BIN Grounding Data for AI Agents

Overview

A BIN lookup API with a free plan: send the first six to eight digits of a card as the bin parameter. The API resolves the BIN against payment card records and returns the card network, card type, issuing bank name and issuing country, plus the number rules for that scheme: valid card lengths, whether the Luhn check applies, and the security code name and size. Paid plans add the card category, the issuer phone and website where the bank has published them, ISO alpha-2, alpha-3 and numeric country codes, the country currency and flag, and coordinates.

Live Test BIN Grounding Data for AI Agents Source →

The tool

Once your client is connected to the VerveContext server, this appears in its tool list as BINGroundingDataforAIAgents. It is read-only and open-world — it fetches and never mutates anything on your side — so most clients call it without asking you to confirm.

{
  "name": "BINGroundingDataforAIAgents",
  "arguments": {
    "bin": "448590"
  }
}

You do not name the tool yourself; the model picks it. Asking about 448590 in the terms this source covers is enough for it to reach for BINGroundingDataforAIAgents on its own — naming it explicitly also works, and is the way to force the call.

Connecting

One server URL covers every source in the catalog, including this one. Authorization is OAuth: the client opens a browser once, and there is no key to paste into a config file.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vervecontext": {
      "url": "https://api.vervecontext.com/v1/mcp"
    }
  }
}

https://api.vervecontext.com/v1/mcp

Per-client setup — Claude, Cursor, VS Code, ChatGPT — is on the MCP setup page.

Arguments

These are the properties on the tool's inputSchema, so a well-behaved client validates them before the call is made. Premium arguments are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them.

What the model gets back

The result carries a structuredContent object matching the tool's declared outputSchema, so a client reads fields without parsing prose. status is "ok" and error is null on success; a null field means the value was not available for that input, not that the call failed.

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{
  "status": "ok",
  "error": null,
  "data": {
    "bin": "448590",
    "brand": "VISA",
    "type": "CREDIT",
    "category": "PURCHASING",
    "country": "UNITED STATES",
    "issuer": {
      "name": "JPMORGAN CHASE BANK N.A. - COMMERCIAL",
      "country": "UNITED STATES",
      "phone": null,
      "website": null
    },
    "location": {
      "latitude": "37.0902",
      "longitude": "-95.7129",
      "alpha2": "US",
      "alpha3": "USA",
      "numeric": "840",
      "currency": "USD",
      "currencies": [
        "USD"
      ],
      "flag": "🇺🇸",
      "isEU": false,
      "isEEA": false,
      "isSEPA": false
    },
    "number": {
      "scheme": "visa",
      "lengths": [
        16,
        18,
        19
      ],
      "luhn": true,
      "code": {
        "name": "CVV",
        "size": 3
      }
    },
    "customerIp": null
  }
}

Response fields

Paths are relative to data. Premium fields are absent rather than zeroed on plans that do not include them, so check for presence instead of comparing to 0.

Why ground on it

A model can produce something that looks like this answer from its training data, and be confidently out of date or simply wrong. This source returns the current value in a shape you can check, which is the difference between an answer you can cite and one you have to hedge.

Point an evaluation at brand: it is the field most worth pinning a claim to, and it is either present and current or absent — never plausibly invented.

Failure modes

Errors come back as tool errors carrying a sentence the model can act on, not a bare status code. Error handling covers the full list.

A call costs 10 credits each time the tool actually runs; a model that reasons about the tool without calling it costs nothing.

Use cases

Checkout Brand Detection

Display the matching Visa or Mastercard logo automatically when customers type the first six digits into your checkout form.

Debit vs Credit Routing

Apply different fees, limits or review rules to debit and credit cards before you run the authorization.

Debit Fee Optimization

Route transactions through lower-cost debit payment rails whenever the lookup confirms an incoming debit card.

Billing Country Mismatch

Flag suspicious orders for manual review if the card issuing country does not match the customer billing address.

Other ways to use BIN Grounding Data for AI Agents

Set up BIN Grounding Data for AI Agents on VerveContext, or reach the same source a different way. Your VerveContext account and credits work on all of them — one key, one balance.

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