Give Windsurf's Cascade agent live crypto market data — prices, funding, open interest, liquidations, market regimes, Fear & Greed, dealer gamma and whale activity — as native MCP tools.
Two parts: the Agent Skill (knowledge) and the MCP server (live tools). Windsurf reads MCP servers from ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json (on Windows, %USERPROFILE%\.codeium\windsurf\mcp_config.json) and supports both remote streamable-HTTP (serverUrl + headers) and stdio servers.
~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json
Agent docs →
Install the skill with the skills CLI so Cascade knows how to use our data and workflows. See the Agent Skill page for what's inside.
npx skills add Crypto-Data-API/cryptodataapi-skills -g -y
Open mcp_config.json (Windsurf → Settings → Cascade → MCP Servers → Manage / View raw config) and add the cryptodataapi server. Use the serverUrl block for the remote HTTP server (recommended — no Node) or the stdio block for a local bridge. Replace cdk_live_YOUR_KEY with your key — free one at cryptodataapi.com/login.
Save, then hit Refresh in the MCP panel so Cascade reloads the server. Windsurf supports variable interpolation in serverUrl, headers, env, etc., so you can reference a secret instead of hardcoding the key.
{
"mcpServers": {
"cryptodataapi": {
"serverUrl": "https://cryptodataapi.com/mcp",
"headers": { "X-API-Key": "cdk_live_YOUR_KEY" }
}
}
}
{
"mcpServers": {
"cryptodataapi": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "cryptodataapi-mcp"],
"env": { "CRYPTODATA_API_KEY": "cdk_live_YOUR_KEY" }
}
}
}
In Cascade, confirm the tools appear in the MCP panel, then ask for a market read — see the example prompts below.
“What's the current market regime and which strategy baskets fit it?”
“Compare BTC funding rates across exchanges and flag crowded positioning.”
“Which coins have the highest liquidation risk right now?”
“Pull the daily snapshot and draft a market-summary component for my dashboard.”
“Is dealer gamma amplifying or dampening BTC moves today?”
No. The skill is free and the Free API tier (no card) covers the whole market-wide picture. Per-coin quant, gamma and whale signals need Pro.
In ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json — as an X-API-Key header (remote serverUrl) or a CRYPTODATA_API_KEY env var (stdio). Use Windsurf's variable interpolation to keep the raw key out of the file.
Click Refresh in the MCP Servers panel (Windsurf caches the server list). Confirm valid JSON. For a stdio server, make sure Node/npx is on PATH; for a remote server, check the serverUrl and key. Windsurf also caps the number of active MCP tools, so disable servers you're not using if you hit the limit.
Missing an agent, a config that changed, or a step that didn't work? Tell us and we'll fix it.