Flutterwave MCP Server

mcp-flutterwave

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that enables AI assistants to interact with the Flutterwave API — create payment links, charge customers directly, manage transfers, collect via virtual accounts, pay bills, and more.

Note: This server currently targets the Flutterwave v3 API. Support for v4 is coming soon.

Also ships with a built-in web app that connects to the MCP server and lets you talk to a Claude-powered Flutterwave assistant directly in your browser.

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Contents

• Features
• Installation
• Available Tools
• Card Charge Flow
• Virtual Accounts
• Bill Payment Flow
• FX Trade Flow
• Verification
• Stablecoins
• Web App
• MCP Server Setup
• Usage with Claude Desktop
• MCP-UI Components
• Contributing
• Changelog
• Security
• License

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Features

• Checkout — Create hosted payment links and disable them
• Direct Charges — Charge customers via card, bank account, mobile money, M-Pesa, or USSD
• Full card auth flow — PIN, AVS (Address Verification), 3D Secure redirect, and OTP validation all handled automatically
• Charge Validation — Validate OTP-based charges with a dedicated tool
• Transactions — Verify by ID or reference, view event timeline, resend failed webhooks
• Transfers — Initiate single transfers, manage beneficiaries
• Payment Plans — Create and retrieve subscription plans
• Virtual Accounts — Generate dedicated account numbers for NGN and GHS bank transfer collection (static or dynamic)
• Bill Payments — Pay airtime, data, cable TV, electricity, internet bills and more (Nigeria)
• FX Trade — Convert between NGN, GHS, and USD with live quotes (RFQ → trade in two steps)
• Verification — BVN identity verification, bank account name resolution, and card BIN lookup
• Stablecoins — Send USDC/USDT to Polygon wallets, or convert NGN/USD fiat into stablecoins
• Rich UI — Every tool returns a branded HTML card rendered inline in supported clients
• Web App — A standalone browser chat interface powered by Claude + this MCP server

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Installation

npm

npm install -g mcp-flutterwave

npx (no install needed)

npx mcp-flutterwave --tools=all

Docker

Pull the image:

docker pull ghcr.io/bajoski34/mcp-flutterwave:latest

The server communicates over stdio, so it must be launched by an MCP client — not run standalone. Configure Claude Desktop to use the Docker image as the MCP server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "flutterwave": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "--rm", "-i",
        "-e", "FLW_SECRET_KEY=YOUR_SECRET_KEY",
        "-e", "FLW_ENCRYPTION_KEY=YOUR_ENCRYPTION_KEY",
        "ghcr.io/bajoski34/mcp-flutterwave:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

The -i flag keeps stdin open so Claude Desktop can communicate with the server over stdio.

Requirements: Node.js 20 or later (for npm/npx).

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Available Tools

Checkout

Direct Charges

Transactions

Transfers

Payment Plans

Virtual Accounts

Bill Payments

FX Trade

Verification

Stablecoins

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Card Charge Flow

Direct card charges are multi-step. The charge_card tool handles every stage automatically and tells Claude what to do next.

1. charge_card(card details)
        │
        ├─ mode: "pin"        → ask customer for PIN
        │       charge_card(same params + authorization: { mode: "pin", pin: "..." })
        │               │
        │               ├─ mode: "otp"      → validate_charge(flw_ref, otp)
        │               └─ mode: "redirect" → send customer to 3DS URL
        │
        ├─ mode: "avs_noauth" → ask customer for billing address
        │       charge_card(same params + authorization: { mode: "avs_noauth", city, address, ... })
        │               │
        │               ├─ mode: "otp"      → validate_charge(flw_ref, otp)
        │               └─ mode: "redirect" → send customer to 3DS URL
        │
        ├─ mode: "redirect"   → send customer to 3DS URL, then read_transaction to verify
        │
        └─ (none)             → charge complete — read_transaction to verify

Authorization parameters

When a second call is needed, pass authorization alongside the original card details:

// PIN flow
{ "authorization": { "mode": "pin", "pin": "3310" } }

// AVS flow
{ "authorization": { "mode": "avs_noauth", "city": "Lagos", "address": "12 Victoria Island", "state": "LA", "country": "NG", "zipcode": "100001" } }

AMEX cards

American Express transactions require the card_holder_name field in addition to standard card details.

Payload encryption

Card payloads are encrypted with 3DES-ECB using your FLW_ENCRYPTION_KEY before they are sent to Flutterwave (PCI DSS requirement). The encryption is handled automatically — set the environment variable and the server does the rest.

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Virtual Accounts

Virtual accounts give each customer a dedicated bank account number to make transfers into. Flutterwave notifies your webhook when a payment arrives.

NGN static account

{
  "email": "customer@example.com",
  "currency": "NGN",
  "tx_ref": "VA-NGN-001",
  "is_permanent": true,
  "bvn": "22415929481"
}

GHS dynamic account

{
  "email": "customer@example.com",
  "currency": "GHS",
  "tx_ref": "VA-GHS-001",
  "amount": 500,
  "frequency": 5,
  "duration": 7
}

After creation, save the order_ref — it is the key for retrieving or updating the account via get_virtual_account and update_virtual_account.

---

Bill Payment Flow

Bill payments follow a 6-step discovery flow. Skip validate_bill_customer for airtime and mobile data.

1. get_bill_categories
        ↓ choose a category (e.g. UTILITYBILLS)

2. get_bill_providers(category)
        ↓ get biller_code (e.g. "BIL127" for IKEDC)

3. get_bill_items(biller_code)
        ↓ get item_code and amount info

4. validate_bill_customer(item_code, customer_id)   ← skip for AIRTIME / MOBILEDATA
        ↓ confirm customer name and details

5. pay_bill(biller_code, item_code, customer_id, amount)
        ↓ returns reference

6. get_bill_status(reference)
        ↓ confirms completion
          for electricity: prepaid token is in extra.token — share it with the customer

Supported categories

Bill payments are available for Nigeria only (country: NG).

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FX Trade Flow

Currency conversion uses a two-step quote-then-trade flow. Quotes are valid for 5 minutes and available weekdays only (Monday–Friday).

1. request_fx_quote(base_currency, target_currency, quantity)
        ↓ returns quote_id, status: NEW

2. get_fx_quote(quote_id)   ← poll until READY or FAILED
        ↓ READY: contains rate, approved_quantity, total_value, expiry

3. initiate_fx_trade(quote_id, narration)
        ↓ locks in rate, returns trade_id, status: NEW

4. get_fx_trade(trade_id)   ← poll until SETTLED or FAILED
        ↓ SETTLED: converted funds credited to target currency wallet instantly

Supported currency pairs

Quote statuses

Trade statuses

Key constraints

• Minimum trade: $1,000 USD equivalent in the base currency
• Quote lifetime: 5 minutes from issuance (READY state)
• One-time use: Each quote can only be used for one trade
• Approved quantity: May differ from requested quantity due to liquidity or account limits — always use approved_quantity for reconciliation
• Account enablement: Contact hi@flutterwavego.com to enable FX trading on your account

---

Verification

Bank Account Resolution

Verify a recipient's account details before sending a transfer. Always show the resolved name to the user before proceeding.

{ "account_number": "0690000040", "account_bank": "044" }

Common bank codes: 044 Access Bank · 057 Zenith Bank · 058 GTBank · 033 UBA · 011 First Bank

Card BIN Lookup

Identify card metadata from the first 6 digits of a card number.

{ "bin": "553188" }
// → { brand: "MASTERCARD", type: "CREDIT", issuer: "NEXUS MERCHANT BANK", country: "NIGERIA" }

AMEX cards identified via BIN require the card_holder_name field when calling charge_card.

BVN Verification (Nigeria)

Two-step consent flow — customer must approve data sharing on the NIBSS portal.

1. initiate_bvn_verification(bvn, firstname, lastname, redirect_url)
        ↓ returns reference + single-use consent URL

2. Customer visits consent URL → approves data sharing on NIBSS portal
        ↓ webhook (bvn.completed) fires OR poll:

3. get_bvn_details(reference)
        ↓ returns name, DOB, gender, phone, NIN, state of origin, watchlist status

Requires Flutterwave account enablement — contact hi@flutterwavego.com. If the customer has already consented, initiate_bvn_verification returns url: null and you can call get_bvn_details immediately.

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Stablecoins

Send USDC or USDT over the Polygon network, or convert NGN/USD fiat balances into stablecoins. Always call get_stablecoin_fee first so the user knows the net amount the recipient will receive.

Wallet-to-wallet transfer

1. get_stablecoin_fee(amount, currency: "USDT", debit_currency: "USDT")
        ↓ shows fee and net amount

2. send_stablecoin(wallet_address, amount, currency, debit_currency)
        ↓ returns reference and transfer status

Fiat-to-stablecoin conversion

1. get_stablecoin_fee(amount, currency: "USDC", debit_currency: "NGN")
        ↓ shows fee (percentage-based) and net USDC amount

2. convert_to_stablecoin(merchant_id, amount, currency, debit_currency: "NGN")
        ↓ deducts NGN from your fiat wallet, credits USDC/USDT

Key constraints

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Web App

The app/ directory contains a standalone browser chat interface that wraps this MCP server with a Claude-powered conversation loop.

How it works

Browser  →  POST /api/chat
               ↓
           Claude (Sonnet) — all MCP tools injected via advanced-tool-use beta
               ↓  tool_use
           MCP Server (this repo, spawned via stdio)
               ↓
           Flutterwave API

The web app uses three Anthropic Advanced Tool Use features:

• Tool Search — non-core tools are deferred and loaded on demand, reducing token usage by ~85%
• Programmatic Tool Calling — Claude can write code that calls multiple tools in sequence without inflating the conversation context
• Tool Use Examples — curated input_examples for every tool improve parameter accuracy from ~72% to ~90%

The app returns a rich branded UI card for every tool response — checkout links, transaction details, charge states, transfer summaries, virtual accounts, bill receipts — rendered inline in the chat.

Running the web app

Prerequisites

Get your keys from the Flutterwave Dashboard under Settings → API Keys.
Get your Anthropic key from the Anthropic Console.

Build and start

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/bajoski34/mcp-flutterwave.git
cd mcp-flutterwave
npm install

# Build both the MCP server and the web app
npm run build:all

# Start
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-... FLW_SECRET_KEY=FLWSECK_... npm run start:app

Then open http://localhost:3000.

Available scripts

Port

Set the PORT environment variable to change from the default 3000.

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MCP Server Setup

Via npm

npm install -g mcp-flutterwave

Via GitHub

git clone https://github.com/bajoski34/mcp-flutterwave.git
cd mcp-flutterwave
npm install
npm run build

Environment variables

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Usage with Claude Desktop

Add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json. See the MCP quickstart for details.

Pass --tools=all to enable every tool, or supply a comma-separated list to restrict which tools are registered.

Via npm

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "flutterwave": {
      "command": "mcp-flutterwave",
      "args": ["--tools=all"],
      "env": {
        "FLW_SECRET_KEY": "YOUR_SECRET_KEY",
        "FLW_ENCRYPTION_KEY": "YOUR_ENCRYPTION_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Via local build

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "flutterwave": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "/path/to/mcp-flutterwave/build/index.js",
        "--tools=all"
      ],
      "env": {
        "FLW_SECRET_KEY": "YOUR_SECRET_KEY",
        "FLW_ENCRYPTION_KEY": "YOUR_ENCRYPTION_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Selective tools

"args": [
  "--tools=create_checkout,read_transaction,create_transfer"
]

Accepted tool names (use all to enable everything):

create_checkout            disable_checkout
read_transaction           read_transaction_with_reference
read_transaction_timeline  resend_transaction_webhook
create_transfer            create_beneficiary            list_beneficiaries
create_payment_plan        get_payment_plans
charge_card                charge_bank_account           charge_mobile_money
charge_mpesa               charge_ussd                   validate_charge
create_virtual_account     get_virtual_account           update_virtual_account
list_virtual_account_bulk
get_bill_categories        get_bill_providers            get_bill_items
validate_bill_customer     pay_bill                      get_bill_status
request_fx_quote           get_fx_quote
initiate_fx_trade          get_fx_trade
initiate_bvn_verification  get_bvn_details
resolve_bank_account       verify_card_bin
get_stablecoin_fee         send_stablecoin               convert_to_stablecoin

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MCP-UI Components

Every tool returns a rich HTML card alongside its text response, powered by @mcp-ui/server. The cards use Flutterwave's design tokens — navy #0A0E27, deep orange #FF5804, brand orange #F5A623, and the system sans-serif typeface.

Card charge UI states

Virtual account UI

The virtual account card shows the bank account number in a large, prominent box alongside the bank name, account type (Static / Dynamic), currency, expiry date, and order reference.

Bill payment UI

Verification UI

Stablecoin UI

FX trade UI

Both request_fx_quote/get_fx_quote and initiate_fx_trade/get_fx_trade return dark navy-themed cards:

Cards are compatible with:

• Flutterwave Web App (this repo's app/) — rendered inline in the chat
• MCP Inspector — for testing during development
• Any MCP client that supports the resource content type with HTML

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Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please read our Contributing Guide for details on how to get started, development guidelines, and how to submit pull requests.

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Changelog

All notable changes are documented in GitHub Releases.

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Security

If you discover a security vulnerability, please do not open a public issue. Instead, email olaobajua@gmail.com directly. We will respond as quickly as possible.

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License

MIT © Abraham Olaobaju

See LICENSE for the full text.