BuyAPI MCP Server

Unbiased vendor intelligence for AI coding agents.

BuyAPI helps AI agents and developers make informed infrastructure decisions. When your agent needs to pick a database, auth provider, hosting platform, or payment processor, BuyAPI provides current, structured, neutral vendor comparisons - not training data defaults.

Quick Start

Remote MCP (Recommended)

The hosted endpoint is the primary install path and exposes the current v0.2.0 five-tool contract.

Add to your MCP client config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "buyapi": {
      "url": "https://buyapi.ai/api/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Local Install

buyapi-mcp@0.2.0 is published on npm:

npx buyapi-mcp

Available Tools

resolve-vendor

Search for vendors by query. Category is optional. Returns matching vendors with pricing summaries, positioning, confidence, and explicit unknown-corpus fallbacks.

Query: "I need a database for a real-time collaborative app"
Category: "database"

-> Returns: Convex, Supabase, Neon, PlanetScale, Firebase with comparison metadata

get-vendor-details

Get detailed vendor profile: concrete pricing numbers, free tier limits, scaling characteristics, known gotchas, source provenance, and head-to-head comparisons.

Vendor ID: /database/supabase
Query: "free tier limits for a side project"

-> Returns: Full pricing tiers, 500MB DB limit, 50K auth users, scaling triggers, and sources

compare-vendors

Compare two or more specific vendors for a workload or decision.

Vendor IDs: ["/database/convex", "/database/supabase", "/database/neon"]
Query: "realtime TypeScript SaaS with preview environments"

-> Returns: Structured decision matrix with fit, tradeoffs, estimated cost, confidence, and sources

estimate-cost

Run deterministic cost estimates from explicit workload inputs instead of leaving math to the model.

Vendor IDs: ["/email/ses"]
Workload: { "emailSendsPerMonth": 50000 }

-> Returns: Amazon SES estimated at $5/month, basis, assumptions, unknowns, and sources

recommend-stack

Describe your project and get a complete stack recommendation with cost projections, a decision matrix, assumptions, unknowns, alternatives, and sources.

Project: "SaaS for restaurant inventory with real-time updates"
Constraints: "Solo founder, under $50/month until 1000 users"

-> Returns: Full stack (hosting + DB + auth + payments + email) with structured cost and decision data

Setup by Client

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "buyapi": {
      "url": "https://buyapi.ai/api/mcp"
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "buyapi": {
      "url": "https://buyapi.ai/api/mcp"
    }
  }
}

{
  "servers": {
    "buyapi": {
      "url": "https://buyapi.ai/api/mcp"
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "buyapi": {
      "url": "https://buyapi.ai/api/mcp"
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "buyapi": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "buyapi-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

API Key (Optional)

BuyAPI works without an API key. For higher rate limits, get a free key at buyapi.ai/dashboard.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "buyapi": {
      "url": "https://buyapi.ai/api/mcp",
      "env": {
        "BUYAPI_API_KEY": "ba_live_..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Covered Categories

How It Works

This MCP server is a thin TypeScript client that calls the BuyAPI backend API. It contains no vendor data; lightweight comparison and cost formatting mirrors the hosted endpoint while vendor intelligence is served from buyapi.ai.

The source is fully open so you can verify there's no data collection, prompt injection, or hidden behavior.

Data Transparency

• All vendor data is publicly viewable at buyapi.ai
• Every profile shows when it was last updated and data source (manual curation, vendor-claimed)
• BuyAPI does not accept payment from vendors for ranking influence
• Report inaccurate data: buyapi.ai/feedback

License

MIT