Give your agents
a research engine.

Add one block to your config and Claude or Cursor can start research runs, inspect sources, ask grounded questions, create research dossiers, and run your saved research workflows.

Get a key See the config

One hosted endpointScoped API keysCost estimate first

The tool surface

Eleven tools. The useful set.

Tool	What it does	Credits
`estimate_cost`	Price a Standard or Deep run before starting.	Free
`start_research`	Create a research run.	See pricing / See pricing
`get_research`	Read status, report, and quality.	Free
`list_research`	Find prior work by status, type, or namespace.	Free
`ask_research`	Ask one run's evidence a question. Uses your free questions for the day first.	See pricing after free questions / See pricing with web search
`search_sources`	Filter graded sources by quality, relevance, domain, or keyword.	Free
`create_dossier`	Create a planned document set.	See pricing
`list_workflows`	List your research workflows with schedule, credit ceiling, and last run.	Free
`run_workflow`	Start a saved research workflow now.	Per step, shown before it runs
`get_workflow_execution`	Read a workflow run with every step's status and outputs.	Free
`decide_workflow_approval`	Approve or reject a workflow step waiting for a decision.	Free

Copy, paste, restart

Choose your client.

The server speaks MCP over Streamable HTTP at https://api.farsideresearch.com/mcp/ and checks an API key in the Authorization: Bearer header on every request. Any client that can send that header can connect.

Terminal

claude mcp add --transport http farside https://api.farsideresearch.com/mcp/ \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Replace YOUR_API_KEY with a key from Developers, then API keys, in the Farside Research app. Treat the file like a password: anyone with the key can spend your credits.

Run the command in the project where you want research available.
Start Claude Code and run /mcp to check that farside is connected.
Ask it to estimate a research question before starting one.

A real workflow

The assistant estimates before it spends.

An illustrative tool sequence. Your question, plan access, and live credit prices determine the work that runs.

Research how observability vendors price per host versus per GB in 2026.

estimate_costStandard, competitive intelReturns the current exact credit price

start_researchStarts the approved questionReturns the new run identifier

get_researchReads the run after completionReturns real sources, status, and quality

ask_researchWhich pricing axis is gaining ground?Grounded answer with citations

Paid tools take an idempotency_key. After a timeout or an unclear answer, call again with the same key and the same inputs to get the original result without a second charge; a new key always starts new work. ask_research requires one.

Keys and scopes

Give each assistant the access it needs.

Create one key per client so you can see and cap its spending separately. A key can carry an expiry and a monthly credit cap; at the cap, paid work through that key stops.

Scope	Tools
`read`	The free tools: estimate_cost, get_research, list_research, search_sources, list_workflows, get_workflow_execution, and every resource.
`run`	Work that can spend credits (start_research, ask_research, create_dossier, run_workflow), plus decide_workflow_approval.
`admin`	Covers both.

Resources and prompt

Resource	What it returns
`fathom://runs/recent`	The twenty most recent completed runs.
`fathom://runs/{run_id}/synthesis`	One completed run's cited report as Markdown.
`fathom://runs/{run_id}/sources`	One run's graded sources as a table.
`fathom://account/credits`	Plan, available credits and the end of the billing period.

The research_brief prompt turns a loose topic and an audience into one specific research question with a suggested depth and research type.

If something fails

What the errors mean.

Message	What to do
`Missing Bearer API key`	The client is not sending the Authorization header. The MCP endpoint does not accept X-API-Key.
`Invalid, expired, or revoked Farside API key`	The key was mistyped, rotated, revoked or has expired. Create or rotate a key and paste the new secret.
`The API key requires the 'run' scope`	The key is read-only. That can be on purpose; use a key with run for paid work.
`insufficient_credits`	The balance can't cover the action. The error names the shortfall.
`The organization rate limit was exceeded`	Too many calls in the window. The response says how many seconds to wait.