GenTech Labs — BlockRun Integration Patterns

Real-world patterns from running BlockRun MCP in production across 32 cron jobs and daily agent operations.

Getting Started

Initial Wallet Setup

# Set up BlockRun wallet (one-time)
blockrun_wallet(action="setup")
# → Follow the QR to fund the wallet with USDC

Budget Controls

# Set a global budget cap so spending never surprises you
blockrun_wallet(action="budget", budget_action="set", budget_amount=10.0)

# Spawn child agents with delegate budgets
blockrun_wallet(action="delegate", agent_id="researcher", agent_limit=2.0)
blockrun_wallet(action="delegate", agent_id="data-poller", agent_limit=0.50)

Check Balance

blockrun_wallet(action="status")
# → Two wallets: Base (also pays on Arc) + Solana. Active chain shown. Check before expensive runs.

Daily Usage Patterns

Pattern 1: Regular Price Checks (FREE)

Crypto, FX and commodity quotes cost nothing — blockrun_price is free for those categories (stocks/usstock quotes are not served since 2026-09-05 — the gateway 501s before payment; only the ticker catalog works). Use them liberally. (blockrun_surf, which used to charge $0.0085 for the same quote, was removed in 0.49.0 — the gateway 410s every Surf path since 2026-09-06.)

# Single price
blockrun_price(action="price", category="crypto", symbol="BTC-USD")

# Batch of prices
blockrun_price(action="price", category="crypto", symbol="ETH-USD")
blockrun_price(action="price", category="crypto", symbol="SOL-USD")

# Free — discover available symbols
blockrun_price(action="list", category="crypto", query="sol")

Cost: $0 — crypto/FX/commodity price and list calls are both free. category:"stocks" price/history currently return 501 (equity quotes withdrawn 2026-09-05, nothing charged); its list catalog is free.

Pattern 2: Token Research Pipeline (~$0.018)

Start with the free tools, then pay only for what they cannot answer.

# 1. Free — DEX liquidity + volume (free endpoint)
blockrun_dex({ query: "SOL" })

# 2. FREE — CEX price (crypto category is free)
blockrun_price(action="price", category="crypto", symbol="SOL-USD")

# 3. $0.0060 each — Protocol TVL
blockrun_defi({ path: "protocols" })
blockrun_defi({ path: "protocol/jupiter" })

# 4. $0.0060 — Chain TVL
blockrun_defi({ path: "chains" })

Total: ~$0.018 per full token analysis (2 free calls + 3 x $0.0060 DefiLlama). Replace CoinGecko/CMC tabs entirely.

Pattern 3: Research + Synthesis (~$0.011 + chat)

Use Exa (neural search) + BlockRun Chat (second opinion) for thorough research.

# 1. $0.0110 — Neural web search with Exa
blockrun_exa({ path: "search", body: {
  query: "latest AI agent infrastructure developments 2026",
  numResults: 10,
  category: "research paper"
}})

# 2. per-token — Get second opinion from GLM-5 (excellent for technical details)
blockrun_chat({ mode: "glm", message: "Summarize the key trends..." })

Cost-conscious tip: Use mode: "free" on blockrun_chat for zero-cost generation (NVIDIA models).

Pattern 4: Agent-to-Agent Billing

Use blockrun_wallet + agent_id for multi-agent cost tracking.

# Allocate budget per agent group
blockrun_wallet(action="delegate", agent_id="research", agent_limit=2.0)
blockrun_wallet(action="delegate", agent_id="content", agent_limit=1.0)

# Pass agent_id on every call
blockrun_defi({ path: "protocols", agent_id: "research" })
blockrun_search({ body: { query: "latest news", sources: ["web"] }, agent_id: "research" })

# Audit at end of day
blockrun_wallet(action="report")

Multi-Tool Pipelines

DeFi Intelligence Pipeline

# 1. TVL & protocol health ($0.0060)
blockrun_defi({ path: "protocol/aave-v3" })

# 2. Yield pools ($0.0060)
blockrun_defi({ path: "yields" })

# 3. Token price (FREE — crypto category)
blockrun_price(action="price", category="crypto", symbol="AAVE-USD")

# 4. DEX activity (free)
blockrun_dex({ token: "0x7Fc66500c84A76Ad7e9c93437bFc5Ac33E2DDaE9" })

Portfolio Health Check

# 1. Current holdings (free — local data or blockrun_rpc)
blockrun_rpc({ network: "base", method: "eth_getBalance", params: ["0xabc...", "latest"] })

# 2. Token prices (FREE — crypto category)
blockrun_price(action="price", category="crypto", symbol="ETH-USD")
blockrun_price(action="price", category="crypto", symbol="USDC-USD")

# 3. Prediction market positions ($0.0085)
blockrun_markets({ path: "polymarket/positions" })

Content Generation Pipeline

# 1. Research ($0.0110)
blockrun_exa({ path: "search", body: { query: "agentic commerce trends", numResults: 5 }})

# 2. Image generation for post ($0.01675 cheapest to $0.106 quality)
blockrun_image({ prompt: "AI agent futuristic dashboard with neon grids" })

# 3. Voiceover for video ($0.0535/1k chars)
blockrun_speech({ input: "Your narration text here...", voice: "sarah" })

# 4. Music track ($0.1585)
blockrun_music({ prompt: "upbeat synthwave background" })

# 5. Short video clip ($0.421)
blockrun_video({ prompt: "animated data visualization", duration_seconds: 8 })

Cost Optimization Strategies

Tier Mapping

Model-priced tools (chat beyond the free tier, speech, image, music, video) carry no number here because their prices move: read the model's pricing object from GET https://blockrun.ai/api/v1/models (Solana: https://sol.blockrun.ai/api/v1/models) — input/output per 1M tokens for chat, per_1k_chars for speech, per_image, per_track, or per_second for media, each plus transaction_fee. The HTTP 402 challenge quotes the exact amount before anything is signed.

Daily Budget Formula (GenTech's Setup)

# ~$0.30/day typical
Daily budget:
  Free tools:     unlimited (price quotes, dex, list, wallet status)
  Crypto data:   ~$0.10 (markets, flat $0.0085; defi $0.0060; surf is retired and free)
  AI calls:      ~$0.10 (chat free mode, occasional glm)
  Media:         ~$0.10 (occasional image/speech)
  Total:         ~$0.30/day

Set a $5/week budget cap and never hit it with typical usage.

Error Handling Patterns

402 Payment Required

# When the wallet is FUNDED, x402 handles this automatically: the SDK
# signs the payment challenge and retries — no action needed.
#
# When the wallet is EMPTY, the 402 / insufficient-balance surfaces to you.
# Check status and fund FIRST — don't blindly retry the failing tool:
blockrun_wallet(action="status")   # then action="setup" / "deposit"

Insufficient Balance

# Before a batch of expensive calls:
balance = blockrun_wallet(action="status")
if float(balance["usdcBalance"]) < 0.50:
    blockrun_wallet(action="deposit")  # → opens Coinbase Onramp link

Rate Limiting / Timeouts

# For async operations (video, music):
# They auto-poll until complete. On a timeout READ THE ERROR: on the Base
# wallet payment settles on completion, so a timeout is not charged and a
# retry is safe; Solana music and every account-rail media job are billed
# at submit, so the timed-out job IS charged, the error names it, and a
# retry bills a second job. Check blockrun_wallet action:"report" first.

Caching Strategy

BlockRun calls are cheap but not free. Cache results that don't change minute-to-minute:

• Token prices: No need to cache aggressively — crypto/FX/commodity quotes via blockrun_price are FREE.
• Protocol TVL: Cache for 1 hour (updates hourly)
• Wallet labels: Cache for 24 hours (rarely change)
• On-chain SQL results: Cache for 1 hour (most queries return the same answer)

GenTech's approach: Don't bother caching prices (crypto/FX/commodity quotes are FREE). Cache TVL and wallet labels aggressively.

Switching Chains

# Default is Base. Switch to Solana for Solana-native tools:
blockrun_wallet(action="chain", chain="solana")

# Switch back:
blockrun_wallet(action="chain", chain="base")

# Check which is active:
blockrun_wallet(action="chain")

Note: Every paid media tool (image, video, music, speech, realface) pays on either chain. Base-only: blockrun_modal, blockrun_defi, claude-* chat with thinking (a plain claude-* call takes the compat path on Solana), and Polymarket funding. Solana works for price, wallet, dex, rpc, markets, etc.

Reference

• BlockRun MCP: https://github.com/BlockRunAI/blockrun-mcp
• BlockRun Docs: https://blockrun.ai/docs
• Models & Pricing: https://blockrun.ai/models
• Community: https://t.me/blockrunAI

Contributed by GenTech Labs, from real production usage of BlockRun MCP.