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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`

If you also run Claude Desktop, the shortest path there is one click: price-tracker.mcpb from the bundle catalog opens as an extension, with no JSON and no terminal. VS Code reads its own config, so here it is:

// .vscode/mcp.json  (the key is "servers")
{
  "servers": {
    "price-tracker": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/mcp-servers/servers/price-tracker/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Or from a terminal:

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

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:

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.

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.

{
  "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 · 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