This guide walks you through building a chat-style workflow that lets an n8n AI Agent call Explorium’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools, powered by Anthropic’s Claude.
You’ll end up with a flow like this:
1. Prerequisites 🔧
| Requirement | Notes |
|---|---|
| n8n @ v1.31+ | Self-hosted or Cloud |
| Explorium API key | Get one from your AgentSource Admin Panel |
| Anthropic API key | Needed for Claude 3.x Sonnet |
| SSE endpoint | https://explorium-mcp-sse.explorium.ninja/sse |
2. Create Your Flow
- Trigger – When chat message received (built-in)
- AI Agent – type: Tools Agent
- Anthropic Chat Model – Claude 3.7 Sonnet
- Memory – simple in-flow memory
- MCP Client – calls Explorium tools
Connect the nodes just like the overview image (dotted lines = resource connections).
3. Configure Each Node
3.1 AI Agent configuration
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Agent | Tools Agent |
| Source for Prompt | Connected Chat Trigger Node |
| System Message | Use a Claude-style system prompt. Example: The assistant is Claude, created by Anthropic. The current date is {{ Date() }}.\nYou are powered by Explorium’s MCP tools. Always call tools when data is required… |
| Chat Model | Connect the Anthropic Chat Model node |
| Tool | Connect the MCP Client node |
| Memory | Connect the Memory node |
3.2 Anthropic Chat Model
- Credential: the Anthropic account you just created
- Model: Claude 3.7 Sonnet
- Enable Thinking: On (optional, shows the “thinking” indicator)
3.3 Anthropic credential
Enter your Anthropic key and test – you should see Connection tested successfully.
3.4 MCP Client node
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| SSE Endpoint | https://explorium-mcp-sse.explorium.ninja/sse |
| Authentication | Header Auth |
| Credential | Header Auth account (from 3.1) |
| Tools to include | All (or pick a subset, e.g., Match, Enrich, Events) |
3.5 Header Auth credential
- Name:
api_key - Value:
YOUR_EXPLORIUM_API_KEY
Header Auth is perfect because the SSE endpoint expects api_key: <key> in every request header.
4. Test It Out
- Click ▶ Open chat at the bottom of the canvas.
- Ask something data-centric, e.g.
- “Who is the CMO of Snowflake?”
- You should see the MCP Client fire Match Businesses ➜ Enrich Businesses and Claude respond with a neatly-formatted answer: