Connecting is the easy part. An MCP client is given the server URL in its connector settings, and a paid key is sent with the request if you have one. After that the app says the server is attached. That tells you nothing about whether the agent will use it. These five questions do.
Ask what it can see
Start with: what tools do you have from this server, and what does each return. The agent should answer from the catalogue the server sent it. If it describes tools in vague terms or names ones that do not exist, it is guessing. The catalogue is the first thing a client receives, as laid out in what a model sees when it calls a tool.
Ask for one number with its time
Next: where is the SPY call wall, and when was that measured. A working connection produces a call to get_dealer_levels and an answer with a timestamp. Every NoVo reading carries as_of and age_seconds, so the agent has the time to hand. An answer with a level and no time is the first warning sign.
Ask which tool it used
Then: which tool did that come from. Most AI apps show the call as it happens, and the agent can name it either way. If it cannot name a tool, the number came from somewhere else. The usual somewhere else is training data, which is the problem described in the number the model made up.
Ask for something that is withheld
On the free tools, ask for the SPY gamma flip. The free dealer levels are delayed, and the flip is gated. The response says so in a gated field. A careful agent tells you the flip is withheld on the free tier. A careless one tells you there is no flip, or invents one. This question shows which kind of agent you have.
Ask for something that does not exist
Last: what is the IWM perp doing this weekend. There is no liquid perp on IWM or the Russell 2000, and the tool’s own description says so. The right answer is that no such market exists. The wrong answer borrows the S&P 500 perp and presents it as small caps. A model that passes this one is reading the warnings it was given.
What to do with the results
If the agent fails the first three, the connection is not being used and you should check the connector before anything else. If it fails the last two, the connection works and the model is being loose with what it reads. That is fixed with instructions: tell it to quote the tool, the time and any withheld field with every figure.
The server these questions were written against is the MCP & API at https://novo-options.trade/api/mcp. The same five work on any market server, with the tickers changed.