Dev Turns Shopping Intel on 2,250 US Stores Into an MCP Server
Thrifle · reddit · 2026-09-25
Independent developer Thrifle has wrapped their shopping-intel site's database into a remote MCP server covering roughly 2,250 US retailers — return windows, price-matching rules, military and student discounts, credit card terms, subscription-cancellation guides, and deal info — and it plugs directly into Claude or ChatGPT.
In practice: asking ChatGPT "where should a veteran remodeling a kitchen go, Home Depot or Lowe's?" triggers the tool, which reveals both offer 10% off, but Home Depot caps it at $400 per year while Lowe's has no cap — so $10,000 in qualifying purchases saves $1,000 vs $400 — and both exclude appliances, custom cabinetry, and installation.
Technical details:
- Stateless Streamable HTTP implemented inside an Express API
- Read-only tools call the site's public API rather than querying the database directly
- Every result includes a source URL and last-verified date
- No auth; rate-limited per IP
Works with a one-line Claude Code command (claude mcp add --transport http thrifle ...) and as a ChatGPT plugin; the author discloses that some deal results contain affiliate links.
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