PayQL — pay-per-query data from The Graph

Get live on-chain data from The Graph's subgraphs (DeFi, DEX pools, NFTs, ENS, tokens, governance — 15,000+ subgraphs across 20+ chains), paying ~$0.01 USDC per query over x402. No API key, no account, no ETH for gas — the payment is the auth, and it's gasless (EIP-3009 transferWithAuthorization on Base).

💸 This spends real USDC. Every paid query is a live on-chain micropayment (~$0.01) from your wallet — it is not a free, read-only API, and the payment is visible on-chain and to the x402 facilitator. Quote the price first (free), and fund a dedicated, low-balance wallet — see Wallet & safety.

The loop: discover → price → query

Discover the right live subgraph for a protocol — ranked by on-chain curation signal, so you skip dead forks.
Price it — preflight the 402 challenge to read the exact USDC cost before paying (free).
Query — send GraphQL, pay the 402 from your wallet, get the data + a receipt back.

Two ways to run it

A. PayQL MCP server (turnkey)

Install and wire into your harness (Claude Desktop / Code / Cursor):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "payql": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "payql"],
      "env": { "PAYQL_NETWORK": "base", "PAYQL_PRIVATE_KEY": "0xYOUR_BASE_WALLET_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

⚠️ PAYQL_PRIVATE_KEY can spend its wallet's USDC. Use a dedicated, low-balance Base wallet — never a primary, valuable, or reused key. It sits in your harness config (which can be logged, synced, or screenshotted), so treat it like any secret: don't commit it or paste it in shared chats. Don't want a raw key here? Use option B (your harness's own wallet) or an Ampersend-managed wallet with spend caps.

Tools: search_subgraphs, get_payment_info (free price quote), query_subgraph (paid), get_subgraph_schema, wallet_status. Full recipe + example queries in references/gateway.md.

B. No install — use your harness's own wallet

If your harness already has an x402 / pay-for-service capability, hit the gateway directly:

Gateway URL: https://gateway.thegraph.com/api/x402/subgraphs/id/<SUBGRAPH_ID>
POST GraphQL {"query":"..."}. On 402, pay the quoted USDC amount and retry — your x402 client does this automatically.

Full no-install recipe (discovery query, pricing, examples) in references/gateway.md.

Wallet & safety

Use a dedicated, low-balance Base wallet funded with only the USDC you intend to spend — never a primary, valuable, or reused key. PAYQL_PRIVATE_KEY can spend that wallet's USDC.
Fund with USDC only — payments are gasless, so no ETH is required. The per-query cost is $0.01; there are no API keys, subscriptions, or platform fees.
This skill is for paid reads. It does not swap, trade, or auto-top-up your wallet — keep any funding or top-up a separate, human-approved action.
Don't want a raw key in your config? Use option B (your harness's own wallet), or an Ampersend-managed wallet with server-side spend caps + allowlists (see the PayQL README).