# cinderline/northcinder

Open-source MCP server for comparing products and asking the buyer before purchase.

Repository: https://github.com/cinderline/northcinder
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/northcinder
Language: JavaScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: agentic-commerce, human-in-the-loop, local-first, mcp, mcp-server, model-context-protocol, privacy, self-hosted, shopping-agent, typescript
Last push: 2026-08-22T12:11:30+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 79/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 99, longevity 1
- inputs: {"age_days": 16, "days_push": 11, "days_rel": 11, "gap_med": 2.0, "n_releases_24m": 3}
- flags: young
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1214, forks 8 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:00.843136+00:00)

## What it is
NorthCinder is a self-hosted MCP server that acts as a buyer-side shopping agent, comparing products across user-chosen sources and explaining tradeoffs before recommending options. It runs locally alongside an MCP-capable AI app and requires explicit human approval before any purchase is made.

## Use cases
- compare products across multiple merchants before buying
- have an AI shopping agent ask for approval before checkout
- research product and seller trustworthiness before purchase
- run a local-first shopping agent without a cloud account
- get explained product rankings with rejected options and sources

## When to choose
- you want an independent shopping agent not tied to one marketplace
- you need human-in-the-loop approval before any purchase
- you prefer local-first, keyless, self-hosted tooling
- you use an MCP-capable AI app and want shopping capabilities

## When to avoid
- you want a hosted service with an account and cloud sync
- you need fully autonomous purchasing without human approval
- you need a mature, qualified research pipeline - the project itself flags results as provisional
- you do not use any MCP-compatible AI client

## Facets
- artifact type: service
- maturity: experimental
- function: mcp, search-engine, agent-framework, web-scraping, privacy
- domain: e-commerce, large-language-models, self-hosted, privacy
- platform: cli, self-hosted, cross-platform
- tags: mcp-server, shopping-agent, human-in-the-loop, agentic-commerce, buyer-agent, local-first, typescript, ai-agents, nodejs

## Member repositories
- cinderline/northcinder (main) score 79

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:00.843136+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T06:17:21.386235+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/cinderline/northcinder (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:00.843136+00:00, sha b935edee800b)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/northcinder (fetched 2026-08-29T12:25:27.687157+00:00, sha 40f4110e76b3)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.