certindex-mcp
An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that exposes CertIndex's Certificate Transparency search tools to any MCP-compatible client (Claude Desktop, the MCP Inspector, Continue, etc.).
CertIndex indexes the full public CT corpus (~5 M certificates, growing ~100 k/day). This server wraps the public CertIndex REST API so an LLM can ask questions like:
- "List every TLS certificate ever issued for
example.com." - "What subdomains has Let's Encrypt seen for
mycompany.io?" - "Show me certs expiring in the next 30 days for
api.mycompany.io." - "Pull the full PEM and CT log metadata for SHA-256
<fingerprint>."
Why this repo exists
The CertIndex monorepo bundles an MCP server (mounted at
https://api.ctindex.io/mcp) that talks directly to the production
Postgres index. This standalone package is a thin client-side
shim: it speaks MCP to your editor / agent and forwards every tool
call to the hosted CertIndex REST API over HTTPS. Two consequences:
- You don't need a copy of the index — sign up for a free API key at https://ctindex.io and you're done.
- The package has a tiny dependency footprint (
mcp,httpx,pydantic) — easy to audit, easy to vendor, no DB drivers.
Install
pip install certindex-mcp
Or with uvx for one-shot use:
uvx certindex-mcp
To install the latest development version from source instead:
pip install git+https://github.com/certindex/certindex-mcp
Quickstart — Claude Desktop
Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
(macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):
{
"mcpServers": {
"certindex": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["certindex-mcp"],
"env": {
"CERTINDEX_API_KEY": "ctx_live_..."
}
}
}
}
Restart Claude Desktop. The six CertIndex tools (search_certificates,
get_certificate, get_domain_certificates, get_subdomains,
get_latest_cert, get_expiring_certs) appear in the tool tray.
Quickstart — MCP Inspector
export CERTINDEX_API_KEY=ctx_live_...
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uvx certindex-mcp
Configuration
| Env var | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
CERTINDEX_API_KEY | (required) | Your CertIndex API key. Mint one at https://ctindex.io/app/keys |
CERTINDEX_BASE_URL | https://api.ctindex.io | Override for self-hosted deployments / staging |
CERTINDEX_TIMEOUT | 30 | Per-request HTTP timeout (seconds) |
Security
Input validation, rate-limit handling, and our supply-chain posture are documented in SECURITY.md. Please report vulnerabilities to security@ctindex.io rather than filing public issues.
Development
git clone https://github.com/certindex/certindex-mcp
cd certindex-mcp
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest
CI runs on Python 3.11 / 3.12 / 3.13.
License
MIT © CertIndex contributors.