MCP for AI Cardano Explorer Assistants - Eryx

[Proposal setup] Proposal title

Please provide your proposal title

MCP for AI Cardano Explorer Assistants - Eryx

[Proposal Summary] Budget Information

Enter the amount of funding you are requesting in ADA

100000

[Proposal Summary] Time

Please specify how many months you expect your project to last

3

[Proposal Summary] Translation Information

Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated

No

Original Language

en

[Proposal Summary] Problem Statement

What is the problem you want to solve?

Explorers like Adastat and Cexplorer do not provide simple ways for inexperienced users to interact with Cardano.

[Proposal Summary] Supporting Documentation

Supporting links

• https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs
,
• https://eryx.co
,
• https://x.com/i/status/1915692271124570435

[Proposal Summary] Project Dependencies

Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

Yes

Describe any dependencies or write 'No dependencies'

We depend on the Koios API to gather the information. This proposal involves only local code querying those dependencies, therefore there will be no need to build and maintain infrastructure like cloud servers and storage (thus reducing costs).

[Proposal Summary] Project Open Source

Will your project's outputs be fully open source?

Yes

License and Additional Information

The implementation will be open source and available on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 license.

[Theme Selection] Theme

Please choose the most relevant theme and tag related to the outcomes of your proposal

AI

[Campaign Category] Category Questions

Mention your open source license and describe your open source license rationale.

We chose Apache 2.0 because it’s a well-established, permissive open source license that allows wide adoption, including commercial use, while still providing clear requirements for attribution and preserving notices. It also includes explicit patent rights grants, which help protect both users and contributors from patent disputes. This balance of openness, clarity, and legal protection aligns with our goal of encouraging collaboration and long-term community growth.

How do you make sure your source code is accessible to the public from project start, and people are informed?

All code will be publicly accessible in our GitHub repository, where anyone can view, clone, and contribute. We will also share regular updates, release announcements, and milestones through our active Twitter account @eryxcoop, ensuring that the community stays informed about the project’s progress.

How will you provide high quality documentation?

Eryx has a skilled team of industry experts with extensive experience in technical writing and documentation. The team will ensure that all project materials are clear, comprehensive, and well-structured, making it easy for both developers and end users to understand and contribute.

[Your Project and Solution] Solution

Please describe your proposed solution and how it addresses the problem

Regular users use Cardano explorers like Adastat and Cexplorer to check their transactions, verify their balance, see staking rewards, track NFTs etc. Developers, apart from all the previous use cases, might need them to debug their validators, benchmark them and run analysis on the usage of their DApp, for instance.

Our solution is a server that allows an LLM of the user’s choice to query the blockchain using an explorer, like any of us would while managing our assets. This way, beginner Cardano users would be able to understand the blockchain and its state more easily, through the help of an AI assistant.

The LLMs using our tool would be able to query the state of the chain in the same way any explorer would. Some example use cases are:

• Ask about an address:
  • What balance does the address X have?
  • What assets does the address X hold?
• Ask about transactions:
  • Is the transaction X already confirmed?
  • What is transaction X about?
• Combine all use cases:
  • What does the address X usually do with their transactions?
  • What unconfirmed transactions does the address X have?

[Your Project and Solution] Impact

Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community

Blockchains like Cardano, while powerful, are still a new and evolving technology. For many people, understanding how to use them, build on them, or interact with them can be a challenge, especially without prior experience. What’s more, most available resources are scattered or incompletely documented. This learning curve can discourage both everyday users and developers who are new to the Cardano ecosystem. There is a clear growing demand for tools that boost productivity and facilitate easier adoption.

An AI-driven explorer assistant would act as a user-friendly guide into the Cardano world, offering clear, accessible explanations and simplified interactions with the blockchain. By translating complex blockchain concepts into everyday language and vice-versa, the assistant would allow less tech-savvy users to navigate and engage with Cardano.

For developers, especially those coming from Web2 or backgrounds far from blockchain or distributed systems, the assistant would serve as a valuable onboarding tool. It would help them understand basic concepts, explore smart contracts, and interact with on-chain data through intuitive, natural-language queries. It would ease and accelerate their transition into Web3 development on Cardano, encouraging more participation and growing the developer community.

[Your Project and Solution] Capabilities & Feasibility

What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

Eryx is a worker-owned labor cooperative with over 10 years of experience solving complex problems involving mathematics and software. We are a group of nerdy PhDs with a solid background in computer science and math. Our team has extensive experience in blockchain development, cryptography, and tooling, which gives us the expertise required to successfully deliver the project.

In particular, we took 2 grants in the previous Catalyst proposal, one of which is already completed, and the other is in current development. Both grants required us to use Aiken, and we had the chance to verify firsthand why this plugin is so necessary (since we usually work with IntelliJ). We want to make developing in Aiken easy, and that's where our motivation comes from.

Feasibility also comes from the existence of a prototype that we already developed, showcased in the following link. https://x.com/i/status/1915692271124570435

[Milestones] Project Milestones

Milestone Title

Example with first functionality

Milestone Outputs

• The tool provides functionality for querying the balance of a given address through a Large Language Model (LLM) interface. Users can interact with the LLM to request the balance, and the tool will retrieve and return the relevant information.
• Documentation is included to guide users through using this initial feature, detailing the necessary prompts, setup steps, and example queries to ensure a smooth experience.

Acceptance Criteria

• The server allows for a full end-to-end interaction with the system: users can download the MCP server, run it locally, configure an LLM’s MCP host to attach it, and use the LLM to query the balance address with the tool.
• The report shows how to use the tool to let an LLM query the balance of an address.

Evidence of Completion

• Source-code available in the GitHub repository.
• Documentation uploaded to GitHub, Google Drive or similar platform.

Delivery Month

1

Cost

40000

Progress

40 %

Milestone Title

Network and address queries

Milestone Outputs

• The tool lets the user do the following address-related queries with an LLM: all UTxOs belonging to an address, all assets belonging to an address, and hashes of all transactions an address made.
• The tool lets the user do the following network-related queries with an LLM: last block in the chain, reserve and treasury information, and epoch information and parameters.
• Documentation describing how to use these new functionalities with an LLM.

Acceptance Criteria

A user's LLM can leverage the MCP tool to perform the specified queries directly. By integrating with the tool, the LLM can issue requests, like retrieving the UTxOs of an address, and receive structured responses.

Evidence of Completion

• Source-code available in the GitHub repository.
• Documentation uploaded to GitHub, Google Drive or similar platform.

Delivery Month

2

Cost

30000

Progress

30 %

Milestone Title

Transaction and asset queries

Milestone Outputs

• The tool lets the user do the following transaction-related queries with an LLM: transaction confirmation status and transaction information.
• The tool lets the user do the following asset-related queries with an LLM: address holding the NFT with a given policy, all assets belonging to a policy ID, all transactions made with a given asset.
• Documentation describing how to use these new functionalities with an LLM.

Acceptance Criteria

A user's LLM can leverage the MCP tool to perform the specified queries directly. By integrating with the tool, the LLM can issue requests, like retrieving the UTxOs of an address, and receive structured responses.

Evidence of Completion

• Source-code available in the GitHub repository.
• Documentation uploaded to GitHub, Google Drive or similar platform.

Delivery Month

3

Cost

25000

Progress

20 %

Milestone Title

Final report

Milestone Outputs

• Publicly available source-code of the server in GitHub, with its documentation.
• A final report describing the project process and outcome.
• A close-out video showcasing the plugin and its features.

Acceptance Criteria

• The final version of the server can be used with MCP hosts, and provides the declared features.
• The final video complies with Catalyst requirements.
• The final report complies with Catalyst requirements.

Evidence of Completion

• Source-code available in the GitHub repository.
• Documentation publicly available.
• Final video uploaded to Google Drive or similar platforms.
• Final report uploaded to Google Drive or similar platforms.

Delivery Month

3

Cost

5000

Progress

10 %

[Final Pitch] Budget & Costs

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

Total: ₳100,000

FTE = Full-time equivalent

Development: ₳75,000 - Developing and testing of the tool and MCP servers.

• Developer: 1 FTE x 3 months = ₳50,000
• Developer: 1/2 FTE x 3 months = ₳25,000

Documentation & Reporting: ₳5,000 - Preparing clear and comprehensive technical documentation, project updates, and ensuring ongoing reporting to the community.

• Technical writer: 1/4 FTE x 3 months = ₳5,000

Project management: ₳20,000 - Organizing the project execution, create reports and write the documentation, and maintain communication with the community and reviewers.

• Project Management: 1/2 FTE x 3 months = ₳20,000

[Final Pitch] Value for Money

How does the cost of the project represent value for the Cardano ecosystem?

We decided to focus on spending the expenses of the project in the development hours. In that regard, it is important to note the following.

The team consists of two developers who will work full-time on the project for two months. The projected annual salary is within the typical salary range for developers, which varies from $78,000 to $262,000, with an average of $150,000 for a Web3 developer. Our cost is on the lower end of this range, as we believe this assistant is essential for the Cardano ecosystem.

[Required Acknowledgements] Consent & Confirmation

Terms and Conditions:

Yes