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MCP Price Tracker in Claude Desktop

Check and watch product prices on ordinary shop pages. It reads the price out of a product page from JSON-LD, microdata, Open Graph or visible markup, normalises 1.299,00 EUR and 1,299.00 USD alike, and keeps a per-watch history.

Claude Desktop has no built-in web fetcher of its own in a default install, which is the one client where price_check is reliably the tool that answers a price question.

What you get in Claude Desktop

You say	Tool
What does this cost right now: <product url>?	`price_check`
Watch that page and alert me if it goes under 40.	`watch_add`
Has anything I'm watching hit its target or dropped a lot?	`alerts_pending`

One measured limitation: with a general web fetcher available, a client sometimes answers a price question by fetching the page itself, so nothing is stored. Name the tracker in the sentence.

Install it in Claude Desktop

The file is claude_desktop_config.json, and the key inside it is mcpServers.

Scope	Path
macOS	`~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`
Windows	`%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json`

One click, with no JSON. Download price-tracker.mcpb from the bundle catalog and open it. Claude Desktop installs it as an extension and runs it on the Node runtime it ships with, so neither your PATH nor your node version comes into it, and there is no file to edit. Everything below is the manual route, for when you want the entry in the config file itself.

The config block, which needs both strings absolute:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "price-tracker": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/mcp-servers/servers/price-tracker/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

If node came from nvm, asdf or homebrew, use the absolute path that which node prints rather than the bare word, because a stdio server started by this app inherits a limited PATH:

"command": "/Users/you/.nvm/versions/node/v22.14.0/bin/node"

The node command above wants a built file. From a clone, once:

git clone https://github.com/theluckystrike/mcp-servers.git
cd mcp-servers && npm install
npm run build -w packages/mcp-license -w servers/price-tracker

That writes servers/price-tracker/dist/index.js, and its absolute path is the one argument the config needs.

The npm packages are not published yet, so the form below returns a 404 today. It is here because it is what the entry becomes the day the publish lands, with nothing else changed:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "price-tracker": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@theluckystrike/mcp-price-tracker"]
    }
  }
}

Save, then completely quit Claude Desktop and start it again. A window reload is not enough.

Nothing is published to npm yet, so the working install paths are the ones above: the .mcpb bundle from the bundle catalog, a clone and build, or the hosted URL.

No install: the hosted endpoint

The same server runs at https://mcp.zovo.one/mcp/price-tracker over MCP streamable HTTP, no install. Mint a free token with curl https://mcp.zovo.one/mcp/token, or use a Pro key. It has no filesystem, so a file comes back as a one-hour download link.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "price-tracker": {
      "url": "https://mcp.zovo.one/mcp/price-tracker",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer <token>" }
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop notes worth knowing first

Two documented facts decide whether the entry works: every path in claude_desktop_config.json must be absolute, and a stdio server started here inherits only a limited, platform-dependent subset of environment variables. If node came from nvm or homebrew, paste what `which node` prints instead of the bare word. The .mcpb route avoids both: Claude Desktop ships a built-in Node.js environment.

Free: unlimited checks with a confidence score, 3 watches, 30 observations each, alerts. Pro is $19 once, verified offline.

Questions

Where is claude_desktop_config.json?

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json. Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json. There is no published Linux path. Settings, Developer, Edit Config opens the right copy and creates it if it does not exist.

I added it and MCP Price Tracker does not appear.

In order: did you fully quit and restart, not just close the window? Is every path absolute? And is the command resolvable, given the limited environment a stdio server inherits here? If node came from nvm, paste what which node prints.

Can I install it without editing JSON?

Yes. An .mcpb bundle, the format renamed from .dxt, opens with Claude and shows an installation dialog. One you built yourself goes in through Settings, Extensions, Advanced settings, Install Extension.

MCP Price Tracker in detail · The same server in Claude.ai and Claude Desktop connectors and Claude Code · Every server in Claude Desktop · Guides · Claude Desktop docs · Buy Pro

Related guides & tools

Watch a product price with Claude and get told when it drops · Price drop alerts and PDF cleanup from chat: two small jobs you keep postponing · Price lists and rate cards from chat, and the 100x scale gap between the invoice and the quote · MCP Supplier Directory: keep supplier lists from rotting in a spreadsheet