@nordsym/apiclaw

v1.4.0

Published

2 days ago

The API layer for AI agents. 22,000+ APIs. Direct Call. Works with any MCP-compatible agent.

🦞 APIClaw

The API layer for AI agents. 22,000+ APIs indexed. Direct Call execution. Zero config.

APIs Indexed: 22,392 • Open APIs: 1,636 • Direct Call Providers: 18

Quick Start

# Install APIClaw into Claude Desktop or Claude Code
npx @nordsym/apiclaw mcp-install

# That's it! Restart your AI assistant and ask:
# "List available APIs" or "Send an SMS via 46elks"

APIClaw automatically detects Claude Desktop and Claude Code — then configures itself as an MCP server in seconds. Works with any MCP-compatible agent.

What is APIClaw?

The API layer for AI agents. APIClaw is an MCP server that gives any MCP-compatible agent access to real-world APIs:

📱 SMS & Voice — 46elks, Twilio
📧 Email — Resend, SendGrid
💳 Payments — Stripe
🔍 Search — Brave Search
🤖 AI — OpenRouter, ElevenLabs
...and 100+ more — growing weekly

Instead of manually configuring API keys and reading documentation, just tell your AI: "Send a confirmation SMS to +46701234567" — and it works.

Installation

Option 1: MCP Install (Recommended)

npx @nordsym/apiclaw mcp-install

This will:

🔍 Detect Claude Desktop or Claude Code
📝 Add APIClaw to the MCP config
✅ Verify the setup

Option 2: Manual Installation

npm install -g @nordsym/apiclaw
apiclaw setup

Option 3: Use npx (No Install)

Just use npx @nordsym/apiclaw anywhere — it downloads on demand.

Commands

`mcp-install`

Simple, focused installation for Claude Desktop and Claude Code.

# Auto-detect and install
npx @nordsym/apiclaw mcp-install

# Install to specific client
npx @nordsym/apiclaw mcp-install --client claude-desktop
npx @nordsym/apiclaw mcp-install --client claude-code

# Preview changes without applying
npx @nordsym/apiclaw mcp-install --dry-run

`setup`

Full-featured setup with support for all MCP clients.

# Auto-detect and configure all clients
npx @nordsym/apiclaw setup

# Configure specific client
npx @nordsym/apiclaw setup --client claude-desktop
npx @nordsym/apiclaw setup --client cursor
npx @nordsym/apiclaw setup --client windsurf
npx @nordsym/apiclaw setup --client cline
npx @nordsym/apiclaw setup --client continue

# Custom config path
npx @nordsym/apiclaw setup --config /path/to/config.json

# Link a workspace
npx @nordsym/apiclaw setup --workspace ws_abc123

# Preview changes without applying
npx @nordsym/apiclaw setup --dry-run

# Force overwrite existing config
npx @nordsym/apiclaw setup --force

# Interactive mode
npx @nordsym/apiclaw setup --wizard

`doctor`

Diagnose your APIClaw setup.

npx @nordsym/apiclaw doctor

Output:

🔍 APIClaw Health Check
========================

System:
  ✓ Node.js v20.11.0
  ✓ npm 10.2.4
  ✓ npx available

MCP Clients:
  ✓ Claude Desktop - Configured ✓
  ✓ Cursor - Configured ✓
  ✗ Windsurf - Not installed

Connectivity:
  ✓ api.apiclaw.com reachable

Status: All systems operational ✓

`restore`

Restore config from backup.

# Restore most recent backup
npx @nordsym/apiclaw restore

# List available backups
npx @nordsym/apiclaw restore --list

# Restore specific backup
npx @nordsym/apiclaw restore --backup config.backup.1709150400.json

`uninstall`

Remove APIClaw from all configured clients.

npx @nordsym/apiclaw uninstall

# Remove from specific client
npx @nordsym/apiclaw uninstall --client cursor

Options

| Option | Description | |--------|-------------| | --client <name> | Target specific MCP client | | --config <path> | Use custom config file path | | --workspace <id> | Link an APIClaw workspace | | --dry-run | Preview changes without applying | | --force | Overwrite existing APIClaw config | | --wizard | Interactive setup mode | | --no-backup | Skip creating backup (not recommended) | | --verbose | Show detailed output | | --version | Show version number | | --help | Show help |

Supported MCP Clients

| Client | macOS | Windows | Linux | |--------|:-----:|:-------:|:-----:| | Claude Desktop | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Cursor | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Windsurf | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Cline (VS Code) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Continue | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Custom | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |

Config Locations

| OS | Path | |----|------| | macOS | ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json | | Windows | %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json | | Linux | ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json |

| OS | Path | |----|------| | macOS | ~/Library/Application Support/Cursor/User/globalStorage/cursor.mcp/config.json | | Windows | %APPDATA%\Cursor\User\globalStorage\cursor.mcp\config.json | | Linux | ~/.config/Cursor/User/globalStorage/cursor.mcp/config.json |

| OS | Path | |----|------| | macOS | ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json | | Windows | %USERPROFILE%\.codeium\windsurf\mcp_config.json | | Linux | ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json |

| OS | Path | |----|------| | macOS | ~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/globalStorage/saoudrizwan.claude-dev/settings/cline_mcp_settings.json | | Windows | %APPDATA%\Code\User\globalStorage\saoudrizwan.claude-dev\settings\cline_mcp_settings.json | | Linux | ~/.config/Code/User/globalStorage/saoudrizwan.claude-dev/settings/cline_mcp_settings.json |

| OS | Path | |----|------| | macOS | ~/.continue/config.json | | Windows | %USERPROFILE%\.continue\config.json | | Linux | ~/.continue/config.json |

Enterprise Deployment

Deploy APIClaw to your entire development team.

Environment Variables

# Pre-configure workspace for all users
export APICLAW_WORKSPACE="ws_enterprise_123"

# Point to self-hosted instance
export APICLAW_API_URL="https://api.company.com/apiclaw"

# Disable telemetry
export APICLAW_DISABLE_TELEMETRY="true"

npx @nordsym/apiclaw mcp-install

Generate Deployment Script

# Generate cross-platform setup script
npx @nordsym/apiclaw setup --enterprise --output deploy.sh

The generated script handles:

OS detection
Client detection
Config injection
Verification
Error reporting

MDM/Group Policy

See Enterprise Deployment Guide for:

Jamf/Kandji/Mosyle (macOS)
Intune/Group Policy (Windows)
Ansible/Chef/Puppet (Linux)

Troubleshooting

"Permission denied"

# Option 1: Run with sudo
sudo npx @nordsym/apiclaw mcp-install

# Option 2: Fix permissions
chmod 644 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

"Config file not found"

The MCP client hasn't created its config yet:

Open the client (Claude Desktop or Claude Code)
Close it
Try mcp-install again

Or use the full setup command with a custom path:

npx @nordsym/apiclaw setup --config /path/to/config.json

"Invalid JSON"

Your config file has syntax errors:

# Restore from backup
npx @nordsym/apiclaw restore --list
npx @nordsym/apiclaw restore

# Or manually fix the JSON

"Already configured"

APIClaw is already set up. To update:

npx @nordsym/apiclaw setup --force

Still having issues?

# Run diagnostics
npx @nordsym/apiclaw doctor --verbose

# Get help
https://docs.apiclaw.com/setup
https://github.com/nordsym/apiclaw/issues

How It Works

APIClaw modifies your MCP client's config file to register itself as a server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apiclaw": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@nordsym/apiclaw"]
    }
  }
}

When your AI assistant starts, it launches APIClaw as an MCP server. APIClaw then:

Exposes available APIs as MCP tools
Handles authentication and rate limiting
Executes API calls on behalf of the AI

Safety Features

Automatic Backups

Before modifying any config, APIClaw creates a timestamped backup:

claude_desktop_config.backup.1709150400.json

Non-Destructive

Never overwrites existing configurations
Deep merges APIClaw into mcpServers
Preserves all other settings

Validation

Parses JSON before and after modifications
Verifies required fields exist
Rolls back on any error

Dry-Run Mode

Test API calls without actually executing them. Perfect for debugging, development, and agent testing.

Usage

// In MCP tool call
call_api({
  provider: "46elks",
  action: "send_sms",
  params: {
    to: "+46701234567",
    message: "Hello from dry-run!"
  },
  dry_run: true  // ← No actual API call made
})

Response

{
  "dry_run": true,
  "provider": "46elks",
  "action": "send_sms",
  "would_send": {
    "url": "https://api.46elks.com/a1/sms",
    "method": "POST",
    "headers": {
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
      "Authorization": "Basic [base64(username:password)]"
    },
    "body": {
      "from": "APIClaw",
      "to": "+46701234567",
      "message": "Hello from dry-run!"
    }
  },
  "mock_response": {
    "success": true,
    "data": {
      "id": "mock_sms_123",
      "status": "delivered"
    },
    "estimated_cost": "~0.35-0.52 SEK"
  },
  "notes": [
    "⚠️ DRY-RUN MODE: No actual API call was made",
    "This shows what WOULD be sent if you remove dry_run: true"
  ]
}

Benefits

💰 No cost — Test without burning API credits
🔍 Debug — See exact request that would be sent
🧪 Test — Validate agent workflows before going live
📋 Mock data — Get realistic response shapes for development

Supported Providers

All Direct Call providers support dry-run:

46elks, Twilio (SMS)
Resend (Email)
Brave Search
OpenRouter (LLM)
ElevenLabs (TTS)
Replicate (AI models)
Firecrawl (Web scraping)
GitHub
E2B (Code sandbox)

Error Handling

APIClaw returns structured error responses across all providers, making it easy to handle failures programmatically.

Error Response Format

All errors follow this structure:

{
  "success": false,
  "provider": "replicate",
  "action": "run",
  "error": "Rate limit exceeded",
  "code": "RATE_LIMITED"
}

Error Codes

| Code | Description | |------|-------------| | RATE_LIMITED | API rate limit hit (429) | | SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE | Service temporarily unavailable (502, 503, 504) | | UNAUTHORIZED | Invalid or missing credentials (401) | | FORBIDDEN | Access denied (403) | | NOT_FOUND | Resource not found (404) | | BAD_REQUEST | Invalid request parameters (400) | | TIMEOUT | Request timed out | | NETWORK_ERROR | Network connectivity issue | | PROVIDER_ERROR | Provider-specific error | | INVALID_PARAMS | Missing or invalid parameters | | NO_CREDENTIALS | No credentials configured for provider | | UNKNOWN_PROVIDER | Provider not available | | UNKNOWN_ACTION | Action not available for provider | | MAX_RETRIES_EXCEEDED | All retry attempts failed |

Automatic Retry

APIClaw automatically retries transient failures with exponential backoff:

Retryable errors: 429 (Rate Limited), 502, 503, 504 (Service Unavailable)
Max retries: 3
Backoff: Exponential with jitter (1s → 2s → 4s, capped at 30s)
Retry-After: Respects Retry-After header when present

// APIClaw handles retries automatically — you just see the final result
const result = await call_api({
  provider: "openrouter",
  action: "chat",
  params: { messages: [...] }
});

if (!result.success) {
  console.log(`Error: ${result.error} (${result.code})`);
  // Handle error based on code
  if (result.code === "RATE_LIMITED") {
    // Wait longer before next request
  }
}

Best Practices

Always check success before accessing data
Use code for programmatic error handling
Use error for human-readable messages
Let APIClaw retry — don't implement your own retry logic for 429/503

Development

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/nordsym/apiclaw.git
cd apiclaw

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build
npm run build

# Run locally
npm run dev

# Test setup locally
npm run setup:test