Home · Setup · VS Code

MCP Price Tracker in VS Code

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.

Chat has its own fetch tool in the tools picker. Turning that one off for the chats where you are pricing things is the difference between a stored history and a one-off answer.

What you get in VS Code

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 VS Code

The file is .vscode/mcp.json, and the key inside it is servers.

Scope	Path
This workspace	`<workspace>/.vscode/mcp.json`
Every workspace	`the user profile mcp.json, opened by the MCP: Open User Configuration command`

// .vscode/mcp.json  (the key is "servers")
{
  "servers": {
    "price-tracker": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@theluckystrike/mcp-price-tracker"]
    }
  }
}

Or from a terminal:

code --add-mcp '{"name":"price-tracker","command":"npx","args":["-y","@theluckystrike/mcp-price-tracker"]}'

VS Code asks you to confirm you trust the server and its capabilities before it starts. Nothing runs until you answer.

The npm publish of @theluckystrike/mcp-price-tracker is pending; until then use the .mcpb bundle or a clone and build from the latest release.

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.

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

VS Code notes worth knowing first

The top-level key is "servers", not "mcpServers". A config pasted from a Claude Desktop or Cursor README parses cleanly, contributes no servers, and gives you no error to read, which makes it the most expensive one-word mistake here. Alongside it an "inputs" array holds secrets. The newer Agent Host reads a workspace .mcp.json instead.

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

Questions

Why does my mcp.json do nothing?

The key is servers, not mcpServers. A config copied from a Claude Desktop README parses cleanly and contributes nothing. Rename it. On the newer Agent Host, use a workspace .mcp.json instead.

Do I have to edit the file at all?

No. code --add-mcp takes the server object on the command line, and MCP: Add Server in the palette asks whether the target is Workspace or Global.

Where do the MCP Price Tracker tools show up?

In Chat, behind the tools picker, once the server has started. Adding or changing one raises a prompt asking you to confirm you trust it; if the picker is empty, that prompt is usually still waiting.

MCP Price Tracker in detail · The same server in Cursor and Windsurf · Every server in VS Code · Guides · VS Code docs