Building AI Agents on The Graph | Kevin Jones

Sun, Aug 2, 2026, 12:00 AM

In this workshop at ETHGlobal Lisbon 2026, Kevin Jones, a BuidlGuidl member who works at Edge & Node (the original creators of The Graph Protocol), shows hackers how to build AI agents on The Graph and walks through the bounties. He explains The Graph as a decentralized network of indexers that serve blockchain data, and covers its two main products. Subgraphs are GraphQL-based APIs, easy to create in the subgraph studio and usually focused on a specific smart contract, that make complex time-series blockchain data far easier to query than hitting an RPC directly. Substreams are a Rust-based streaming protocol that pipes deeper, blockchain-wide data (transactions, value transfers, wallets) directly into your own database like ClickHouse. He notes subgraphs are written in AssemblyScript (a TypeScript subset) while substreams are Rust, both of which AI tooling handles well. Kevin focuses on the AI angle. He introduces The Graph's two MCP servers (one for subgraphs, one for substreams) as discovery tools that let an agent find the right data (for example, asking for Uniswap data returns the relevant subgraphs with a recommendation), and points to installable subgraph and substreams skills for coding agents in Cursor, Claude Code, or any IDE. He lays out the bounties: $7,000 split five ways for tooling that helps agents use Graph data or the best AI use case of The Graph, plus a prize for best use of composable subgraphs (which sit on top of per-contract, per-chain subgraphs to unify a protocol deployed across many chains). He then demos Scaffold Agent, an AI-native command-line alternative to Scaffold-ETH (reusing its components, hooks, and burner wallet) that bootstraps a Next.js AI chatbot wired to the subgraph MCP server and able to consume The Graph over x402, Coinbase's crypto-native reinvention of the HTTP 402 status code that replaces API keys with pay-per-query. Using his own startup One Claw for MPC and HSM key custody (generating a signing key inside a TEE on Google Cloud so no private key sits on his machine), he scaffolds a project, funds the fresh wallet with 10 cents of USDC on Base, and attempts to query the last five Uniswap V3 swaps paid over x402. The live query does not go through, but he frames Scaffold Agent, the MCP servers, and the skills as strong starting points and points hackers to the booth for help. 00:00 Introduction 00:11 Meet Kevin and Edge & Node 00:29 What This Workshop Covers 00:50 Who Has Built a Subgraph 01:10 What The Graph Protocol Is 01:42 Subgraphs as GraphQL APIs 02:13 Creating a Subgraph in the Studio 02:53 Introducing Substreams 03:19 Streaming Data Into Your Database 03:44 AssemblyScript vs Rust 04:03 Why Rust Is Easy With AI 04:26 The AI Tooling in the Docs 04:44 The Two MCP Servers 05:11 How the MCP Discovers Data 05:31 Subgraph vs Substream MCPs 06:36 Installing the Skills for Your Agent 07:14 The Bounties and What The Graph Wants 07:53 Examples of Agent Tooling 08:14 Best Use of The Graph in AI 08:43 The $7,000 Prize Split 09:06 Best Use of Composable Subgraphs 09:29 Introducing the Scaffold Agent Demo 09:59 Why Scaffold Agent Is AI Native 10:26 The MCP and x402 Integration 10:53 What Is x402 11:17 Reinventing the HTTP 402 Status Code 11:45 x402-Enabled Subgraph Endpoints 12:09 What the Starter Kit Wires Up 12:36 Running the Scaffold Agent Command 13:17 Using One Claw for Key Custody 13:50 Generating an API Key 14:42 Generating Signing Keys in an HSM 14:58 Configuring The Graph and the LLM 16:06 Forcing Signing in a TEE 16:28 Bootstrapping the Application 16:56 Funding the Fresh TEE Wallet 17:58 Loading the Project in Cursor 18:26 The Encrypted and Public ENV Files 18:50 Running the App With One Command 19:22 The Next.js Application 19:39 Querying the Last Five Uniswap Swaps 20:45 Troubleshooting the Live Query 21:45 Why Scaffold Agent Is a Good Starting Point 22:07 Closing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🇵🇹 *ETHGlobal Lisbon 2026* This workshop is specifically for ETHGlobal Lisbon 2026, a 3-day hackathon held July 24-26 at the Carlos Lopes Pavillion, bringing together the most skilled web3 developers, designers and product builders from all around the globe for a weekend-long adventure to advance the Ethereum ecosystem! Watch the full ETHGlobal Lisbon 2026 playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWgAODGnD_is _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHGlobal* X: https://x.com/ETHGlobal​ Website: https://ethglobal.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ETHGlobal _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Are you interested in Ethereum development and entrepreneurship?_ 👉 Sign up for the next ETHGlobal event: https://ethglobal.com/events 🎁 Get exclusive access and perks with ETHGlobal Plus! https://ethglobal.com/plus 📣 Want us to throw an event in your city? Tell us where! https://ethglobal.com/city _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _