Paywall MCP runs on your own machine — the client starts it, so there is no endpoint to ping. 39 installs a week from npm. Last commit 15 Jun 2026.
Lightning-paywall sidecar: wraps any stdio MCP server, requires paid invoices before tool calls.
Nothing serious here today
Today is the operative word: we check Paywall MCP every 15 minutes and re-read its code on every release. Watch it and you find out the day that stops being true.
Connect this server
This server runs on your own machine — install it with the package manager and the client starts it for you. Package name taken from the official registry entry.
claude mcp add paywall-mcp -e 'PAYWALL_UPSTREAM_COMMAND=<PAYWALL_UPSTREAM_COMMAND>' -e 'NWC_CONNECTION_STRING=<NWC_CONNECTION_STRING>' -- npx -y paywall-mcp{
"mcpServers": {
"paywall-mcp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"paywall-mcp"
],
"env": {
"NWC_CONNECTION_STRING": "<NWC_CONNECTION_STRING>",
"PAYWALL_UPSTREAM_COMMAND": "<PAYWALL_UPSTREAM_COMMAND>"
}
}
}
}[mcp_servers.paywall-mcp]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "paywall-mcp"]
env = { PAYWALL_UPSTREAM_COMMAND = "<PAYWALL_UPSTREAM_COMMAND>", NWC_CONNECTION_STRING = "<NWC_CONNECTION_STRING>" }{
"mcpServers": {
"paywall-mcp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"paywall-mcp"
],
"env": {
"NWC_CONNECTION_STRING": "<NWC_CONNECTION_STRING>",
"PAYWALL_UPSTREAM_COMMAND": "<PAYWALL_UPSTREAM_COMMAND>"
}
}
}
}{
"servers": {
"paywall-mcp": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"paywall-mcp"
],
"env": {
"NWC_CONNECTION_STRING": "<NWC_CONNECTION_STRING>",
"PAYWALL_UPSTREAM_COMMAND": "<PAYWALL_UPSTREAM_COMMAND>"
}
}
}
}Put your own values in place of
<PAYWALL_UPSTREAM_COMMAND> (Command to spawn the upstream MCP server (e.g. npx)), <NWC_CONNECTION_STRING> (NWC connection string of the receiving wallet (receive-only recommended)).
The author’s registry entry marks them as required.
Optional settings from the registry entry, left out of the block above:
PAYWALL_UPSTREAM_ARGS (JSON array of args for the upstream command), PAYWALL_DEFAULT_PRICE_SATS (Default price in sats for tools not in PAYWALL_PRICE_MAP), PAYWALL_PRICE_MAP (JSON map of tool name to price in sats).
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Paywall MCP — questions
Answers built from our own checks of this server.