Cycles — Budget Authority for AI Agents runs on your own machine — the client starts it, so there is no endpoint to ping. 82 installs a week from npm. Last commit 1 Nov 2026.
Runtime budget authority for AI agents — reserve, enforce, reconcile spend across providers
Nothing serious here today
Today is the operative word: we check Cycles — Budget Authority for AI Agents 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 cycles-mcp-server -e 'CYCLES_API_KEY=<CYCLES_API_KEY>' -e 'CYCLES_BASE_URL=<CYCLES_BASE_URL>' -- npx -y @runcycles/mcp-server{
"mcpServers": {
"cycles-mcp-server": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@runcycles/mcp-server"
],
"env": {
"CYCLES_API_KEY": "<CYCLES_API_KEY>",
"CYCLES_BASE_URL": "<CYCLES_BASE_URL>"
}
}
}
}[mcp_servers.cycles-mcp-server]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "@runcycles/mcp-server"]
env = { CYCLES_API_KEY = "<CYCLES_API_KEY>", CYCLES_BASE_URL = "<CYCLES_BASE_URL>" }{
"mcpServers": {
"cycles-mcp-server": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@runcycles/mcp-server"
],
"env": {
"CYCLES_API_KEY": "<CYCLES_API_KEY>",
"CYCLES_BASE_URL": "<CYCLES_BASE_URL>"
}
}
}
}{
"servers": {
"cycles-mcp-server": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@runcycles/mcp-server"
],
"env": {
"CYCLES_API_KEY": "<CYCLES_API_KEY>",
"CYCLES_BASE_URL": "<CYCLES_BASE_URL>"
}
}
}
}Put your own values in place of
<CYCLES_API_KEY> (Cycles API key for authentication. Set CYCLES_MOCK=true for local development without a key), <CYCLES_BASE_URL> (URL of the Cycles server (e.g. https://api.runcycles.io). Required unless CYCLES_MOCK=true).
The author’s registry entry marks them as required.
Optional settings from the registry entry, left out of the block above:
CYCLES_MOCK (Enable mock mode for local development — no API key or live server required), CYCLES_DEFAULT_TENANT (Optional default tenant merged into any tool call that omits it (explicit fields win)), CYCLES_DEFAULT_WORKSPACE (Optional default workspace merged into any tool call that omits it (explicit fields win)), CYCLES_DEFAULT_APP (Optional default app merged into any tool call that omits it (explicit fields win)), CYCLES_DEFAULT_WORKFLOW (Optional default workflow merged into any tool call that omits it (explicit fields win)), CYCLES_DEFAULT_AGENT (Optional default agent merged into any tool call that omits it (explicit fields win)), CYCLES_DEFAULT_TOOLSET (Optional default toolset merged into any tool call that omits it (explicit fields win)).
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Cycles — Budget Authority for AI Agents — questions
Answers built from our own checks of this server.