Alko MCP Server

A production-grade Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides AI assistants with access to the Alko.fi alcohol product catalog.

Features

• Product Search: Search 11,900+ products by name, type, country, price range, alcohol %, and more
• Product Details: Get detailed information including enriched data (taste profile, food pairings, certificates, serving suggestions)
• Vivino Ratings: Get wine ratings from Vivino.com by name or URL
• Store Hours: Check store opening hours with "open now" filtering
• Store Availability: Check real-time stock availability at Alko stores (via web scraping)
• Recommendations: Get product recommendations based on food pairings, occasions, and preferences
• Store Listing: Browse 360+ Alko stores by city

All tools return compact JSON for efficient LLM token usage.

Demo

Claude Desktop using Alko MCP to search products, check availability, and get recommendations.

MCP Tools

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Node.js 24+
• Google Cloud Firestore (or emulator for local dev)
• Playwright (auto-installed for web scraping)

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/alko-mcp.git
cd alko-mcp

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Install Playwright browsers
npx playwright install chromium

# Build
npm run build

Local Development with Firestore Emulator

Step 1: Start Firestore Emulator (keep running in background)

gcloud emulators firestore start --host-port=localhost:8081

Step 2: Start Claude Desktop (or other AI assistant)

The MCP server will automatically load bundled seed data (~12,000 products, ~360 stores) on first query if the emulator is empty. No manual sync required!

Note: The emulator doesn't persist data. After restarting the emulator, seed data will be auto-loaded again on first use.

Optional: Fresh Data Sync

If you need the latest product data from Alko.fi:

export FIRESTORE_EMULATOR_HOST=localhost:8081

# Sync fresh products from Excel (~30 seconds)
npm run sync-data

# Sync fresh stores from website (~2 minutes)
npm run sync-stores

# Export to seed file (for sharing with team)
npm run export-seed

AI Assistant Configuration

Claude Desktop

Config file: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS)

Local development:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "alko": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/alko-mcp/dist/server.js"],
      "env": {
        "FIRESTORE_EMULATOR_HOST": "localhost:8081"
      }
    }
  }
}

Production (Cloud Run):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "alko": {
      "url": "https://YOUR-CLOUD-RUN-URL.run.app/mcp",
      "transport": "streamable-http"
    }
  }
}

ChatGPT Desktop

Config file: ~/.config/chatgpt/mcp.json (macOS/Linux) or %APPDATA%\chatgpt\mcp.json (Windows)

Local development:

{
  "servers": {
    "alko": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/alko-mcp/dist/server.js"],
      "env": {
        "FIRESTORE_EMULATOR_HOST": "localhost:8081"
      }
    }
  }
}

Production (Cloud Run):

{
  "servers": {
    "alko": {
      "url": "https://YOUR-CLOUD-RUN-URL.run.app/mcp",
      "transport": "streamable-http"
    }
  }
}

Google Gemini (AI Studio)

For Gemini, use HTTP transport. Start the server with:

MCP_TRANSPORT=http PORT=3000 node dist/server.js

Then configure in AI Studio with the MCP endpoint URL:

http://localhost:3000/mcp

For production, deploy to Cloud Run with API token authentication (see below).

Claude Code CLI

Add to your project's .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "alko": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["./dist/server.js"],
      "env": {
        "FIRESTORE_EMULATOR_HOST": "localhost:8081"
      }
    }
  }
}

Example Prompts

🔍 Basic Search

Etsi minulle hyviä italialaisia punaviinejä alle 20 euroa

Searches for Italian red wines under €20

🍷 Wine Recommendations

Suosittele viiniä grillatulle lohelle. Budjetti noin 15-25 euroa.

Recommends wine for grilled salmon within budget

🥂 Champagne & Sparkling

Mitä samppanjoita Alkossa on saatavilla? Näytä 5 parasta vaihtoehtoa.

Lists champagne options

🍺 Craft Beer Search

Etsi IPA-oluita Suomesta tai muista Pohjoismaista

Searches for Nordic IPA beers

📊 Product Details

Kerro lisää tuotteesta numero 906458

Gets detailed product information with taste profile

🏪 Store Hours

Mitkä Alkon myymälät ovat auki nyt Helsingissä?

Lists Helsinki stores that are open now

📍 Store Availability

Onko Barolo-viiniä saatavilla Helsingin myymälöissä?

Checks product availability in Helsinki stores

🎁 Gift Recommendations

Etsi lahjaideoita viininystävälle. Budjetti 50-100 euroa.

Premium gift ideas for wine lovers

🧀 Food Pairing (uses Alko's official pairing data)

Suosittele viiniä äyriäisille / Recommend wine for seafood

Uses Alko's food symbol search to find products officially tagged for seafood pairing

Tarvitsen viinin juustolautaselle. Juustot: brie, manchego ja sinihomejuusto.

Wine for cheese platter - matches "miedot juustot" and "voimakkaat juustot"

🌍 Region-specific Search

Hae espanjalaisia punaviinejä Rioja-alueelta

Spanish wines from Rioja region

💰 Budget Shopping

Parhaat viinit alle 10 eurolla arki-iltoihin

Best budget wines for weeknight dinners

🍾 Special Occasions

Suosittele kuohuviiniä uudenvuoden juhliin 20 hengelle

Sparkling wine for New Year's party

⭐ Vivino Ratings

Etsi punaviinejä 15-25€ ja tarkista niiden Vivino-arvostelut

Searches for red wines and checks their Vivino ratings

🏆 Best Rated Wines

Mikä on Alkon parhaiten arvioitu Barolo Vivinossa?

Finds Barolo wines and compares their Vivino ratings

📈 Wine Comparison

Vertaile näiden viinien Vivino-arvosanoja: Amarone, Brunello di Montalcino

Compares Vivino ratings for premium Italian wines

Data Sources

Product Catalog

• Source: Alko's public Excel price list
• URL: https://www.alko.fi/INTERSHOP/static/WFS/Alko-OnlineShop-Site/-/Alko-OnlineShop/fi_FI/Alkon%20Hinnasto%20Tekstitiedostona/alkon-hinnasto-tekstitiedostona.xlsx
• Products: ~11,900
• Update: Run npm run sync-data

Store Data

• Source: Scraped from alko.fi store finder
• Stores: ~360
• Includes: Name, address, opening hours (today/tomorrow)
• Update: Run npm run sync-stores

Enriched Product Data

• Source: Scraped from individual product pages
• Includes: Taste profile, usage tips, serving suggestions, food pairings, certificates, ingredients
• Cached: Persisted to Firestore after first scrape

Product Fields

Development

npm run build        # Compile TypeScript
npm run dev          # Run with tsx watch mode
npm run test         # Run tests in watch mode
npm run test:run     # Run tests once (232 tests)
npm run typecheck    # Type check
npm run sync-data    # Sync products from Excel
npm run sync-stores  # Scrape stores from website
npm run export-seed  # Export data to seed file (with diff)

Logs

tail -f /tmp/alko-mcp.log

Deployment to Google Cloud Run

The server can be deployed to Cloud Run with public access (no authentication) for compatibility with ChatGPT and other MCP clients.

# Enable APIs
gcloud services enable run.googleapis.com firestore.googleapis.com artifactregistry.googleapis.com cloudbuild.googleapis.com

# Create Firestore database
gcloud firestore databases create --location=europe-north1

# Deploy using Cloud Build
gcloud builds submit --config=cloudbuild.yaml

# Or deploy directly from source
gcloud run deploy alko-mcp \
  --source . \
  --region europe-north1 \
  --memory 2Gi \
  --cpu 2 \
  --execution-environment gen2 \
  --set-env-vars="MCP_TRANSPORT=http" \
  --allow-unauthenticated

Test the endpoint:

curl -X POST https://alko-mcp-xxx.a.run.app/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list"}'

See DEPLOYMENT.md for API token authentication and other options.

Legal Disclaimer

• The Alko price list is publicly available data
• Web scraping respects rate limits (2s between requests)
• This is an unofficial project not affiliated with Alko Oy
• Alcohol products can only be purchased by persons 18+ in Finland

License

MIT License