Read-only MCP server for Interactive Brokers

Updated: 2026-10-05 22:11 CEST

canary mcp is a read-only MCP server for Interactive Brokers by design. It gives AI assistants account and market context from IB Gateway or TWS and has no tool to place, modify or cancel an order.

The read-only boundary makes the rest of the platform workable. Agents hold no order-entry tools, so the daily brief, rulebook, protection proposals and opportunity review can use the daemon's portfolio and market context without gaining execution authority.

This page covers the standard downloads, which are the installer, the Claude Desktop bundle and the plain canary tarballs. Releases also publish a separate, clearly marked canary-trading tarball for users who explicitly opt into order management. Nothing on this page applies to that variant, and it is never installed by default.

This is a capability boundary, not a claim that market data is complete. Account and market inputs still depend on the connected account's entitlements, the market session and source freshness.

What read-only means here

Allowed reads include:

• the assembled daily brief, read without signing off or changing process state
• account summary, cash, margin, buying power, daily P&L
• positions, option legs, marks and Greek coverage
• daily technical evidence for named symbols, and the daemon's market and session context
• rulebook snapshots, plus reads of protection proposals, option-exercise opportunities and platform settings
• a plausibility check of your limits and policy files, which never changes them
• statement performance, FX contribution and the net fees your lent shares earned
• dated borrowing fees, price and liquidity context, and FINRA short-interest screens
• open-order, order-history and order-status journal reads

Not exposed:

• no order placement
• no order modification
• no order cancellation
• no change to your limits, policy files or settings
• no hosted broker credential store
• no remote service sitting between the assistant and IBKR

Why this matters for agents

Agent workflows are useful for analysis. "What do I own?", "what changed today?", "which positions carry option delta?", "what does the brief flag today?" and "which rulebook findings need attention?" all need account and market data. None of them needs order-entry authority.

canary keeps that boundary explicit. The MCP tool list is generated from the same source as the CLI documentation, and the public references state that lifecycle and trading verbs stay outside the MCP server.

Install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/osauer/canary/main/install.sh | sh
canary status

For Claude Desktop, install:

https://github.com/osauer/canary/releases/latest/download/canary.mcpb

For a generic local MCP host:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "canary": {
      "command": "/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/canary",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Good assistant prompts

• "What do I need to know before the open?"
• "Summarize my IBKR account and positions."
• "Show positions by underlying and include option Greeks."
• "Which inputs in today's brief are stale, degraded or held?"
• "Which rulebook or Action Queue rows need attention?"

An assistant that tries to trade through canary mcp has reached outside the tool's capability boundary.

References

• IBKR MCP server for the main server overview.
• Working with agents for example conversations.
• MCP tools reference for the read-only tool inventory.