Shipping Paid MCP Tools on Base Mainnet: the Build Pattern and What I Got Wrong

A couple of months ago I shipped ForgePoint Signal — a regulatory monitoring MCP server with x402 micropayments on Base mainnet. The first post was about what I built and how. This one is the harder one: what I learned, what I got wrong, and the part of the build that's actually portable. If you're sitting on a data feed and wondering whether you can monetize it directly to AI agents — this is for you. The Build Pattern Strip the domain off Signal and what's left is a five-step pipeline anyone w