Hive Intelligence FAQ for MCP, API, CLI, and Live Tools

Hive is free to start (10,000 monthly credits, no card), supports every major AI client over MCP, and exposes hundreds of tools across 10 categories. Common questions below.

Start free with 10K credits → See pricing

Is Hive Intelligence free?

Yes. Hive has a Free Demo tier — 10,000 monthly credits, 30 requests per minute, 5 API keys, access to every tool across every category. No credit card required. Paid tiers (Analyst $129/mo, Pro $499/mo, Enterprise custom) increase the credit budget, raise the rate limit, and add support — every plan keeps full tool access.

What data does Hive return?

Hive returns live crypto market and on-chain data through a unified schema: spot and OHLC prices, derivatives and funding rates, DeFi TVL and yields, wallet balances and transaction history (EVM and Solana), token metadata and security checks, DEX pool and trade data, NFT collection stats (including Solana compressed NFTs), Solana RPC primitives (slots, priority fees), and Polymarket prediction market data. Every response carries fetched_at timestamps so agents know the data is current.

Who uses Hive Intelligence?

AI agent builders — research agents that monitor crypto markets, trading bots that need live prices plus DEX liquidity, wallet analyzers that work across chains, security scanners that call pre-signing checks, and DeFi yield comparators. Typical callers are Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, ChatGPT Desktop, Windsurf, VS Code (GitHub Copilot Chat), Codex CLI, and Gemini CLI agents. Hive is built for machines, not dashboards — the surface is optimized for LLM function calling.

How many tools does Hive have?

Hive exposes hundreds of live tools across 10 category-scoped MCP endpoints. Because new tools and providers ship continuously, the canonical count lives at GET /api/v1/tools or on Live Catalog — prefer those over any static claim. At the root MCP endpoint, a compact 13-tool discovery layer surfaces search_tools, 10 category listings, get_api_endpoint_schema, and invoke_api_endpoint.

Does Hive work with Claude Code?

Yes. Run claude mcp add --transport http hive https://mcp.hiveintelligence.xyz/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY" and Hive tools show up in your next session. Use --scope user to install globally or --scope project to commit to the repo's .mcp.json. See Install in Claude Code for the full flow.

What is the difference between the MCP and REST API?

Same server, two surfaces. MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the streaming JSON-RPC interface AI agents speak natively. The root MCP endpoint keeps tools/list compact for discovery and routing, while category endpoints expose direct scoped tools. REST is a plain HTTP surface (POST /api/v1/execute, GET /api/v1/tools) for backends and scripts that do not implement MCP. Both hit the same live catalog and both consume one credit per tool call.

What is a managed MCP server?

An MCP server is a backend that exposes tools over the Model Context Protocol for AI agents to discover and call. "Managed" means Hive runs the server, authenticates the upstream providers, handles rate limiting and retries, normalizes response shapes, and ships new tools as we add providers — you never touch the provider APIs directly. Self-hosting would mean running the server, rotating provider keys, and maintaining the schema yourself.

How does Hive handle rate limits?

Hive enforces two layers. First, your Hive API key has a per-minute and per-month budget based on your plan (Demo: 30 req/min, 10,000 credits/month). Hitting that returns HTTP 429 with Retry-After seconds. Second, Hive internally respects each upstream provider's rate limit — upstream throttling surfaces as HTTP 502 with a retryable error code. Both layers are documented in Rate Limits and Errors.

What does the live server expose?

The current Hive server exposes:

10 category-scoped MCP endpoints
Hundreds of categorized tools
348 wrapped provider tools in the full live catalog

Use Tools Reference for scoped endpoints and Live Catalog for the full wrapped provider catalog.

Why do the root endpoint and category endpoints look different?

The root /mcp endpoint is optimized for discovery-heavy AI workflows. Category endpoints expose smaller direct tools/list results. The full wrapped tool catalog is discoverable through:

GET /api/v1/tools
hive://tools
invoke_api_endpoint from root /mcp
direct tools/call on category endpoints

Is the documentation static or live?

The public docs are curated, but the product itself is backed by the current live Hive catalog. That means the dashboard, CLI, and REST surfaces are intended to reflect real executable tools and not just static marketing examples.

How do I authenticate?

Send Authorization: Bearer YOUR_HIVE_API_KEY. The legacy x-api-key: YOUR_HIVE_API_KEY header is still accepted for backward compatibility but is no longer recommended for new integrations.

What capabilities are live today?

Market data (prices, caps, OHLC, trending)
DeFi analytics (TVL, yields, fees, bridges, stablecoins)
Security & risk (token, wallet, dApp, phishing, rug-pull, simulation, LP locks)
On-chain DEX analytics (pools, pairs, trade flow)
Exchange data (spot, perps, funding rates)
Portfolio & wallet analytics (balances, transactions, PnL, approvals)
NFT analytics (collections, floors, sales, trades)
Solana depth (native RPC, Digital Asset Standard, compressed NFTs, parsed transactions)
Prediction markets (Polymarket events, trader positions)
Network & infrastructure (blocks, logs, gas, chain status)

See Data Coverage for full scope.

What is the current REST payload shape?

Use:

{
  "tool": "get_price",
  "args": {
    "ids": "bitcoin",
    "vs_currencies": "usd"
  }
}

The older toolName / arguments shape is legacy documentation and is no longer the preferred format.

Frequently Asked Questions