Use India API from an MCP client (Claude, Cursor, VS Code)

Connect an AI assistant to India API's MCP server, load only the tool sets you need, add your key, check the connection, and fix the usual problems.

By Dharun Ashokkumar · published 2026-11-12

India API is also an MCP server: an assistant connected to it can look up a pincode, check a GSTIN, read a receipt or find today's gold rate on its own, and every answer names its source. It is one remote server over Streamable HTTP, so there is nothing to install.

Connect

Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http india-api https://api.dharun.dev/mcp

Cursor, VS Code, Claude Desktop and other clients take a server entry like this in their MCP settings file (.cursor/mcp.json, .vscode/mcp.json, and so on; the outer key differs by client):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "india-api": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.dharun.dev/mcp"
    }
  }
}

No key is needed for most tools.

Add your key

A free key raises the limits, and the model tools (OCR, speech, translation and the others) need one from 15 December 2026. Send it as a header from the client, never in the URL:

claude mcp add --transport http india-api https://api.dharun.dev/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $INDIA_API_KEY"

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "india-api": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.dharun.dev/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer ${env:INDIA_API_KEY}" }
    }
  }
}

(How a client reads environment variables differs; check yours rather than pasting the key into a shared file.)

Load fewer tools

The server offers about a hundred tools. Every tool's description takes room in the assistant's context, so connect to only the sets you use:

https://api.dharun.dev/mcp?tools=money,dates

Sets: files, money, network, text, dates, places. The find_tool tool is always there, so the assistant can still find a tool outside its sets. You can search the same list yourself:

curl "https://api.dharun.dev/v1/mcp-tools?q=gold%20rate&utm_medium=guide"

{"data": [
  {"name": "get_gold_silver_rates", "set": "money", "description": "Today's IBJA benchmark rates for gold (24K 999 to 14K 585), silver and platinum in India, per 10 grams (silver per kg) and per gram, before GST; or the history of one."},
  {"name": "get_rbi_rates", "set": "money", "description": "India's current repo rate, reverse repo, SDF, MSF, bank rate, CRR, SLR, ..."}
]}

Check that it works

Ask the assistant something only the tools can answer: "Which district is pincode 641001 in?" or "Is 33AABCS1429B1Z1 a valid GSTIN format?" It should call lookup_pincode or a validation tool and quote the source. To test the server without an assistant:

curl -X POST https://api.dharun.dev/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list"}'

When something goes wrong

What you see	Why, and the fix
The client lists no tools	It is set up for a local (stdio) server: choose HTTP or Streamable HTTP, with the URL ending in `/mcp`
`405` when opening the URL in a browser	Expected: MCP uses POST. A browser's GET is not a client
A tool answers `key_required`	It is a model tool after 15 December 2026: add the `Authorization` header
`invalid_key`	The key was copied wrongly or revoked; copy it again from your account page
`rate_limited`	Too many calls a minute; a key raises the limit from 600 to 3,000 units
The assistant answers from memory	Ask it to use the india-api tools, or name the tool; check the server is enabled in the client

Files (PDFs, images, audio) go in and out of the file tools as base64, up to 5 MB. Everything a tool returns is exactly what the REST endpoint of the same name returns, so the documentation describes the tools too.

The code in this guide is MIT-0: copy it into anything, no credit needed. Updated 2026-11-12.

APIs used: MCP tools.