Surface

Surface: check a short link before your agent opens it

Your agent gets a t.co, bit.ly, lnkd.in or youtu.be link and has no idea where it goes. Surface follows the hops and says fetch or skip. It never returns the page, so it's one quick round trip. Free for the first 1,000,000 requests every month, no card needed.

Get started · Get a free API key (10 seconds) · Docs · Pricing · Try it in the browser

Clients: npm install @surfaceapi/surface · pip install surfaceapi

Under the hood, Surface is a remote MCP server and HTTP API (next: "fetch" or next: "skip").

This repo contains:

• Remote MCP endpoint (Streamable HTTP): https://nova-otter-delta-cloud.grok.me/mcp
• Tool: preflight_url { "url": "https://..." }
• Official MCP Registry: me.grok.nova-otter-delta-cloud/surface
• Docs: https://nova-otter-delta-cloud.grok.me/docs · OpenAPI: https://nova-otter-delta-cloud.grok.me/openapi.json

Quick start (remote, no install)

Get a free API key (optional, 10 seconds, no card):

curl -s -X POST https://nova-otter-delta-cloud.grok.me/v1/keys
# -> {"key":"surf_..."}
export SURFACE_KEY=surf_...

Or use the sign-up page: https://nova-otter-delta-cloud.grok.me/start#key. Send the key as Authorization: Bearer $SURFACE_KEY (or X-Surface-Key: $SURFACE_KEY). Check your usage with GET /v1/usage. Keyless calls still work, but they are limited to 60 per minute and include a get_key note.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http surface https://nova-otter-delta-cloud.grok.me/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer $SURFACE_KEY"

Without a key, drop the --header part.

Cursor (.cursor/mcp.json)

{ "mcpServers": { "surface": { "url": "https://nova-otter-delta-cloud.grok.me/mcp", "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer surf_..." } } } }

The headers block is optional.

See examples/mcp-clients.md for VS Code, Codex and Claude Desktop.

Run locally (stdio bridge)

Requires Node.js 18 or later. No dependencies.

git clone https://github.com/Surface-ops/surface && cd surface
npm test                       # offline tests
node bin/surface-mcp.js        # stdio MCP server (JSON-RPC on stdin/stdout)
node bin/surface-preflight.js https://bit.ly/example --json

Or without cloning:

{ "mcpServers": { "surface": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "github:Surface-ops/surface"] } } }

Environment:

• SURFACE_KEY: optional. Your free surf_… key from POST /v1/keys or /start#key, sent as Authorization: Bearer …. SURFACE_API_KEY is still accepted. Without a key, calls use the shared keyless tier (60 per minute).
• SURFACE_BASE_URL: optional. It defaults to https://nova-otter-delta-cloud.grok.me.

Use as a library

import { preflight, mcpPreflight, shouldFetch } from "surface-mcp"; // or "./src/client.js"

const v = await preflight("https://bit.ly/example");
if (shouldFetch(v)) await fetch(v.final_url);

Raw HTTP (30 seconds)

# 1. Get a free key (optional, no card)
export SURFACE_KEY=$(curl -s -X POST https://nova-otter-delta-cloud.grok.me/v1/keys | jq -r .key)

# 2. REST
curl -s "https://nova-otter-delta-cloud.grok.me/v1/preflight?url=https://bit.ly/example" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SURFACE_KEY"

# 3. MCP
curl -s https://nova-otter-delta-cloud.grok.me/mcp \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SURFACE_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"preflight_url","arguments":{"url":"https://bit.ly/example"}}}'

# Your usage
curl -s https://nova-otter-delta-cloud.grok.me/v1/usage -H "Authorization: Bearer $SURFACE_KEY"

The header is optional: leave it out and calls still work, limited to 60 per minute, with a get_key note in the response.

Python tip: send a normal User-Agent header (for example User-Agent: my-agent/1.0). Python's built-in urllib default agent can be blocked at the edge; requests, httpx and curl work as-is.

Response fields: next (fetch | skip), verdict (fetch | dead | wall | trap), unwrapped, from_host, final_host, final_url. Private hosts and odd ports are refused.

Pricing

Free: the first 1,000,000 requests every month. No card needed.

After that, Surface charges per call, in USD per 1,000 calls: Preflight $0.25 (REST or MCP tools/call), Hop $0.40, Pixel $0.15, Inspect $0.20. POST /v1/event is ingest and is not billed. A flat $50 CAD/month plan is also available (see /billing). initialize and tools/list are not tool calls. Details: https://nova-otter-delta-cloud.grok.me/docs.

Directory listings

• Official MCP Registry: me.grok.nova-otter-delta-cloud/surface
• Smithery: https://smithery.ai/servers/canada-site-ops/surface
• CuratedMCP: https://www.curatedmcp.com/marketplace/surface
• AllMCPs: https://allmcps.com/mcp/surface
• AI Agents Listing:
• MCPizy: https://mcpizy.com/directory/surface
• MCPRush: https://mcprush.com/grok/surface-mcp
• awesome-remote-mcp-servers: punkpeye/awesome-remote-mcp-servers
• ToolSDK MCP Registry: toolsdk-ai/toolsdk-mcp-registry (@toolsdk-remote/surface-preflight)

More tools from Canada Site Ops

• Usage Lab: one POST in, a billing-grade monthly usage number out, for Stripe-billed AI and SaaS. Flat CAD pricing.
• Server Track: send B2B SaaS conversions from your server to Meta in one API call. Free for your first 1,000 events a month.
• API Meter: see which customers, endpoints and plans drive your API traffic. One base-URL change, free to 250K requests a month.
• CallCatch: texts your booking link about 30 seconds after a missed call, for Ontario HVAC, plumbing and electrical shops.

Operator, privacy, license

• Operator: Canada Site Ops ([email protected])
• Privacy policy: https://nova-otter-delta-cloud.grok.me/privacy (summary in PRIVACY.md)
• Support: open an issue or email [email protected]
• License: MIT