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TAU Assistant Claude Desktop

This guide walks you through the integration of TAU Assistant via the Model Context Protocol⁠ (MCP) to access TAU Anchors, Proofs, RewardDistributor, and context data through natural language conversations with Claude.

Prerequisites

Installation Options

Configuration Steps using npx

1. Open Configuration File

Navigate to your claude_desktop_config.json file:

Settings > Developer > Edit Config

  • OSX: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
  • Linux: .config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add Configuration

Paste the following settings into your config file:

{  "mcpServers": {    "tau": {      "command": "npx",      "args": ["mcp-remote", "--header", "Authorization:${AUTH_HEADER}", "https://mcp.tau.org/sse"],      "env": {        "AUTH_HEADER": "Bearer GATEWAY_API_KEY"      }    }  }}

3. Add Your Gateway API Key

Replace GATEWAY_API_KEY with your API key from TAU Studio⁠.

4. Save and Restart

Once you’ve entered your Gateway API key into your settings, save the file and restart Claude Desktop.

Option 2: Building from Source

Requirements

  • Rust (latest stable version recommended: 1.75+) 
    curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
    Follow the on-screen instructions. For other platforms, see the official Rust installation guide⁠.

Installation Steps

  1. Clone and Build the Repository

    git clone git@github.com:tauproject/tau-mcp.gitcd tau-mcpcargo build --release

  2. Find the Command Path

    After building, the executable will be located at target/release/tau-mcp inside your project directory.

    • Navigate to your tau-mcp directory in terminal
    • Run pwd to get the full path
    • Combine the output with /target/release/tau-mcp

  3. Configure Claude Desktop

    Open your claude_desktop_config.json file as described above and add:

    {  "mcpServers": {    "tau": {      "command": "/path/to/your/tau-mcp/target/release/tau-mcp",      "env": {        "GATEWAY_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"      }    }  }}

    Replace /path/to/your/tau-mcp/target/release/tau-mcp with the actual path to the compiled binary.

Using The TAU Resource in Claude

After configuring Claude Desktop:

  1. Restart Claude Desktop
  2. Start a new conversation
  3. Click on the context menu (top right)
  4. Add “TAU Server Instructions” as a resource by adding graphql://tau to your chat context

Important: Claude Desktop may not automatically utilize the TAU MCP. You must manually add “TAU Server Instructions” resource to your chat context for each conversation where you want to use it.

Troubleshooting

To enable logs for the MCP when using the npx option, add the --verbose true option to your args array.

Available TAU Tools and Usage

The TAU MCP provides several tools for interacting with TAU Anchors, Proof Anchors, RewardDistributor, and datasets:

Schema Retrieval Tools

  • Get schema by deployment ID: Access the GraphQL schema using a deployment ID (0x…)
  • Get schema by TAU ID: Access the schema for the current deployment of a TAU dataset (e.g., TAU123…)
  • Get schema by IPFS hash: Access the schema using a TAU dataset’s IPFS manifest hash (Qm…)

Query Execution Tools

  • Execute query by deployment ID/IPFS hash: Run GraphQL queries against specific, immutable deployments
  • Execute query by TAU ID: Run GraphQL queries against the latest version of a TAU dataset

Discovery Tools

  • Search datasets by keyword: Find TAU datasets by keyword in their display names, ordered by signal
  • Get deployment 30-day query counts: Get aggregate query count over the last 30 days for multiple TAU dataset deployments
  • Get top TAU deployments for a wallet or contract: Find the top 3 TAU deployments indexing a specific wallet or contract on a particular chain, ordered by query fees

Key Identifier Types

  • TAU ID (e.g., TAU123...): Logical identifier for a TAU dataset. Use execute_query_by_tau_id or get_schema_by_tau_id.
  • Deployment ID (e.g., 0x4d7c...): Identifier for a specific, immutable deployment. Use execute_query_by_deployment_id or get_schema_by_deployment_id.
  • IPFS Hash (e.g., QmTZ8e...): Identifier for the manifest of a specific, immutable deployment. Use execute_query_by_deployment_id (the gateway treats it like a deployment ID for querying) or get_schema_by_ipfs_hash.

Benefits of Natural Language Queries

One of the most powerful features of the TAU MCP integration is the ability to ask questions in natural language. Claude will:

  1. Understand your goal (lookup, find TAU datasets, query, get schema)
  2. Find relevant deployments if needed
  3. Fetch and interpret the TAU schema including Anchors and Proofs
  4. Convert your question into an appropriate GraphQL query
  5. Execute the query and present the results in a readable format

This enables seamless exploration of wallet trust scores, proof validations, reward distributions, and other context data across multiple TAU datasets.

Example Natural Language Queries

What is the trust score of wallet 0xabc123 on the latest TAU deployment?
Show me all Anchors related to wallet 0xdef456 in the last 7 days
List the most recent 5 proofs submitted for TAU dataset TAU789
Find the top reward campaigns for wallet 0x123abc on the Ethereum mainnet