Two ways to build on Cove
Cove exposes its trading flows to builders in two forms. Deep links are Telegram URLs that open Cove directly into a buy, sell or referral flow for a specific token — the lightest possible integration, usable from any app, bot, website, group or channel. The Cove Agent MCP is a Model Context Protocol server that lets an AI agent connect to a Cove profile and research tokens, manage positions, trade and automate orders programmatically.
One is for putting a "buy this on Cove" button anywhere. The other is for giving software a trading desk. Both run on the same infrastructure as the trading panel: unified USDC balance, sponsored gas, guardrails, receipts.
Deep links
What a deep link is
A Cove deep link is a t.me URL with a start parameter that tells Cove what to open. Tap it anywhere in Telegram — or from a website, another bot, a tweet — and Telegram hands the user to Cove with the right token panel already loaded. If the user has never used Cove, the same link onboards them and then lands them on the panel.
The referral link you're already familiar with is a deep link: https://t.me/cove_trading_bot?start=ref_. Buy and sell links follow the same pattern with a different start parameter that encodes the action, chain and token.
What you can open
Buy links are the workhorse. A scanner bot, a portfolio tracker, an alerts channel, a research site — anything that surfaces tokens can attach a Cove buy link and turn a mention into an entry.
Generating deep links
The Deep Links documentation specifies the exact start-parameter format for each flow, including how to encode the chain and contract address. Because the format is deterministic, you don't need an API call to create a link — construct it from the chain and address and it works. Attach your referral code so that users who onboard through your links are attributed to you.
Where deep links work
- Groups and channels. Post a buy link alongside a call. Members tap and land on the panel. If you run a community, Cove Buy automates this for every posted contract; deep links are the manual or custom version.
- Other Telegram bots. A scanner or alerts bot can add a Cove button to its cards using an inline keyboard with a deep link URL.
- Websites and apps. Any web page or mobile app can open a Cove deep link; Telegram handles the handoff.
- Social. A link in a tweet or a post works the same way.
Attribution and earnings
Links carrying your referral code attribute new users to you under the Rewards program. Referral tiers pay 25% to 50% of the fees generated by traders you referred, based on their monthly volume. A well-placed buy link on a popular scanner or research tool is a referral engine. See the Rewards page for tiers.
Safety for users
Deep links open Cove; they don't execute trades. The user still sees the panel — token data, liquidity, tax, their account context — and still taps a preset. Their guardrails apply. Group-buy limits in their settings cap sizes on buys made through shared links. A deep link can't bypass a user's slippage, liquidity protection or confirmations. This is deliberate: builders get distribution, users keep control.
Cove Agent MCP
What MCP is
The Model Context Protocol is an open standard for connecting AI agents to tools. An MCP server exposes a set of functions with typed inputs and outputs; an agent — Claude, or any MCP-compatible model or framework — can call them as part of its reasoning. Cove's MCP server exposes Cove's trading capabilities as tools an agent can use.
What the agent can do
Connected to a Cove profile, an agent can:
- Research tokens — resolve a contract address or ticker, pull market cap, liquidity, tax, holders and chart data, the same information the trading panel shows a human.
- Manage positions — list positions across accounts, read PnL, worth, cost basis and entry, and inspect active orders.
- Trade — submit buys and sells from the unified USDC balance on any supported chain, with gas sponsored and guardrails applied.
- Automate orders — create limit buys, take-profit and stop-loss orders, and DCA ladders; edit and cancel them.
That's the full surface a human has, available to software.
Connecting an agent
- Connect the MCP server to your agent runtime following the MCP Tools documentation, which lists the server endpoint and configuration.
- Authorise the agent against a Cove profile. The agent operates as that profile, with access to its accounts and balance.
- Give the agent instructions. It calls Cove tools as needed to fulfil them.
What agents are good for
Research at scale. An agent can evaluate fifty contract addresses from a channel in the time a human evaluates one — running holder analysis, dev history and liquidity checks on each and shortlisting the ones that pass your criteria.
Rule-based execution. "Buy $50 of anything that passes these checks, with a −25% stop and take profits at +50% and +150%." An agent executes that consistently, every time, without the emotional drift a human adds at 3am.
Portfolio maintenance. An agent can sweep positions on a schedule, attach missing stops, trim positions that have grown past a size limit and report a summary to you in Telegram.
Natural-language trading. Tell the agent "sell half my WIF and move the proceeds to my Hold account" and let it work out the tool calls.
What agents are not
An agent isn't a guarantee of profit and doesn't remove risk. It follows instructions faster and more consistently than a human; if the instructions are wrong, it executes wrong instructions faster and more consistently. Start with small balances and read-only tasks — research and position reporting — before granting trade permissions with meaningful size.
Guardrails apply to agents
Every trade an agent submits runs through the same pre-trade checks as a human tap: slippage, liquidity protection, auto-adjust max buy, price-impact rules, Gas Surplus Budget. Configure them on the account the agent uses. Liquidity protection in particular is a strong safety net for an agent that might otherwise size a buy badly into a thin pool.
Deep links versus MCP
They complement each other. A research agent that shortlists tokens can output deep links for a human to tap; an alerts bot that posts deep links can also expose an MCP tool for agents to act on the same signals.
API reference
Cove publishes an OpenAPI specification alongside the documentation. Builders integrating beyond deep links and MCP should start there for endpoint definitions, request and response schemas and authentication.
Building responsibly
Cove's builder surfaces sit on top of real money on live chains. A few principles:
- Show the user what they're buying. If your tool posts deep links, post the token data with them — chain, contract, liquidity. Don't strip context.
- Attribute honestly. Use your own referral code; don't swap someone else's.
- Keep agents scoped. Dedicated account, limited balance, guardrails on, logs kept.
- Respect group settings. Group-buy limits exist to protect members; don't engineer around them.
- Test on small sizes. A $1 buy — Cove's minimum — is the right first transaction for any new integration.
Where to start
Read the Deep Links documentation and construct a buy link for a token you know. Tap it in Telegram and confirm it lands on the right panel. Then read the MCP Tools documentation, connect the server to your agent with a small dedicated account, and ask it to list your positions. Once both work at small scale, you have the full toolkit: distribution through links, execution through agents, and Cove handling the chains underneath.
Everything on Cove — one balance, sponsored gas, guardrails, receipts — is available to what you build. The chains are Cove's problem. The product is yours.
Example integrations
A scanner bot. Your bot already posts token cards. Add an inline button per card with a Cove buy deep link for that chain and address, carrying your referral code. Members tap, land on a loaded panel and buy from their own balance. You earn referral fees on every user who onboards through your buttons.
An alerts channel. Each alert message carries a buy link. Subscribers act in one tap. Pair it with a sell link when you call an exit.
A research site. Every token page gets an "Open in Cove" button. Web to Telegram to panel, three seconds.
A portfolio agent. Connected over MCP to a dedicated account, it checks positions every hour, attaches a stop to anything missing one, trims any position above 15% of the account, and posts a summary to you. Read-only for a week; then trade permissions with a small balance.
A screening agent. Given a list of addresses from a channel, it runs holder, dev-history and liquidity checks through Cove tools and returns deep links for the ones that pass — so a human takes the final tap.
Attribution details
A user is attributed to the referral code in the first Cove deep link they open. Later links from other builders don't reassign them. Referral rewards are single-level: only users you directly refer count toward your tier. Earnings and tier are visible under Refer & Earn.
Frequently asked
Do deep links need an API key? No. They're constructed URLs.
Can a deep link pre-fill an amount? Links open the panel with the user's own presets. The user chooses the amount — by design.
Does the MCP server support read-only access? Scope what the agent is instructed to do, and use a dedicated account with a limited balance. Guardrails apply to every agent trade.
Which agent frameworks work? Anything that speaks MCP.
Where is the API reference? The OpenAPI specification is published alongside the documentation.
Can I build a competing bot on Cove? Deep links and MCP are open to builders. Follow the acceptable-use terms and attribute honestly.
Testing checklist
Before shipping any integration, run through the following with a small dedicated account.
- Construct a buy link for a known token on each chain you support and confirm each opens the correct panel in Telegram — chain badge, contract, market cap all match.
- Confirm the referral parameter attributes a fresh test user to you under Refer & Earn.
- For MCP, have the agent list positions and research one token before granting it any trade capability.
- Make one $1 buy through each path — link and agent — and read the receipts end to end.
- Verify guardrails fire as expected by attempting a deliberately oversized buy into a thin pool and confirming liquidity protection blocks it.
- Check behaviour when the user has no Cove account: the link should onboard them and then land on the panel.
- Log every agent action with the tool call and the receipt reference, so you can reconstruct any trade later.
Integrations that pass this list rarely surprise their users. The ones that skip it usually surprise their builders first.
Support for builders
Questions about link formats, MCP configuration or attribution go through Support on the Cove main menu, the same channel traders use. Include the exact link you constructed or the tool call the agent made and the receipt reference where one exists; that lets the team reproduce the behaviour rather than guess at it. Builders shipping to a large audience should test against the documentation's current parameter format before each release, since supported chains and flows expand over time and the docs are the source of truth for what a link can open today.