HTTP Status Grounding Data

Overview

HTTP Status Code Lookup works by querying the HTTP status codes registered with IANA and defined across RFCs 9110, 6585, 4918 and others. Returns the status code name, description, category and boolean flags; with details=true it also returns a link to the defining RFC section, and on paid plans the current registry name, the RFC section itself, whether the code is safe to retry, whether RFC 9110 lets caches store it by default, and the headers the spec pairs with it (Location, Retry-After, WWW-Authenticate, Allow and so on).

Live Test HTTP Status Grounding Data Source →

The tool

Once your client is connected to the VerveContext server, this appears in its tool list as HTTPStatusGroundingData. 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": "HTTPStatusGroundingData",
  "arguments": {
    "code": "404"
  }
}

You do not name the tool yourself; the model picks it. Asking about 404 in the terms this source covers is enough for it to reach for HTTPStatusGroundingData 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": {
    "code": 404,
    "name": "Not Found",
    "description": "The requested resource could not be found",
    "category": "Client Error",
    "is_error": true,
    "is_success": false,
    "is_redirect": false,
    "is_informational": false,
    "registry_name": "Not Found",
    "spec": "RFC 9110, Section 15.5.5",
    "spec_url": "https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9110#section-15.5.5",
    "is_retryable": false,
    "is_cacheable_by_default": true,
    "related_headers": []
  }
}

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 name: 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 1 credit each time the tool actually runs; a model that reasons about the tool without calling it costs nothing.

Use cases

API Development

Quickly reference HTTP status codes while developing and debugging APIs

Error Handling

Understand status codes when implementing error handling and response logic

Documentation

Generate status code documentation and error message templates for APIs

Troubleshooting

Diagnose HTTP errors and understand response codes during debugging

Other ways to use HTTP Status Grounding Data

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

Related

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