Ophis, a new intent-based decentralized exchange aggregator, has launched with a natural-language interface that lets both humans and AI agents execute trades by simply stating their intent, such as "swap 100 USDC for ETH on Base." The platform, built as a fork of CoW Protocol, offers gasless, MEV-protected, and non-custodial swaps with a flat fee of 0.10% on volume, dropping to 0.01% for same-chain stablecoin pairs. It is live on about a dozen EVM chains and includes a keyless MCP server and TypeScript SDK for developers.
What Ophis does differently
Most decentralized exchanges require users to manually select a pool, choose a route, set slippage, and hope they aren't front-run by bots. Ophis replaces that process with a single line of intent: you describe what you want to trade, and the platform resolves the tokens, chain, and amount, then fills the order through a competitive solver auction that settles on-chain. Every trade is gasless because users sign an order in their wallet instead of broadcasting a transaction, and solvers compete to beat the quoted price, with any surplus returned to the user in full.
The platform is a fork of CoW Protocol, inheriting its batch-auction settlement mechanism that structurally prevents sandwich attacks and front-running. Ophis adds a natural-language intent layer on top of a rebranded CoW Swap UI, along with agent tooling and a self-hosted deployment. The fee structure is transparent: 0.10% on volume, reduced to 0.01% for same-chain stablecoin pairs, with part of the fee returned as monthly WETH rebates. Integrators earn 8% of the net fee on volume their referrals route.
The natural-language API
Ophis's key addition to the CoW stack is an intent API that turns natural language into a structured order without requiring an API key or account. Developers can POST a simple text string like "swap 100 USDC for ETH on Base" to the endpoint, which returns parsed entities including the amount, sell token, buy token, and chain. The endpoint only normalizes text and never places, signs, or executes a trade; it is rate-limited to 30 requests per minute per IP and accepts non-browser callers, making it suitable for AI agents.
AI agent integration
Ophis was designed from the ground up to be traded by software, not just humans. It offers three integration depths, all non-custodial and keyless. The fastest path is via an MCP server that exposes tools such as parse_intent, get_quote, build_order, and submit_order. Agents using Model Context Protocol clients like Claude, Cursor, or Cline can install the Ophis plugin and then simply ask for a swap in natural language. The server holds no keys and never signs; build_order returns a bounded, ready-to-sign EIP-712 order that the agent signs locally with its own key before submitting.
For deeper integration, the @ophis/sdk package allows agents to construct and sign CoW orders directly. The SDK is dependency-free and encodes per-chain orderbook hosts, EIP-712 signing domains, CIP-75 partner-fee appData, and a guard that pins the order receiver to prevent common drain vectors. Ophis also publishes machine-readable manifests for agent discovery, including mcp.json, ai-plugin.json, and an OpenAPI specification.
Order lifecycle and safety
After a user signs an order, it goes to the orderbook and enters a batch auction. Solvers compete to fill the order at the best possible price, and settlement occurs on-chain. The order is non-custodial throughout: Ophis never holds keys or funds, and the signature is the only trust boundary. The platform's design ensures that any price improvement is returned to the user, and the flat fee structure is transparent. Ophis is open source and live on Optimism and about a dozen other EVM chains.