Paywall MCP runs on your own machine — the client starts it, so there is no endpoint to ping. 30 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 -- npx -y paywall-mcp{
"mcpServers": {
"paywall-mcp": {
"args": [
"-y",
"paywall-mcp"
],
"command": "npx"
}
}
}[mcp_servers.paywall-mcp]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "paywall-mcp"]{
"mcpServers": {
"paywall-mcp": {
"args": [
"-y",
"paywall-mcp"
],
"command": "npx"
}
}
}{
"mcpServers": {
"paywall-mcp": {
"args": [
"-y",
"paywall-mcp"
],
"command": "npx"
}
}
}This one needs environment variables set before it will start:
PAYWALL_UPSTREAM_COMMAND (Command to spawn the upstream MCP server (e.g. npx)), PAYWALL_UPSTREAM_ARGS (JSON array of args for the upstream command), NWC_CONNECTION_STRING (NWC connection string of the receiving wallet (receive-only recommended)), 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).
The author declared them in the registry entry; get the values from the project itself.
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Paywall MCP — questions
Answers built from our own checks of this server.