# AINative Studio — MCP Connection Guide

> How to connect AI agents to AINative via the Model Context Protocol (MCP).
> Last updated: 2026-04-01

## What is MCP?

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard for connecting AI agents to external tools and
data sources. AINative provides MCP servers that give agents access to ZeroDB memory, vectors,
tables, files, and more — no REST calls required.

## Available MCP Servers

### ZeroDB Memory MCP (Lightweight — 6 tools)

Best for: Agent memory (remember, recall, forget, reflect, search, embed)

```bash
npx ainative-zerodb-memory-mcp
```

Environment variables required:

```
ZERODB_API_KEY=zdb_...
ZERODB_PROJECT_ID=proj_...
```

Tools:

- `zerodb_store_memory` — store a memory with content and metadata
- `zerodb_search_memory` — keyword search across stored memories
- `zerodb_semantic_search` — vector similarity search across memories
- `zerodb_get_context` — retrieve the agent's current context window
- `zerodb_embed_text` — embed text to a float vector
- `zerodb_clear_session` — clear all memories for a session

Benchmark: 100% Recall@1 on LongMemEval (ICLR 2025), 94% QA accuracy, 384ms p50 retrieval.

### ZeroDB Full MCP (Comprehensive — 69+ tools)

Best for: Full database operations (vectors, tables, files, events, PostgreSQL)

```bash
pip install zerodb-mcp
zerodb-mcp serve
```

Environment variables required:

```
ZERODB_API_KEY=zdb_...
ZERODB_PROJECT_ID=proj_...
```

Tool categories: Vectors, Tables, Files, Events, Memory, PostgreSQL, Project management

## Claude Code / Cursor / VS Code / Windsurf Setup

Add to your MCP config (`.mcp.json` or IDE settings):

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zerodb-memory": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "ainative-zerodb-memory-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "ZERODB_API_KEY": "zdb_...",
        "ZERODB_PROJECT_ID": "proj_..."
      }
    }
  }
}
```

For the full 69-tool server, replace `ainative-zerodb-memory-mcp` with `zerodb-mcp-server` and use
the same env vars.

## Quick Setup with zerodb-cli

```bash
npx zerodb-cli init
```

This auto-detects your IDE and writes the MCP config automatically. Supports Claude Code, Cursor,
VS Code, and Windsurf.

## Get API Credentials

### Option 1: Instant DB (Zero Signup)

No email, no password, no human required:

```bash
curl -X POST https://api.ainative.studio/api/v1/public/instant-db \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"project_name": "my-agent"}'
```

Response:

```json
{
  "project_id": "proj_...",
  "api_key": "zdb_...",
  "endpoints": {
    "vectors": "/api/v1/public/vectors",
    "tables": "/api/v1/public/tables",
    "memory": "/api/v1/public/memory/v2"
  }
}
```

### Option 2: Sign Up

Create an account at https://ainative.studio/signup and copy your API key from the dashboard.

## MCP Catalog

Full list of deployable MCP servers (GitHub, PostgreSQL, Slack, Gmail, Filesystem, Brave Search,
Puppeteer, SQLite, Fetch, EverArt, Sentry, AWS Knowledge Base, Shadcn UI, and more):

- Manifest: https://ainative.studio/.well-known/mcp-servers.json
- Hosting: https://ainative.studio/products/mcp-hosting

## Related Files

- [agent.md](https://ainative.studio/agent.md) — Agent onboarding (REST API quickstart)
- [heartbeat.md](https://ainative.studio/heartbeat.md) — Autonomous agent loop pattern
- [security.md](https://ainative.studio/security.md) — Agent security model
- [sdks.txt](https://ainative.studio/sdks.txt) — All published packages
- [OpenAPI](https://api.ainative.studio/docs) — Full API specification