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Getting Started

Quick Start Guide

Hive is institutional-grade crypto market infrastructure for AI. Live prices, wallet positions, DeFi activity, and token risk — through managed MCP, REST API, or CLI your agent already knows how to call. This guide walks you through four ways to connect -- REST, root MCP, category-scoped MCP, and the CLI -- so you can pick the path that matches your stack.

Before you start

  1. Create a free account and generate an API key at the dashboard. The Free Demo tier gives 10,000 monthly credits and 30 requests per minute, which is more than enough to work through this guide and build a prototype.
  2. Keep the key safe. Every call to mcp.hiveintelligence.xyz needs an API key on the Authorization: Bearer header (x-api-key is also accepted as a legacy alias).
  3. Pick the connection style. Option 1 (REST) is fastest if you just want to prove auth. Options 2 and 3 (MCP) are what production agents use. Option 4 (CLI) is best for scripts, testing, and daily briefings.

Option 1: REST API

This is the fastest way to prove your auth, endpoint, and payload shape.

curl -X POST https://mcp.hiveintelligence.xyz/api/v1/execute \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_HIVE_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "tool": "get_price",
    "args": {
      "ids": "bitcoin,ethereum",
      "vs_currencies": "usd"
    }
  }'

The current REST payload keys are tool and args.

Option 2: Root MCP Endpoint

Use the root endpoint when your client supports MCP and you want access to the full discovery flow.

Endpoint: POST https://mcp.hiveintelligence.xyz/mcp

Useful root discovery surfaces:

  • tools/list for the compact discovery layer
  • hive://tools for the full live tool inventory
  • get_api_endpoint_schema for parameter lookup

Example MCP call:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "get_price",
    "arguments": {
      "ids": "bitcoin",
      "vs_currencies": "usd"
    }
  },
  "id": 1
}

Option 3: Category-scoped MCP Endpoint

Use a category endpoint when you want a smaller direct tool surface.

Example:

curl -X POST https://mcp.hiveintelligence.xyz/hive_market_data/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_HIVE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"tools/list","params":{},"id":1}'

Option 4: CLI

The safest CLI workflow is direct tool execution against the live catalog.

npx -y -p hive-intelligence@latest hive tools list
npx -y -p hive-intelligence@latest hive tools info get_price
npx -y -p hive-intelligence@latest hive tools call get_price --args '{"ids":"bitcoin","vs_currencies":"usd"}'

The npm package is hive-intelligence; the executable is hive. Install globally with npm i -g hive-intelligence to drop the npx prefix.

Verify Tool Discovery

curl -X GET "https://mcp.hiveintelligence.xyz/api/v1/tools?search=price&limit=5" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_HIVE_API_KEY"

If you need the full wrapped catalog, see Live Catalog.

Try a real query

Once your connection works, try one of these end-to-end to feel the system:

  • Price check: call get_price with {"ids":"bitcoin,ethereum","vs_currencies":"usd"} and confirm you get a live response from CoinGecko.
  • Security scan: call go_plus_token_security with a token address (e.g. the PEPE contract 0x6982508145454Ce325dDbE47a25d4ec3d2311933) and inspect the risk flags.
  • DeFi overview: call defillama_get_protocols and look at the top TVL protocols.
  • Wallet portfolio: call goldrush_get_multichain_balances with 0xd8dA6BF26964aF9D7eEd9e03E53415D37aA96045 (vitalik.eth) and you should see a multi-chain token breakdown.

These exercise four different provider backends through the same request shape -- the whole point of Hive.

Common issues

  • 401 Invalid API key -- double-check the key, confirm you are using Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY (or the legacy x-api-key), and look for trailing whitespace or newline characters.
  • 429 Rate limit -- the Free Demo tier is 30 req/min and 10,000 monthly credits. Wait 60 seconds, use the dashboard to check usage, or upgrade the plan.
  • 400 Invalid tool name -- tool names are snake_case. Use tools/list or hive://tools to get the current, authoritative list.
  • Client does not see tools -- restart the MCP client after editing the config; category endpoints only expose tools in that category.

See the full error reference and rate limits docs for retries, backoff, and error codes.

Next
What is Hive?