Frequently Asked Questions about the Africa’s Talking Airtime MCP Server

Q: What is the Africa’s Talking Airtime MCP Server? A: It’s a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI models to interact with the Africa’s Talking Airtime API, enabling automated airtime transactions.

Q: What is an MCP Server? A: MCP is an open protocol that standardizes how applications provide context to LLMs. An MCP server acts as a bridge, allowing AI models to access and interact with external data sources and tools.

Q: What can I do with this server? A: You can send airtime to phone numbers, check your account balance, view transaction history, and integrate airtime top-ups into your AI agent workflows.

Q: Which AI tools is it compatible with? A: It’s designed to work with AI tools that support tool calling, like Claude and Goose. Works best with models that support tool calling, e.g Claude 3.7 Sonnet. If you are price conscious GPT-4.1 Nano is a good, cheaper option when used with clients like Goose.

Q: How do I install the server? A: You can install it via Smithery or manually by cloning the repository and installing the dependencies.

Q: What information do I need to configure the server? A: You’ll need your Africa’s Talking username, API key, country, and currency code.

Q: How do I check my account balance? A: Use the check_balance() tool.

Q: How do I send airtime to a phone number? A: Use the load_airtime() tool, providing the phone number, amount, and currency code.

Q: How can I see my last transactions? A: Use the get_last_topups() tool to retrieve recent airtime top-ups.

Q: How can I sum the amounts of my last top-ups? A: Use the sum_last_n_topups() tool to calculate the total of your recent transactions.

Q: How do I count top-ups to a specific phone number? A: Use the count_topups_by_number() tool to count successful top-ups to a given number.

Q: Does the server support different countries? A: Yes, it supports African countries supported by Africa’s Talking Airtime service.

Q: Where are transaction details stored? A: Transaction data is stored in an SQLite database named airtime_transactions.db.

Q: What if I encounter errors while using the server? A: Check your Africa’s Talking account balance, verify your credentials, and ensure the phone numbers are correctly formatted.