Metis FCA Handbook AI Harness — MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that integrates the Metis FCA Handbook AI Harness into your AI workflow. MCP is supported by Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, and most desktop/IDE MCP clients (Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, and others) — this README uses Claude Desktop as a fully worked example; adjust the configuration steps to fit your own client.

Source & full documentation: github.com/99blakeD99/the-metis-fca-handbook-ai-harness-mcp-files

Tools

evaluate_fca_handbook_applicability

Evaluate which FCA Handbook entries apply to an entity, via the Metis FCA Handbook AI Harness. One-shot: no session, no conversation state. Supports quick mode (60-120 seconds, default) and full mode (longer, more detailed). Returns a compliance report with verbatim citations, gaps, and refinement suggestions.

Why choose The Metis FCA Handbook AI Harness?

• Efficiency Multiplies effectiveness of compliance advice. Saves £80+ in token fees per Harness run.

• Deals with "Hard Problem", in which LLMs' token incentives prioritise training data so results are unreliable.

• Verbatim citations Quotes verbatim entries from the FCA Handbook. Other AI systems struggle to do this.

• Matches real-world need You do not have to start off knowing which sections you are looking for. Carries out structured searches across all 10,000+ FCA Handbook entries.

• Secure Design Harness compartmentalisation, one-shot structure, and statelessness fits natively with emerging AI agent security standards such as OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026.

• AI Accessible Integrates easily with AI workflows and agents. Your LLM can use it as a tool.

Try the Harness Live

Experience the Harness interactively before integrating:

https://fcahandbookharnessimplementation.onrender.com

Email the-metis-fca-handbook-ai-harness@jbmd.co.uk and request a free temporary Access Code.

Ask compliance questions in natural language and watch each reasoning step unfold in real-time.

Design Principles

The Harness is built on proven principles:

• Stateless — Each request is independent; no session coupling
• One-shot — Complete analysis in a single call; no multi-turn state
• Clear contract — Explicit input/output schemas for easy integration
• Hosted — Single canonical source; no version drift or stale data

Use Cases

Compliance AI Platforms

Embed FCA reasoning as a service within your compliance platform. Users ask natural-language questions; your platform calls the Harness and presents structured reasoning.

AI Agent Workflows

Agents building compliance workflows can include FCA Handbook reasoning as a composed tool—no external API calls, just MCP configuration.

Compliance Review Automation

Integrate into document review or due-diligence pipelines. Automatically screen new rules against FCA applicability.

For Regulatory Screening

FS firms screening MCP servers will find:

• Simple model: Stateless, no hidden state, no background jobs
• Clear contract: Explicit input schema, output schema, error modes
• Transparent updates: Version pinning; no automatic upgrades
• Single point of failure: If the Harness is down, it is obvious; no cascading config issues
• Audit-friendly: All calls logged centrally, not distributed

Quick Start

1. Get an API Key

Visit the Metis account dashboard:

https://fcahandbookharnessimplementation.onrender.com

• Click "Create Account" (modal on the homepage)
• Complete Stripe payment flow (accounts are paid)
• Navigate to API Keys and generate a new key
• Save it securely

2. Install the MCP Server

pip install fca-handbook-harness-mcp

3. Configure your MCP client

This section walks through Claude Desktop as a fully worked example. The mcpServers JSON shape below is shared by most desktop/IDE MCP clients (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, and others) — but the config file location and restart step are Claude Desktop's specifically. If you are using a different client, including one with a GUI-based connector flow (some OpenAI and Gemini integrations work this way) rather than a JSON config file, consult that client's own documentation for where to add a server.

The Harness API key should be supplied at runtime from an environment variable or secrets manager, never hardcoded as a literal value in a configuration file that may be committed to a shared repository. The server supports this directly: it loads a .env file automatically (from the directory it runs in, or any parent), so METIS_API_KEY never needs to appear in the client config at all — the approach used below.

Claude Desktop file location:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Add this server entry (create the file if it doesn't exist):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fca-handbook-harness": {
      "command": "fca-handbook-harness-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Then create a .env file (in the directory this server runs from) containing:

METIS_API_KEY=sk_live_...

Replace sk_live_... with your actual API key from your Metis account. (If your client does not run the server from a directory you control — some GUI-based connector flows do not — fall back to an env block in the config above instead.)

4. Restart your MCP client

For Claude Desktop: quit and restart the app. Other clients reload MCP connections differently — check your client's documentation if unsure. Once connected, the evaluate_fca_handbook_applicability tool will be available in agent workflows.

Using the Tool

The tool accepts two parameters:

• user_input (required, max 5000 characters): Everything together as one piece of text — firm type, products/services, target market, regulatory question, etc.
• analysis_mode (optional): "quick" (default, ~60-120 seconds) or "full" (longer, detailed conditional reasoning)

The tool returns:

• summary: 2-3 sentence overview of applicability
• entry_analysis: Retrieved FCA Handbook entries with reasoning
• obligations: High-confidence and low-confidence/tangential obligations, each optionally flagged with the specific condition under which it applies
• refinement_suggestions: What the analysis couldn't determine from your input and why it matters, paired with the specific edit to make to improve accuracy
• citations: Verbatim quotes from FCA Handbook with binding levels (R=Rule, G=Guidance)
• tokens: Object with input, output, and total token counts, for cost/complexity tracking

Troubleshooting

Tool not appearing (Claude Desktop; the same class of issue applies to most desktop MCP clients):

• Verify the config file path (platform-specific, see above)
• Confirm fca-handbook-harness-mcp resolves on the command line (which fca-handbook-harness-mcp / where fca-handbook-harness-mcp). Desktop MCP clients typically launch with a minimal environment and may not see the same PATH as your shell — if the command does not resolve, replace "command": "fca-handbook-harness-mcp" with the absolute path from that lookup
• Restart your MCP client (not just reload)

401 Unauthorized:

• Verify METIS_API_KEY is set in the config env
• Check the key is correct (copy from dashboard again)
• Ensure no extra spaces or newlines in the key

Connection timeout:

• The analysis can take 60-120 seconds (quick mode) or longer (full mode)
• Ensure you have internet access to fcahandbookharnessimplementation.onrender.com

Files

• mcp_server.py — MCP server implementation (main entry point; its docstring is the source of truth for the tool schema)
• pyproject.toml — pypi package manifest
• server.json — MCP registry manifest (registry.modelcontextprotocol.io format)
• manifest.json — MCPB/Smithery bundle manifest
• requirements.txt — Python dependencies (mcp, requests)
• uv.lock — Pinned dependency resolution for reproducible uv run
• __init__.py — Python package marker
• README.md — This file
• LICENSE — MIT License
• .gitignore — Git ignore rules
• .mcpbignore — Files excluded from the MCPB bundle

Support

For questions or issues, contact: the-metis-fca-handbook-ai-harness@jbmd.co.uk

Product: Metis FCA Handbook AI Harness
License: MIT