Connecting the Paystack MCP Server to Claude Code

Add the MCP server to Claude Code's configuration. The config file is at ~/.claude/settings.json (global) or .claude/settings.json (project-level):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "paystack": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/your/paystack-mcp-server/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "PAYSTACK_SECRET_KEY": "sk_test_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
      }
    }
  }
}

A minimal Paystack MCP server exposes these tools:

// paystack-mcp-server/index.js — minimal MCP server for Paystack
import { Server } from '@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/index.js';
import { StdioServerTransport } from '@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/stdio.js';

var server = new Server({ name: 'paystack', version: '1.0.0' }, { capabilities: { tools: {} } });

server.setRequestHandler('tools/list', async () => ({
  tools: [
    { name: 'list_transactions', description: 'List recent Paystack transactions', inputSchema: { type: 'object', properties: { perPage: { type: 'number' }, status: { type: 'string' } } } },
    { name: 'verify_transaction', description: 'Verify a transaction by reference', inputSchema: { type: 'object', properties: { reference: { type: 'string' } }, required: ['reference'] } },
  ],
}));

server.setRequestHandler('tools/call', async (req) => {
  var headers = { Authorization: 'Bearer ' + process.env.PAYSTACK_SECRET_KEY };
  if (req.params.name === 'list_transactions') {
    var p = new URLSearchParams(req.params.arguments || {}).toString();
    var res = await fetch('https://api.paystack.co/transaction?' + p, { headers });
    return { content: [{ type: 'text', text: JSON.stringify((await res.json()).data) }] };
  }
  if (req.params.name === 'verify_transaction') {
    var res = await fetch('https://api.paystack.co/transaction/verify/' + req.params.arguments.reference, { headers });
    return { content: [{ type: 'text', text: JSON.stringify((await res.json()).data) }] };
  }
});

await server.connect(new StdioServerTransport());

Once connected, ask Claude Code: "List my last 5 successful transactions" and it will call the MCP tool automatically.

See the Paystack MCP server overview for a conceptual introduction before configuring.

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