MCP Overview

Use MCP when the boundary is model-to-tool inside an application or local workstation. Use A2A when the boundary is agent-to-agent across organizations or services.

Choose The MCP Path

JACS offers three MCP integration surfaces:

1. Run jacs mcp for local document verification without signing keys. Select --profile local-sign with an existing signed config to let the local client sign as that agent.
2. Wrap an existing MCP transport when you already have an MCP server or client and want signed JSON-RPC.
3. Register JACS as MCP tools when you want the model to call signing, verification, agreement, A2A, or trust operations directly.

Best Fit By Runtime

Important Constraints

• Python MCP wrappers are local-only. JACSMCPClient, JACSMCPServer, and jacs_call() enforce loopback URLs.
• Unsigned fallback is off by default. Both Python and Node fail closed unless you explicitly allow unsigned fallback.
• Node has two factories. createJACSTransportProxy() takes a loaded JacsClient or JacsAgent; createJACSTransportProxyAsync() is the config-path variant.
• The native server's profiles do not configure the Python or Node adapters. Those integrations have their own transport, key-loading and authorization requirements; the examples below do not inherit the native server's closed local-sign inventory.
• Signatures are provenance, not human approval. Supplied-key verification checks integrity; it does not establish truth, identity, authorization, publication permission or Agreement policy acceptance.

1. Ready-Made Server: jacs mcp

Install the unified binary and start a verification-only server. No identity creation or private-key password is required:

cargo install jacs-cli
jacs mcp

Configure a compatible MCP client with:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jacs": {
      "command": "jacs",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

The default verify-only profile exposes only jacs_verify_document; callers supply the public key and algorithm. An explicitly supplied --config or JACS_CONFIG loads public-only configuration without unlocking private keys.

To sign, reuse an existing signed config, or run jacs init once in the directory where you want to keep the agent identity. Keep using its normal keychain/password source and select it explicitly:

jacs mcp --profile local-sign --config /absolute/path/to/jacs.config.json

Use those same arguments in the MCP client:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jacs": {
      "command": "jacs",
      "args": ["mcp", "--profile", "local-sign", "--config", "/absolute/path/to/jacs.config.json"]
    }
  }
}

JACS_CONFIG can supply the config path instead. Local signing requires a valid signed config and persistent encrypted keys in filesystem storage; it does not discover config implicitly or create a replacement identity. Never send a password as a tool argument or embed it in client JSON. Prefer an owner-readable JACS_PASSWORD_FILE or the configured OS keychain.

This profile exposes nine JSON/Agreement-v2 tools when Agreement tools are compiled. To add exactly five text/image tools, grant an existing content directory explicitly at process startup:

JACS_MCP_BASE_DIR=/absolute/path/to/content jacs mcp --profile local-sign --config /absolute/path/to/jacs.config.json

There is no implicit working-directory grant. File tools reject traversal and symlinks and stay beneath the selected directory. Replacing a distinct existing output requires JACS_MCP_OVERWRITE_OK=1; explicit in-place signing remains available. Normal backups contain the original plaintext file, so protect them alongside the content. A content root never expands verify-only. Signing persists ordinary JACS documents under the config directory's documents/ directory and grants agent signing authority, not human approval.

An explicit --profile overrides JACS_MCP_PROFILE; unknown values fail startup. Historical core/full recipes are obsolete; trust-admin and compatibility-only legacy-core remain unavailable. Key administration, trust management, A2A and attestation tools are not enabled by local-sign. The compiled 42-tool contract is not a runtime grant: use tools/list to see the process's actual authorized inventory.

The native server uses stdio only: stdout carries MCP JSON-RPC and diagnostics go to stderr. It uses RMCP 3.3.0, supporting date-versioned MCP 2026-07-28 and legacy 2025-11-25 initialization; these are distinct from SDK major versions such as the TypeScript SDK v2. See the crate MCP README for the complete local-signing and response-error contract.

2. Transport Security Around Your Existing MCP Code

Python

Use jacs.mcp when you already have a FastMCP server or client and want transparent signing around the SSE transport:

from fastmcp import FastMCP
from jacs.mcp import JACSMCPServer

mcp = JACSMCPServer(
    FastMCP("Secure Server"),
    "./jacs.config.json",
    allowed_peer_agent_ids=["CLIENT_AGENT_ID"],
)

For clients:

from jacs.mcp import JACSMCPClient

client = JACSMCPClient(
    "http://localhost:8000/sse",
    "./jacs.config.json",
    expected_peer_agent_id="SERVER_AGENT_ID",
)

Helpful utilities in the same module:

• create_jacs_mcp_server() for a one-line FastMCP server
• jacs_middleware() for explicit Starlette middleware wiring
• jacs_call() for one-off authenticated local calls

See Python MCP Integration for the detailed patterns.

Node.js

Registry status (observed 2026-07-11): npm serves @hai.ai/jacs@0.10.1, while these pages describe source 0.11.4. The registry package does not expose every method shown here. Pin the version and inspect its exports; use a source build only when that is an explicit deployment choice.

Use the transport proxy when you already have an MCP transport:

import { StdioServerTransport } from '@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/stdio.js';
import { JacsClient } from '@hai.ai/jacs/client';
import { createJACSTransportProxy } from '@hai.ai/jacs/mcp';

const client = await JacsClient.quickstart({
  name: 'mcp-agent',
  domain: 'mcp.local',
});

const transport = new StdioServerTransport();
const secureTransport = createJACSTransportProxy(transport, client, 'server');

If you only have a config path:

import { createJACSTransportProxyAsync } from '@hai.ai/jacs/mcp';

const secureTransport = await createJACSTransportProxyAsync(
  transport,
  './jacs.config.json',
  'server',
);

See Node.js MCP Integration for examples and tool registration.

3. Register JACS Operations As MCP Tools

This is different from transport security. Here the model gets explicit MCP tools such as jacs_sign_document, jacs_verify_document, agreement helpers, and trust helpers.

Python

from fastmcp import FastMCP
from jacs.client import JacsClient
from jacs.adapters.mcp import (
    register_jacs_tools,
    register_a2a_tools,
    register_trust_tools,
)

client = JacsClient.quickstart(name="mcp-agent", domain="mcp.local")
mcp = FastMCP("JACS Tools")
register_jacs_tools(mcp, client=client)
register_a2a_tools(mcp, client=client)
register_trust_tools(mcp, client=client)

Node.js

import { Server } from '@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/index.js';
import { JacsClient } from '@hai.ai/jacs/client';
import { registerJacsTools } from '@hai.ai/jacs/mcp';

const server = new Server(
  { name: 'jacs-tools', version: '1.0.0' },
  { capabilities: { tools: {} } },
);

const client = await JacsClient.quickstart({
  name: 'mcp-agent',
  domain: 'mcp.local',
});

registerJacsTools(server, client);

Choose the native jacs mcp server for its explicit local-signing boundary. Tool registration in an existing Node or Python server is a separate integration; review that server's exposed operations and authorization.

Provenance MCP tools

With local-sign and an explicit JACS_MCP_BASE_DIR, the native server adds the following tools for inline text and image provenance. They cover the same surface as the sign-text and sign-image CLI verbs:

• jacs_sign_text — append a YAML-bodied signature block to a markdown / text file.
• jacs_verify_text — verify all signature blocks in a file (permissive default; strict opt-in).
• jacs_sign_image — embed a signature in PNG iTXt / JPEG APP11 / WebP XMP.
• jacs_verify_image — verify the embedded image signature (permissive default; strict opt-in).
• jacs_extract_media_signature — read out the embedded signature payload (decoded JSON by default; raw_payload opt-in for the base64url wire form).

Example Paths In This Repo

• jacspy/examples/mcp/server.py
• jacspy/examples/mcp/client.py
• jacsnpm/examples/mcp.stdio.server.js
• jacsnpm/examples/mcp.stdio.client.js

Related Guides

• Python MCP Integration
• Node.js MCP Integration
• A2A Interoperability
• Python Framework Adapters