PreFlight

Simulate before you transact. PreFlight dry-runs blockchain transactions before they are broadcast and returns either a raw simulation result or an agent-friendly proceed/review/abort assessment.

PreFlight is pay-per-use for production paths: paid REST and paid MCP tool calls settle a small USDC payment through x402. The free /preview path exists for the web UI and local smoke testing.

Surfaces

Surface	Payment	Purpose
GET /health	Free	Health check
POST /preview	Free	UI/local preview path
POST /simulate	x402 paid	REST simulation API
POST /mcp initialize / tools/list	Free	MCP discovery
POST /mcp tools/call preflight_simulate	x402 paid	Agent simulation tool
POST /mcp tools/call preflight_assess	x402 paid	Agent decision tool

Supported transaction simulation chains:

• Ethereum mainnet: chainId 1
• Ethereum Sepolia: chainId 11155111
• Base mainnet: chainId 8453
• Polygon: chainId 137

Limitations

• PreFlight simulates transactions; it does not broadcast them.
• x402 payment can run on Base Sepolia for testing. Transaction simulation supports Ethereum mainnet, Ethereum Sepolia, Base mainnet, and Polygon.
• USD gas cost is estimated from CoinGecko when available and falls back to approximate prices if unavailable.
• The preflight_assess decision is rule-based. It is a safety pre-check, not a full contract audit.

Quick Start

npm install
cp .env.example .env
npm start

Minimum free-preview config:

TENDERLY_NODE_ACCESS_KEY=
PORT=3000
NODE_ENV=development

Paid x402 config:

WALLET_ADDRESS=             # receiving wallet
PRICE_PER_REQUEST=0.01
PAYMENT_NETWORK=base-sepolia
PAYMENT_FACILITATOR_URL=    # optional; blank uses package default

Paid smoke-test config:

PAYER_PRIVATE_KEY=          # funded test wallet private key; never use a main wallet
PREFLIGHT_URL=http://localhost:3000

For Base Sepolia x402 tests, the payer needs test USDC and gas on Base Sepolia.

Response Shapes

POST /preview and POST /simulate

Request:

{
  "from": "0xd8dA6BF26964aF9D7eEd9e03E53415D37aA96045",
  "to": "0xA0b86991c6218b36c1d19D4a2e9Eb0cE3606eB48",
  "data": "0x",
  "value": "0",
  "chainId": 1
}

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "gasEstimate": 21000,
  "nativeToken": "ETH",
  "gasCostNative": "0.00042000",
  "gasCostUSD": "1.0000",
  "logs": [],
  "revertReason": null,
  "simulatedAt": "2026-05-17T00:00:00.000Z"
}

Example: Sepolia wallet-to-wallet transfer

{
  "from": "0x1ad4C9d7CEa32B44cd54260A52C57B6Ce4e0D6eB",
  "to": "0x8E159C52Dc2823cB6728E26898A2bABC286BBAc7",
  "data": "0x",
  "value": "1000000000000000",
  "chainId": 11155111
}

This simulates a native Sepolia ETH transfer of 0.001 ETH. It does not broadcast the transfer.

Validation errors return 400 on /preview. Unpaid /simulate returns 402 before validation.

MCP preflight_simulate

Takes the same transaction arguments and returns the same simulation object as text content in the MCP tool result. It is paid only when called through tools/call; initialize and tools/list are free.

MCP preflight_assess

Takes the same transaction arguments and returns:

{
  "decision": "proceed",
  "riskLevel": "low",
  "reason": "The transaction simulation succeeded and the estimated cost is within the review thresholds.",
  "recommendation": "Proceed if the transaction intent and recipient are correct.",
  "simulation": {
    "success": true,
    "gasEstimate": 21000,
    "nativeToken": "ETH",
    "gasCostNative": "0.00042000",
    "gasCostUSD": "1.0000",
    "logs": [],
    "revertReason": null,
    "simulatedAt": "2026-05-17T00:00:00.000Z"
  }
}

Assessment rules:

• Failed simulation: decision="abort", riskLevel="high"
• Missing gasEstimate: decision="review", riskLevel="medium"
• gasEstimate > 500000: decision="review", riskLevel="medium"
• gasCostUSD > 10: decision="review", riskLevel="medium"
• Otherwise: decision="proceed", riskLevel="low"

Testing

Run syntax checks:

node --check src/services/preflight.js
node --check src/routes/simulate.js
node --check src/mcp/server.js
node --check src/middleware/payment.js

Run deterministic assessment-rule tests:

npm run test:rules

Run paid REST smoke test:

npm run test:paid

Run paid MCP assessment smoke test:

npm run test:mcp:simulate
npm run test:mcp:assess

test.http contains manual cases for:

• GET /health
• Free /preview success/fail
• Free /preview validation failures
• Unpaid /simulate returning 402
• Free MCP initialize
• Free MCP tools/list
• Unpaid MCP preflight_simulate returning 402
• Unpaid MCP preflight_assess returning 402

Claude Desktop MCP demo

PreFlight's hosted /mcp endpoint is x402-paid. Claude Desktop does not pay x402 directly, so the demo uses a local MCP stdio bridge that pays the x402 challenge and forwards results back to Claude.

Architecture:

Claude Desktop -> local MCP bridge -> x402-paid PreFlight /mcp -> Tenderly

Start PreFlight:

npm start

Validate the paid MCP path:

npm run test:mcp:assess

Add this to Claude Desktop config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "preflight": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "D:\\br br patapim\\Preflight\\scripts\\claude-preflight-bridge.mjs"
      ],
      "cwd": "D:\\br br patapim\\Preflight"
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop after editing the config.

Example Claude prompt:

Use PreFlight to assess this transaction before broadcast:

from: 0x1ad4C9d7CEa32B44cd54260A52C57B6Ce4e0D6eB
to: 0x8E159C52Dc2823cB6728E26898A2bABC286BBAc7
data: 0x
value: 1000000000000000
chainId: 11155111

Tell me whether I should proceed, review, or abort.

Important: Claude is not paying x402 directly. The local MCP bridge pays using the configured test wallet.

Architecture

src/
  index.js                 Express app and route mounting
  config.js                Environment configuration
  routes/simulate.js       REST preview/simulate route handler
  services/tenderly.js     Tenderly RPC integration
  services/ethPrice.js     Native token USD pricing
  services/preflight.js    Shared pricing and assessment logic
  middleware/payment.js    x402 payment gating for paid REST/MCP calls
  mcp/server.js            MCP tools
public/index.html          Vanilla web UI
scripts/                   Paid and deterministic smoke tests

Deployment

railway.toml is configured for Railway. Set the environment variables in Railway, use PAYMENT_NETWORK=base for production, and keep test private keys out of production environments.