payfast-mcp
A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for PayFast, South Africa's leading payment gateway. Enables AI assistants like Claude to securely interact with your PayFast merchant account.
Features
- Transaction management — fetch transaction details, query history, process tokenized charges
- Subscription management — fetch, pause, unpause, cancel, update, and ad-hoc charge subscriptions
- Refund processing — create refunds (full or partial) and query refund status
- Credit card queries — look up credit card transaction details
- Sandbox support — defaults to sandbox mode for safe testing
- Secure by design — credentials via environment variables only, sensitive data never logged
Available Tools
| Tool | Description | Risk |
|---|---|---|
ping | Test API connectivity | Low |
transaction_fetch | Get transaction by ID | Low |
transaction_history | Query transaction history | Low |
transaction_charge | Charge a stored token | Medium |
subscription_fetch | Get subscription details | Low |
subscription_pause | Pause a subscription | High |
subscription_unpause | Resume a subscription | Medium |
subscription_cancel | Cancel a subscription | High |
subscription_update | Update subscription terms | High |
subscription_adhoc | Ad-hoc subscription charge | High |
refund_create | Process a refund | High |
refund_fetch | Get refund details | Low |
creditcard_fetch | Query card transaction | Low |
High-risk operations require human approval before execution.
Quick Start
Prerequisites
- Node.js 18+
- A PayFast merchant account (sandbox or production)
Installation
npm install -g payfast-mcp
Or run directly with npx:
npx payfast-mcp
Configuration
Set the following environment variables:
| Variable | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
PAYFAST_MERCHANT_ID | Yes | Your PayFast Merchant ID |
PAYFAST_MERCHANT_KEY | Yes | Your PayFast Merchant Key |
PAYFAST_PASSPHRASE | Yes | Your PayFast API Passphrase |
PAYFAST_ENVIRONMENT | No | sandbox (default) or production |
You can also create a .env file in your working directory.
Claude Desktop
Add to your Claude Desktop config (claude_desktop_config.json):
{
"mcpServers": {
"payfast": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "payfast-mcp"],
"env": {
"PAYFAST_MERCHANT_ID": "your-merchant-id",
"PAYFAST_MERCHANT_KEY": "your-merchant-key",
"PAYFAST_PASSPHRASE": "your-passphrase",
"PAYFAST_ENVIRONMENT": "sandbox"
}
}
}
}
Claude Code
Add to your Claude Code settings:
claude mcp add payfast \
-e PAYFAST_MERCHANT_ID=your-merchant-id \
-e PAYFAST_MERCHANT_KEY=your-merchant-key \
-e PAYFAST_PASSPHRASE=your-passphrase \
-e PAYFAST_ENVIRONMENT=sandbox \
-- npx -y payfast-mcp
Cursor
Add to your Cursor MCP config (.cursor/mcp.json for project-level, or ~/.cursor/mcp.json for global):
{
"mcpServers": {
"payfast": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "payfast-mcp"],
"env": {
"PAYFAST_MERCHANT_ID": "your-merchant-id",
"PAYFAST_MERCHANT_KEY": "your-merchant-key",
"PAYFAST_PASSPHRASE": "your-passphrase",
"PAYFAST_ENVIRONMENT": "sandbox"
}
}
}
}
Codex
Add via the Codex CLI:
codex mcp add payfast \
--env PAYFAST_MERCHANT_ID=your-merchant-id \
--env PAYFAST_MERCHANT_KEY=your-merchant-key \
--env PAYFAST_PASSPHRASE=your-passphrase \
--env PAYFAST_ENVIRONMENT=sandbox \
-- npx -y payfast-mcp
Or add directly to ~/.codex/config.toml:
[mcp_servers.payfast]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "payfast-mcp"]
[mcp_servers.payfast.env]
PAYFAST_MERCHANT_ID = "your-merchant-id"
PAYFAST_MERCHANT_KEY = "your-merchant-key"
PAYFAST_PASSPHRASE = "your-passphrase"
PAYFAST_ENVIRONMENT = "sandbox"
Development
# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/jpbester/payfast-mcp.git
cd payfast-mcp
# Install dependencies
npm install
# Build
npm run build
# Run tests
npm test
# Run with MCP Inspector
npm run inspect
License
MIT