Install Chain Insights
Get Started

Install Chain Insights
and start investigating

Install the Chain Insights package once, create a local investigation workspace, then connect Codex, Claude Code, or another MCP client when you want assisted investigation work.

1

Install Chain Insights

Install the Chain Insights command line package:

Terminal
npm install -g chain-insights@latest

This installs the Chain Insights command line tool (chain-insights), the short cia alias, and the MCP client connector used to reach Chain Insights Graph.

Full install guide: source installs, endpoint configuration, Obsidian workflow, and advanced examples live in the Chain Insights GitHub repository.
2

Connect an MCP client

Use this step when you want Codex, Claude Code, or another MCP-capable client to run Chain Insights tools for you:

Codex
chain-insights --codex
Claude Code
chain-insights --claude
Hermes
chain-insights --hermes

These commands install Chain Insights skills and register the Graph connection for the selected client. Restart the client after installation, then ask it to show Chain Insights help.

Other MCP clients: Cursor, Claude Desktop, Gemini-style CLIs, and custom clients can use the examples in the Chain Insights GitHub repository.
3

Initialize an investigation workspace

Create a workspace when you want cases, sessions, address graph visualizations, transaction reports, and custom investigation documents:

Terminal
mkdir -p ~/work/chain-insights-investigations
cd ~/work/chain-insights-investigations
chain-insights init

Your workspace is now ready for case files, evidence, schema captures, graph JSON under reports/graphs/, and tabular extracts under reports/tables/.

Workspaces are plain folders and Obsidian-compatible vaults, so you can review the files with your editor, Obsidian, or an MCP-capable client.

4

Start with included access

New users can start with bounded graph reads before setting up sustained access. Keep the first investigation small: one address, one network, and a clear question.

Need more capacity? Pricing summarizes MCP execution-time billing and ACP fixed workflow execution.
Prefer local experiments? The devkit lets builders run a local Chain Insights-compatible backend with bundled Bittensor data before using hosted graph access.
5

Run the first investigation

From the initialized workspace, paste a prompt like this into Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, or another MCP-capable client:

Investigation prompt
Investigate stolen funds from 5GTjfJaLpBNrgybhY24NqhDnKW9r94z72RSYLxeodxJfSkj5 on the Bittensor network using Chain Insights. Create or reuse a case in this workspace, trace the funds, screen relevant addresses, preserve evidence, and produce graph JSON, transaction tables, and a short investigation report.

Chain Insights should create graph JSON, transaction tables, compact evidence, and a report that can be reviewed outside the chat.

Other MCP Clients

Advanced client setup

Use this when your MCP client does not have a Chain Insights installer yet. The exact setup depends on the client.

Use the full client guide

Advanced clients, custom launchers, environment configuration, and troubleshooting live in the Chain Insights repository so setup stays current with each release.

Open GitHub Guide
What You Get

Investigation artifacts, not throwaway chat

The self-run workspace keeps the investigation durable on disk: traces, graph files, tabular extracts, compact evidence, case notes, and reports.

Trace results

Preserve victim, suspect, and deposit-source tracing results with next-step leads and evidence pointers.

Graph and table files

Save visualization-ready graph JSON and compact tabular extracts under the workspace reports directory.

Analyst documents

Generate case notes, evidence summaries, and PDF-ready reports from saved evidence and reports.