-protocol/mcp-server and that the npm registry is reachable
  2. If write operations fail, check that EP_API_KEY is set and valid
  3. If handshake, commit, and delegation tools are missing, check that EP_INCLUDE_PROTOCOL_TOOLS is set to true
  4. If registry and reputation tools are missing, check that EP_INCLUDE_REGISTRY_TOOLS is set to true
  5. Restart the MCP client and confirm the stdio process starts without errors

Use cases

Bind consequential agent actions such as payment release, repository deletion, or production deploy to exact-action authorization receipts
Request, track, and verify signed receipts at a protected executor boundary
Define finite operating mandates for autonomous agents so they cannot quietly widen their authority
Preserve portable evidence for audit and assurance workflows

Supported clients

Claude DesktopFull support