LI.FI MCP Skill

Use this skill to run LI.FI MCP operations through uxc.

Reuse the uxc skill for generic protocol discovery, auth binding, envelope parsing, and error handling.

Prerequisites

• uxc is installed and available in PATH.
• Network access to https://mcp.li.quest/mcp.
• Optional: a LI.FI API key for higher rate limits.

Core Workflow

1. Verify endpoint and protocol with help-first probing:
   • uxc https://mcp.li.quest/mcp -h
   • Confirm protocol is MCP (protocol == "mcp" in the envelope).
2. Optional auth setup for higher rate limits:
   • uxc auth credential set lifi-mcp --auth-type bearer --secret-env LIFI_API_KEY
   • uxc auth binding add --id lifi-mcp --host mcp.li.quest --path-prefix /mcp --scheme https --credential lifi-mcp --priority 100
   • LI.FI accepts either Authorization: Bearer \x3Ckey> or X-LiFi-Api-Key; prefer bearer unless endpoint behavior changes.
3. Use a fixed link command by default:
   • command -v lifi-mcp-cli
   • If missing, create it:
     • uxc link lifi-mcp-cli https://mcp.li.quest/mcp
   • lifi-mcp-cli -h
4. Inspect operation schema before execution:
   • lifi-mcp-cli get-chains -h
   • lifi-mcp-cli get-token -h
   • lifi-mcp-cli get-quote -h
   • lifi-mcp-cli get-status -h
5. Prefer discovery first, then route/quote, then execution-precheck queries.

Capability Map

• Chain and token discovery:
  • get-chains
  • get-chain-by-id
  • get-chain-by-name
  • get-tokens
  • get-token
• Route discovery and provider availability:
  • get-connections
  • get-tools
• Quotes and route planning:
  • get-quote
  • get-routes
  • get-step-transaction
  • get-quote-with-calls
• Wallet prechecks:
  • get-native-token-balance
  • get-token-balance
  • get-allowance
  • get-gas-prices
  • get-gas-suggestion
• Monitoring and service checks:
  • get-status
  • test-api-key
  • health-check

Always inspect host help and operation help in the current endpoint version before relying on an operation name or argument shape.

Recommended Usage Pattern

1. Discover chain IDs dynamically:
   • lifi-mcp-cli get-chains
   • lifi-mcp-cli get-chain-by-name name=base
2. Resolve token addresses before quoting:
   • lifi-mcp-cli get-token chain=8453 token=USDC
3. Check whether a route exists before asking for a quote:
   • lifi-mcp-cli get-connections fromChain=8453 toChain=42161
4. Generate the quote:
   • lifi-mcp-cli get-quote fromChain=8453 toChain=42161 fromToken=USDC toToken=USDC fromAddress=\x3Cwallet> fromAmount=\x3Csmallest-unit-amount>
5. Validate execution preconditions:
   • lifi-mcp-cli get-allowance ...
   • lifi-mcp-cli get-native-token-balance ...
6. Use get-status only after the externally signed transaction has been broadcast.

Guardrails

• Keep automation on JSON output envelope; do not rely on --text.
• Parse stable fields first: ok, kind, protocol, data, error.
• Use lifi-mcp-cli as the default command path.
• lifi-mcp-cli \x3Coperation> ... is equivalent to uxc https://mcp.li.quest/mcp \x3Coperation> ... when the same auth binding is configured.
• Use direct uxc "\x3Cendpoint>" ... only as a temporary fallback when link setup is unavailable.
• Prefer key=value for simple arguments and positional JSON for nested objects.
• This endpoint is read-only from the agent perspective:
  • it does not sign transactions
  • it does not broadcast transactions
  • it returns unsigned transactionRequest objects for external wallet execution
• Do not present get-quote or get-step-transaction as executed trades; they are execution plans only.
• Before suggesting an ERC20 route as ready to execute, check allowance if the route needs approval.
• Prefer get-routes only when the user explicitly wants multiple alternatives; default to get-quote for the best route.
• In live testing, chain lookup tools accepted names, but token/balance/allowance tools were more reliable with numeric chain IDs. Prefer numeric IDs after discovery.

Tested Real Scenario

The endpoint was verified through uxc host discovery and returned a live MCP tool list including:

• get-allowance
• get-chain-by-id
• get-chain-by-name
• get-chains
• get-connections
• get-gas-prices
• get-gas-suggestion
• get-quote
• get-routes
• get-status
• get-token
• get-tokens
• get-tools
• health-check

This confirms the skill target is a real hosted MCP surface accessible via UXC.

References

• Invocation patterns:
  • references/usage-patterns.md