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Muse will be able to browse the Nevermined Catalog and pay for services with a plain Nevermined API key. This page covers the account and funding you can set up now and the directory connector that’s on the way; for the full tool surface and the safety model, see Using the Catalog from a harness.
Muse connects with a plain Nevermined API key, not the OAuth “approve a spending cap” flow that some assistants (Claude, ChatGPT) use. The key is your credential — it spends whatever its Nevermined account funds, so you set the budget on your account, not in Muse.
The connector is on the way. The Muse Connector Platform (platform.muse.ai) is a submission-and-review directory — a connector is published by its developer and, once approved, becomes discoverable in the Muse agent and under Settings → Connectors. There is no self-serve “add a custom MCP server” flow for end users, so you can’t add the Catalog yourself yet. Nevermined is submitting the Catalog connector for listing; until it’s approved, drive the Catalog from your own code or another host — see Using the Catalog from a harness.

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Before you connect

1

A Nevermined account

Free, at nevermined.app.
2

A Nevermined API key

Create a plain API key in the app — Settings → Global NVM API Keys — for the environment you want, and send the whole string, prefix included (sandbox:… or live:…). A key minted by an OAuth flow can’t pay through the Router’s delegation routes, so use a plain one. See Get a Nevermined API key.
3

A way to pay

The key spends from one of two budgets you set up once: a Nevermined Subscription whose monthly credits a plain key can spend, or a spending delegation — a capped, revocable budget funded from your own wallet (Using the Catalog from a harness walks through it). Discovery is free and needs neither.
Start on sandbox, where you use testnet funds and nothing costs real money, before you point Muse at live.

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Add the Catalog to Muse

The Catalog will appear in Muse’s Settings → Connectors once Nevermined’s connector is approved on the Muse Connector Platform (in progress — see the warning above). When it’s listed, this section becomes: find Nevermined in the connectors directory and paste your Nevermined API key. In the meantime, your Nevermined account and funding are already usable from any host that accepts an API-key header, or from your own code — see Using the Catalog from a harness.

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Your Nevermined API key

That key is your credential — there is no separate consent screen to approve. Keep the prefix: a live: key for mcp.live, a sandbox: key for mcp.sandbox. The key spends whatever its account funds — your Subscription credits, or a spending delegation funded from your wallet — so the budget and the audit trail live on your Nevermined account, not in Muse. Treat it like a password: never commit it or paste it into a shared chat. Every way to mint one: Get a Nevermined API key.

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Make your first paid call

Once the connector is listed, ask for something only live data can answer, and name the connector so Muse reaches for it rather than answering from memory.
1

Browse for free

Ask Muse to “list the Nevermined catalog categories” — a free tool call, no payment.
2

Ask it to buy

“Buy the service with slug <slug> through the Nevermined connector and show me the response.” The paid call draws on your subscription credits or delegation and returns the merchant’s response.
If Muse answers without paying, it answered from its own knowledge — name the connector and ask for live data. More on phrasing: Catalog MCP tips.

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Disconnect or rotate the key

  • Stop the credential (Nevermined side). The key is the credential, so to cut Muse off, rotate or delete the key in the app (Settings → Global NVM API Keys) — every call with the old key then fails. To cap spending without revoking the key, revoke the delegation it spends from in Payment methods; discovery still works.
  • Remove the server (Muse side). Once the connector is listed, disconnect it from Muse’s Settings → Connectors.
To spend again, paste a fresh key; if you revoked the delegation, create a new one — see Using the Catalog from a harness.

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Next

Using the Catalog from a harness

The full plain-key playbook — discovery, delegations, and the safety rules.

Catalog MCP — full reference

Every tool, the API-key header, and every refusal code.