# Penny Press

> Short essays and fragments. Free for humans; machines pay pennies per read via x402.

- name: io.github.con-scribe/penny-press
- version: 1.0.1
- connection class: R0 (autonomous)
- trust: 77/100 flags: no-repository
- quality: 86/100 (good)
- owner: not claimed
- descriptor: https://api.protogrid.dev/v1/servers/io.github.con-scribe%2Fpenny-press
- tools: https://api.protogrid.dev/v1/servers/io.github.con-scribe%2Fpenny-press/tools

**An agent can connect right now, no human step.** Remote endpoint, no authentication, reachable on the last probe.

## Connection (mcpServers)

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "penny-press": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://www.pennypress.org/mcp"
    }
  }
}
```


## Trust

- hygiene: 80
- liveness: 100
- freshness: 100
- provenance: 35
- drivers: +reachable +uptime-99% +updated-21d-ago -no-repository
- Derived from observable signals (official registry feed and our own credential-free probes); no code audit performed.

## Quality 86/100 (good)

### protocol: 75 (weight 25)

- warn `protocol.modern`: newest supported version is 2025-06-18; 2026-07-28 not supported, older versions are deprecated until 2027-07-28
- n/a `protocol.stateless`: only applies to 2026-07-28 servers
- pass `protocol.transport`: streamable HTTP
- n/a `protocol.list_ttl`: only applies to 2026-07-28 servers

### authorization: n/a (weight 15)

- n/a `auth.prm`, `auth.as_metadata`, `auth.cimd`: no remote uses OAuth
- n/a `auth.secret_in_url`: no templated URL

### tool hygiene: 100 (weight 30)

- pass `tools.descriptions`: every tool has a description
- pass `tools.description_length`: descriptions are concise
- pass `tools.schemas`: every tool has an object input schema
- pass `tools.annotations`: 7 of 7 tools declare readOnlyHint or destructiveHint
- pass `tools.directory_hints`: every tool declares readOnlyHint, destructiveHint, idempotentHint and openWorldHint
- pass `tools.token_cost`: about 705 tokens to load every tool
- pass `tools.api_dump`: tools are not a one-to-one API dump

### stability: 75 (weight 15)

- warn `stability.changes`: 7 tool changes in 30 days
- pass `stability.rug_pull`: no tool changed its meaning under the same name

### dependencies: n/a (weight 15)

- n/a `deps.known_vulns`, `deps.mcp_sdk_version`, `deps.resolvable`: no npm or PyPI package

- tools: 7, about 705 tokens to load them all
- tool set hash: c8fa99a69ce2d0e714a47c6d6eecafdc
- tools last changed: 2026-10-12T00:51:05.156Z
- badge: [![protogrid quality](https://protogrid.dev/badge/io.github.con-scribe/penny-press.svg)](https://protogrid.dev/servers/io.github.con-scribe/penny-press)
- Checks run on what our credential-free, read-only probes observe; tools are never called and no code audit is performed.

### Tool changes

- 2026-10-12 `witness_attest_info` added
  - How to attest a work's fingerprint with LitWit ($0.05): what to submit, what the tamper-evident receipt contains, and the x402 payment details. The service never sees your work — only its hash.
- 2026-10-12 `witness_verify` added
  - Check whether a SHA-256 content hash has been witnessed by LitWit, the Penny Press literary notary. Free. Returns the matching attestation entries (entry id, sequence, timestamp, title) or an empty result.
- 2026-10-12 `common_cents_info` added
  - Overview of Common Cents, the Penny Press collection of 20 author-curated quotations in five themed clusters: the themes, quote count, and payment info for the $0.01 full machine-readable set.
- 2026-10-12 `lexicon_snapshot_info` added
  - Payment details for the Penny Press Lexicon full dataset snapshot ($0.25): every author-defined term with part of speech, definition, verbatim usage example, and source essays, as versioned JSON.
- 2026-10-12 `lexicon_lookup` added
  - Look up a term in the Penny Press Lexicon (the author's own definitions of his political-economy vocabulary). Returns free metadata — part of speech and the essays where the term appears — plus payment info for the $0.01 full definition.
- 2026-09-29 `essay_payment_info` changed (outputSchema, annotations)
- 2026-09-29 `list_essays` changed (outputSchema, annotations)

Full history: https://api.protogrid.dev/v1/servers/io.github.con-scribe%2Fpenny-press/changes

## Remotes

- https://www.pennypress.org/mcp (streamable-http, auth none, reachable true, uptime30d 0.9886364)

## Packages

_none_

## Tools (7)

- `common_cents_info`: Overview of Common Cents, the Penny Press collection of 20 author-curated quotations in five themed clusters: the themes, quote count, and payment info for the $0.01 full machine-readable set.
- `essay_payment_info`: Get the x402 payment details for one essay (price, network, asset, recipient wallet) so a machine buyer knows how to pay.
- `lexicon_lookup`: Look up a term in the Penny Press Lexicon (the author's own definitions of his political-economy vocabulary). Returns free metadata — part of speech and the essays where the term appears — plus payment info for the $0.01 full definition.
- `lexicon_snapshot_info`: Payment details for the Penny Press Lexicon full dataset snapshot ($0.25): every author-defined term with part of speech, definition, verbatim usage example, and source essays, as versioned JSON.
- `list_essays`: List all published essays and fragments: titles, descriptions, prices, and reading URLs. Full text is free for humans at /read/{slug}; machine reads at /essays/{slug} are paid via x402 (USDC on Base).
- `witness_attest_info`: How to attest a work's fingerprint with LitWit ($0.05): what to submit, what the tamper-evident receipt contains, and the x402 payment details. The service never sees your work — only its hash.
- `witness_verify`: Check whether a SHA-256 content hash has been witnessed by LitWit, the Penny Press literary notary. Free. Returns the matching attestation entries (entry id, sequence, timestamp, title) or an empty result.