SSL Certificate Grounding Data
The tool
Ground agents in real-time SSL certificate facts — issuer, validity window and key strength — so security answers reflect the live cert, not a guess.
Once your client is connected to the VerveContext MCP server, this appears in its tool list as SSLCertificateGroundingData. It is read-only and open-world: it fetches, it never mutates anything on your side, so most clients will call it without asking you to confirm.
{
"name": "SSLCertificateGroundingData",
"arguments": {
"domain": "ebay.com"
}
}What that looks like in a conversation
You don't name the tool — the model picks it. Asking about ebay.com in the terms this source covers is enough for it to reach for SSLCertificateGroundingData on its own.
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/mcpPer-client setup — Claude Desktop, 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.
| Argument | Type | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
domainRequired | string | ebay.com | The domain of the website to check the SSL certificate of |
What the model gets back
The result carries a structuredContent object matching the tool's declared outputSchema, so a client can read fields without parsing prose. status is "ok" on success and error is null; a null field means the value wasn't available for that input, not that the call failed.
{
"status": "ok",
"error": null,
"data": {
"subject": {
"C": "US",
"ST": "California",
"O": "eBay, Inc.",
"CN": "ebay.com"
},
"issuer": {
"C": "GB",
"O": "Sectigo Limited",
"CN": "Sectigo Public Server Authentication CA OV R36"
},
"subjectaltname": "DNS:ebay.com, DNS:befr.ebay.be, DNS:benl.ebay.be, DNS:cafr.ebay.ca, DNS:e-bay.it, DNS:ebay.at, DNS:ebay.be, DNS:ebay.ca, DNS:ebay.ch, DNS:ebay.co.uk, DNS:ebay.com.au, DNS:ebay.com.hk, DNS:ebay.com.my, DNS:ebay.com.sg, DNS:ebay.de, DNS:ebay.es, DNS:ebay.fr, DNS:ebay.ie, DNS:ebay.in, DNS:ebay.it, DNS:ebay.nl, DNS:ebay.ph, DNS:ebay.pl, DNS:ebay.us, DNS:ebay.vn, DNS:wwww.ebay.co.uk, DNS:wwww.ebay.com, DNS:wwww.ebay.com.au, DNS:wwww.ebay.de, DNS:wwww.ebay.in, DNS:wwww.ebay.it",
"infoAccess": {
"CA Issuers - URI": [
"http://crt.sectigo.com/SectigoPublicServerAuthenticationCAOVR36.crt"
],
"OCSP - URI": [
"http://ocsp.sectigo.com"
]
},
"ca": false,
"bits": 2048,
"valid_from": "Jul 28 00:00:00 2025 GMT",
"valid_to": "Jul 28 23:59:59 2026 GMT",
"serialNumber": "99F408949A6416EDC3B8F5EC77B2EBE5",
"domain": "ebay.com",
"isExpired": false,
"isValid": true,
"daysUntilExpiry": 20,
"isExpiringSoon": true,
"isSelfSigned": false
}
}Fields
| Field | Type | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
subjectPremium | object | Certificate subject information including country, state, organization, and common name | |
└ subject.CPremium | string | Country code of the certificate subject | |
└ subject.STPremium | string | State or province of the certificate subject | |
└ subject.OPremium | string | Organization name of the certificate subject | |
└ subject.CNPremium | string | Common name of the certificate subject domain | |
issuerPremium | object | Certificate issuing authority information including country, organization, and common name | |
└ issuer.CPremium | string | Country code of the certificate issuer | |
└ issuer.OPremium | string | Organization name of the certificate issuing authority | |
└ issuer.CNPremium | string | Common name of the certificate authority | |
subjectaltnamePremium | string | Alternative subject names included in the certificate | |
infoAccessPremium | object | Information access extension with CA issuers and OCSP URIs | |
└ infoAccess.CA Issuers - URIPremium | array | URLs to CA issuer certificates for validation | |
└ infoAccess.OCSP - URIPremium | array | Online Certificate Status Protocol URLs for validation | |
ca | boolean | Indicates if certificate is a certificate authority | |
bits | number | Key size in bits representing certificate strength | |
valid_from | string | Certificate validity start date and time in GMT | |
valid_to | string | Certificate validity end date and time in GMT | |
serialNumberPremium | string | Unique serial number of the SSL certificate | |
domain | string | Domain name the certificate was checked for | |
isExpired | boolean | Whether the certificate is past its valid_to date | |
isValid | boolean | Whether the current time is within the certificate's validity window (valid_from to valid_to) | |
daysUntilExpiryPremium | number | Whole days until the certificate expires (negative if already expired) | |
isExpiringSoonPremium | boolean | Whether the certificate expires within the next 30 days | |
isSelfSignedPremium | boolean | Whether the certificate is self-signed (subject and issuer are the same entity), which browsers do not trust |
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 with 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 ca: 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 with a sentence the model can act on, not a bare status code.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
400 / 422 | The arguments didn't validate. The message names the offending one. |
401 | The OAuth session is invalid or expired — reconnect the server. |
403 | Out of credits. Not a bad key — the month's allowance is spent. |
404 | This source isn't part of VerveContext. Check the catalog. |
429 | Brief rate limit. Retrying after a moment succeeds. |
Other ways to use SSL Certificate Grounding Data
Set up SSL Certificate 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.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to tell the agent to use SSLCertificateGroundingData?
No. The tool's name and description are in the model's context once the server is connected, so it selects the tool when the question calls for it. Naming it explicitly works too and is useful when you want to force the call.
Does connecting the server expose every tool at once?
Yes — one connection lists the whole VerveContext catalog. Clients with a tool budget can usually filter the list; the credit cost is per call, so an unused tool costs nothing.
What does a call cost?
5 credits each time the tool actually runs. A model that reasons about the tool without calling it costs nothing.
Is there a REST version of this?
Yes — the same source is available as a plain HTTPS endpoint on APIVerve, linked above. Same data, same credits, same account.