SONAR: KYB due diligence

getsonar-mcp

MCP server for SONAR: KYB due diligence on vendors, partners and resellers, callable from your AI assistant.

Ask Claude, Cursor or Windsurf to check a company and it gets back registry records, sanctions and PEP matches, ICIJ Offshore Leaks hits and adverse media, each with a link to the source.

SONAR is a due-diligence aid built on public records. It is not a regulated AML/KYC provider and its output is not a compliance decision: a human reviews the findings.

Features

• Company registries: 13 national business registries (UK Companies House and 12 more) for legal name, number, status, address and officers
• Sanctions and PEP screening: native OFAC, UN, UK OFSI and Swiss SECO lists plus the OpenSanctions aggregator
• ICIJ Offshore Leaks: Panama, Paradise and Pandora Papers, Bahamas Leaks
• Regulatory registers: UK FCA Register, UK Disqualified Directors, The Gazette insolvency notices
• Adverse media: 10-year lookback on news, complaints and reviews
• Two call shapes: fast structured findings (sync, 30-90 s) or a full written report (async, about 3 min)

Works with Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf and any other Model Context Protocol client. Listed in the official MCP Registry as io.github.Ivanolegvak/sonar-mcp.

Pricing

The API is pay per call:

Your first API call is free (any endpoint). After that, calls are paid from a prepaid balance: top up from €5 at getsonar.report/developer/keys. Plans and the web app's free tier are on getsonar.report/pricing.

Get an API key

1. Sign up at getsonar.report
2. Open Developer → API keys
3. Click Create API Key and copy the sk-sonar-... key

Installation

You need uv (it provides uvx). Nothing else to install: uvx getsonar-mcp fetches and runs the latest release. With pipx instead: pipx install getsonar-mcp, then use getsonar-mcp as the command.

The key goes in the SONAR_API_KEY environment variable of the server process.

Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sonar": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["getsonar-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SONAR_API_KEY": "sk-sonar-YOUR_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. The five SONAR tools appear in the tools menu.

Claude Code

claude mcp add sonar --env SONAR_API_KEY=sk-sonar-YOUR_KEY_HERE -- uvx getsonar-mcp

Add --scope user to make it available in every project. Check it with claude mcp list.

Cursor

Edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json (all projects) or .cursor/mcp.json (one project):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sonar": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["getsonar-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SONAR_API_KEY": "sk-sonar-YOUR_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

Edit ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json (or Windsurf Settings → Cascade → MCP servers → View raw config):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sonar": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["getsonar-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SONAR_API_KEY": "sk-sonar-YOUR_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Other clients (Continue.dev, Zed, Cline, ...) take the same command, args and env; see your client's MCP docs for where the config lives.

Configuration

Tools

All tools return Markdown for the model to read.

kyb_findings

Input:

{ "company_name": "Tesco PLC", "website": "https://www.tesco.com" }

company_name is required. website is optional but strongly recommended: it separates the company from unrelated ones sharing the name.

Output (abridged, values illustrative):

# KYB Quick Lookup: Tesco PLC
Sources checked: 42 · Processing time: 41250ms
**Found data**: registry, regulatory, adverse_media
**Checked, clean** (no findings — collector ran): sanctions, offshore_leaks

## Registry (confidence: HIGH)
- **TESCO PLC (00445790), active**
  Public limited company
  Source: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00445790

kyb_run_submit

Input: same as kyb_findings. Output:

Report submitted.
- Run ID: `3f6c...`
- Status: pending
- Estimated time: 90 seconds

Call `check_report_status` with run_id='3f6c...' and agent_type='kyb-diligence' in 30-60 seconds to get the result.

check_report_status

Input:

{ "run_id": "3f6c...", "agent_type": "kyb-diligence" }

agent_type is kyb-diligence (default) or adverse-media. While the report runs it answers Report status: running. Still processing — check again in 15-30 seconds.; when done it returns a compact summary: overall verdict and risk level, company details, a PASS / REVIEW / FLAG table of checks, risk flags, directors and sanctions coverage.

adverse_media

Input: same as kyb_findings. Output: the same Markdown shape as kyb_findings, limited to news, complaints and review sites (no sanctions or PEP screening).

account_balance

Input: none. Output:

# Account usage — 2026-10
- Calls this month: **0**
- Free trial calls remaining: **1** (granted once at signup)
- Pre-paid balance: **€5.00**

Example prompts

"Run a KYB check on Tesco PLC (tesco.com) and tell me if anything needs a closer look."

The model calls kyb_findings, reads the structured findings and points out sanctions, register or adverse-media hits with their sources.

"Get a full KYB report on Wise Payments Limited and summarise it when it's done."

The model calls kyb_run_submit, then check_report_status until the report is complete.

"How many free trial calls do I have left?"

The model calls account_balance.

Verify your install

The MCP Inspector starts the server and lists its tools:

SONAR_API_KEY=sk-sonar-YOUR_KEY_HERE npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uvx getsonar-mcp

Listing tools works without a key; calling one needs a valid key.

Use the API without MCP

The MCP server is a thin client over the SONAR REST API. To call it directly:

export SONAR_API_KEY=sk-sonar-YOUR_KEY_HERE

# Structured findings: sync, 30-90 s, €0.40
curl -X POST 'https://api.getsonar.report/v1/agents/kyb-diligence/findings' \
  -H "X-API-Key: $SONAR_API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"company_name":"Tesco PLC","website":"https://www.tesco.com"}'

# Full report: async, about 3 min, €2.00; returns {"run_id": ..., "status": "pending"}
curl -X POST 'https://api.getsonar.report/v1/agents/kyb-diligence/run' \
  -H "X-API-Key: $SONAR_API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"company_name":"Tesco PLC","website":"https://www.tesco.com"}'

# Poll until status is "completed"
curl 'https://api.getsonar.report/v1/agents/kyb-diligence/run/RUN_ID' -H "X-API-Key: $SONAR_API_KEY"

# Usage, balance and free trial calls left
curl 'https://api.getsonar.report/v1/usage' -H "X-API-Key: $SONAR_API_KEY"

Agents: kyb-diligence (registries, sanctions, PEP, UBOs, adverse media) and adverse-media (negative news only). The website field must be an http:// or https:// URL. Full OpenAPI spec: api.getsonar.report/docs. Developer guide: getsonar.report/developers.

Troubleshooting

Tools don't appear: check the config file is valid JSON, restart the client, and run uvx --version in a terminal to confirm uv is installed.

401 Unauthorized: SONAR_API_KEY is missing or wrong. Check it at getsonar.report/developer/keys.

402 Payment Required: your free first call is used and your balance is €0. Top up from €5 at getsonar.report/developer/keys.

Timeouts: raise SONAR_API_TIMEOUT. A full report can take 3+ minutes; poll with check_report_status rather than waiting on one call.

uvx getsonar-mcp runs an old version: uvx caches environments. Run uvx getsonar-mcp@latest once, or uv cache clean getsonar-mcp.

Wrong company in the results: pass website. Short brand names collide with unrelated companies in news search; SONAR drops those collisions when it knows the domain.

Development

uv sync
uv run pytest        # stdio smoke test against a fake API, no network

Maintainers: ARCHITECTURE.md covers the module layout and the stdio / HTTP transports; DIRECTORIES.md covers releasing and listing in MCP directories.

Support

Email ivan@getsonar.report or open an issue on GitHub.

License

MIT, see LICENSE.