basescope

The read-only safety layer for onchain AI agents.

basescope is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that gives AI assistants — Claude, Cursor, and any MCP client — safe, read-only onchain abilities on Base and other EVM chains. Its job is to answer one question before any wallet ever signs anything:

"Is this token / contract / approval actually safe?"

It checks for honeypots, rug-pull authority, hidden taxes, malicious addresses, and risky approvals — and looks up balances, ENS names, Basenames (*.base.eth), verified source, gas, and prices along the way.

Why it's different

🔒 Read-only by design. There is no code path that can sign or send a transaction, and no private key can ever be configured. It cannot move your funds because it literally has no way to. It's the inspector, not the wallet — a safe companion to transaction-capable agents.
🔑 No API keys required. Works out of the box on free, public data sources. (Optional keys can raise rate limits later, but nothing is required.)
🔵 Base-first, multichain-ready. Tuned for Base, and also supports Ethereum, Optimism, Arbitrum, and Polygon.
🧩 One question, cross-checked. Token safety is cross-referenced across two independent sources (GoPlus + honeypot.is) with provenance, so an agent can see when they disagree.

Quickstart

Add basescope to any MCP client — Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json), Cursor (.cursor/mcp.json), or any other. No install step; npx fetches it on first run:

config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "basescope": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "basescope"] }
  }
}

Restart your client and ask something like "Use basescope to check if token 0x… on Base is safe."

Prefer to run from source?

bash

git clone https://github.com/chasdaddy/basescope.git
cd basescope
npm install
npm run build

Then set the server command to node with args ["/absolute/path/to/basescope/dist/index.js"].

Tools

All tools are read-only. chain accepts base (default), ethereum, optimism, arbitrum, or polygon. Address fields accept a 0x address, an ENS name, or a Basename (*.base.eth) — Basenames resolve automatically via the Base L2 Resolver.

Tool	What it does
check_token_safety	Honeypot / rug assessment: honeypot check, buy/sell tax, mint/blacklist/pausable/self-destruct authority, verified source, holder count → a normalized `riskLevel` (`critical`/`high`/`medium`/`low`). Cross-checks GoPlus + honeypot.is.
check_address_safety	Reputation check against known-malicious databases (phishing, sanctioned, scam, money-laundering, mixer, …).
get_token_approvals	Lists a wallet's outstanding ERC-20 approvals and flags risky spenders — the #1 wallet-drain vector — surfacing risky ones first.
get_verified_source	Whether a contract's source is verified (via Sourcify) + its name, compiler, and function list.
inspect_contract	Is the address a contract? Bytecode size + transaction count.
get_token_info	ERC-20 name / symbol / decimals, and optionally a holder's balance.
get_native_balance	Native coin (ETH / POL / …) balance of an address or ENS name.
resolve_ens_name / reverse_ens_lookup	ENS name → address, and address → primary ENS name (also reports the primary Basename on Base).
resolve_basename	Basename (`*.base.eth`) → address, via the Base L2 Resolver — Coinbase's ENS-compatible names on Base mainnet.
get_gas	Current gas price + EIP-1559 fee suggestion.
get_token_price	Current USD price for a token (via DefiLlama).
list_supported_chains	The chains this server can read.

Example — "is this token safe?"

jsonc

// check_token_safety({ chain: "base", token: "0x…" })
{
  "riskLevel": "critical",
  "isHoneypot": true,
  "buyTaxPct": 0,
  "sellTaxPct": 99,
  "flags": [
    "cannot sell entire balance",
    "owner can mint more supply",
    "high sell tax (99%)"
  ],
  "sources": ["goplus", "honeypot.is"]
}

Configuration (all optional)

Everything works with no configuration. To use your own RPC endpoints (recommended for heavier use — public RPCs are rate-limited), set any of:

Code

BASE_RPC_URL, ETHEREUM_RPC_URL, OPTIMISM_RPC_URL, ARBITRUM_RPC_URL, POLYGON_RPC_URL

Data sources

Standing on the shoulders of excellent free/open services: onchain reads via viem + public RPCs, token & address safety via GoPlus Security and honeypot.is, verified source via Sourcify, and prices via DefiLlama.

Limitations

basescope reports heuristics and signals, not guarantees, and is not financial advice. Safety APIs can be wrong or out of date; a "low risk" result is not a promise of safety. Always do your own research before transacting. On Base (an OP-Stack L2), get_gas reports L2 fees only — total cost also includes an L1 data fee.

Roadmap

Transaction / calldata simulation and decoding ("what will this actually do?")
Optional Etherscan V2 fallback for source & ABI/proxy resolution
More chains

Basescope README