sentinel-mcp-server

Priceminder MCP Server

中文 | English

Priceminder — Real-time Shopee competitor price monitoring, powered by AI agents through the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

🌐 Sign up free: priceminder.online

Monitor competitor prices across Shopee Southeast Asia (SG, MY, TH, VN, ID, PH). Let your AI agent track, analyze, and alert on price movements — all through natural language.

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📌 Important: Understand the Data Pipeline First

Priceminder's MCP service does not work standalone. It depends on competitor price data obtained through paid third-party API data services. Please understand this 3-layer pipeline before using:

Install Extension → Follow products you want to watch → Backend fetches data via paid APIs → AI Can Query

⚠️ Prerequisites

Step	Action	Details
Required	① Install the browser extension	Chrome / Edge / 360 Browser — see Extension Installation Guide
Required	② Browse Shopee product pages, click "Monitor Now"	Only products you manually add to monitoring are accessible via MCP
Required	③ Get your MCP Key from extension settings	See Quick Start below
Optional	④ Configure MCP in your AI client	Then you can query prices via natural language

🔑 Where to get your MCP Key? The MCP Key is displayed in the browser extension settings page. No extension → No Key → No MCP service. The website registration (priceminder.online) is for account management and Pro upgrades — the MCP access credential lives inside the extension.

🤖 AI Capability Boundaries

Priceminder's MCP tools can only query products you've manually added to your monitoring list. It cannot arbitrarily search all of Shopee.

AI Can Do ✅	AI Cannot Do ❌
List my monitored products and prices	Search Shopee for products I haven't monitored
View price history and trends of monitored items	Get pricing for any arbitrary ASIN/product ID
Check price drop alerts and push records	Analyze competitor stores I'm not tracking
Add new products to monitor (requires extension scan first)	Auto-discover new competitors
Check crawler engine health status	Modify my account password or settings

In short: You tell the system which competitors to watch, MCP lets AI analyze what's been collected.

For full capability details, see the MCP Tools Overview →

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📊 Why Priceminder?

Real-time, not yesterday. Most price monitoring tools — including alternative MCP servers — return T-1 (yesterday's cached) data. Priceminder crawls prices 3 times daily, giving you near-real-time visibility.

Capability	Alternative MCP Servers	Priceminder
Data freshness	T-1 (yesterday)	T-0 (same-day, 3× daily)
Price change detection	Next day	Within 4–8 hours
Flash sale / 7.7 / 9.9 / 11.11	Misses intra-day moves	Catches hourly adjustments
Push notifications	❌ Query-only	✅ Feishu/DingTalk/Telegram
Self-hosted	✅ Supported	✅ Supported

In short: If you're using other tools, you're making decisions on yesterday's data. Priceminder tells you what's happening right now — and pushes alerts when competitors move.

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🌟 Features — 8 MCP Tools

#	Tool	Description	Category
1	get_monitor_list	List all products you're tracking	🔍 Query
2	get_price_summary	Batch price summary across all tracked products	🔍 Query
3	get_price_history	Price history time-series for a specific product	🔍 Query
4	get_alerts	List price drop alerts	🔍 Query
5	add_monitor	Add a new product to your monitor list	⚡ Action
6	update_monitor_status	Pause or resume monitoring	⚡ Action
7	get_crawl_health	Check crawler engine health & stats	📊 Insight
8	get_monitor_overview	Dashboard overview of all monitors	📊 Insight

See the full tool documentation here: MCP Tools Overview →

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🚀 Quick Start

Install Extension → Add Products → Get MCP Key → Configure AI Client

For visual step-by-step guide with screenshots, see the official docs: Quick Start Guide →

Step 1: Install the Browser Extension

Browser	Installation
Chrome	Search "Priceminder" on Chrome Web Store
Edge	Search "Priceminder" on Edge Add-ons
360 Browser	Download offline installer from the official website
Opera	Opera add-ons store

See Extension Installation Guide → for screenshots.

Step 2: Add Products to Monitor

Open any Shopee product page (supports SG/MY/TH/ID/TW/PH/VN). A "Monitor Now" button will appear at the top-right:

1. Click "Monitor Now" → product added to your monitor list
2. The system automatically starts collecting price data at your chosen interval
3. Configure crawl frequency and alert thresholds in the extension settings

💡 You need monitored products first. Without them, the AI will return empty results when queried. Start by adding at least 5–10 competitor products.

Step 3: Get Your MCP Key

Open the browser extension settings page. Your MCP Key is displayed in the "MCP Configuration" section.

⚠️ The MCP Key is only visible inside the extension settings. It is not available from the website login.

Step 4: Configure Your AI Client

Supported AI Clients (HTTP mode — recommended):

Client	How to Configure	Tutorial
Cherry Studio	Settings → MCP → Add HTTP URL	Guide →
OpenClaw	config.yaml → mcp_servers → url	Guide →
Claude Desktop	claude_desktop_config.json → mcpServers	Guide →
Cursor	Cursor Settings → MCP → Add HTTP URL	Guide →
Cline	Cline MCP Config → Add	Guide →
Hermes Agent	config.yaml → mcp_servers	Guide →

Add this URL (replace *** with your MCP Key):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sentinel": {
      "url": "https://priceminder.online/mcp_server?key=***"
    }
  }
}

For detailed client setup guides with screenshots, see: Client Setup Guides →

Step 5: Verify the Connection

Test your setup by asking these questions:

Your Prompt	Tool Called	Expected Result
"What am I monitoring?"	get_monitor_list	Your current monitor list
"How are my competitors' prices?"	get_price_summary	Price summary (current/baseline/high/low/avg)
"Any new price drop alerts?"	get_alerts	Unread price drop records
"Is the crawler healthy?"	get_crawl_health	Crawler engine status

✅ If the AI returns your monitoring data, setup is successful.

❌ If results are empty, make sure you've added products to monitor via the extension first.

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💬 Prompt Scenarios

Here are 3 real-world scenarios you can run — each demonstrates a different use case:

1️⃣ Store-Level Price Watch

"Monitor all products from Shopee store 'ABC Official Store' on Shopee SG. If any product drops more than 5% in the last 24 hours, summarize the changes."

Your AI agent will:

1. Check your monitor list for this store's products
2. Compare latest crawl prices
3. Return products that dropped below the threshold

Best for: Brand competition — keep tabs on a specific competitor's entire catalog.

2️⃣ Flash Sale / Campaign Alert

"Check every 4 hours during the 7.7 sale — alert me if any of my tracked products have a price change of 3% or more. Show only the products that changed."

Your AI agent will:

1. Call get_price_summary to get current vs previous prices
2. Filter for products with ≥3% movement
3. Present a clean before/after comparison

Best for: Campaign periods — don't wake up to yesterday's data when competitors adjust prices hourly.

3️⃣ Price Drop Intelligence

"Show me all price drop alerts from the last 2 days. Which products dropped the most? Highlight any drops over 10%."

Your AI agent will:

1. Call get_alerts for recent notifications
2. Call get_price_history on the biggest movers for context
3. Rank by drop percentage and highlight critical moves

Best for: Buying decisions — spot the deepest discounts.

More real-world prompt examples: Scenarios & Best Practices →

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🔗 n8n Integration

Priceminder ships with a ready-to-import n8n workflow template.

File: priceminder-mcp-n8n.json

Workflow

Schedule ─► Get Price Summary ─► Parse Drops ─► Has Drops? ─┬► Telegram Alert
(4h cron)                                                     ├► Email Alert
                                                              └► Log (no drops)

Import

1. Open n8n → Workflows → Import from File
2. Select priceminder-mcp-n8n.json
3. Configure credentials:
   • SENTINEL_TOKEN (env var on the n8n host)
   • Telegram bot token + chat ID (optional)
   • SMTP credentials (optional)
4. Activate the workflow

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🏗️ Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  AI Client                          │
│  (Claude Desktop / Cursor / Cherry Studio / Hermes) │
└──────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┘
               │  MCP Protocol (stdio or HTTP/SSE)
               ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│     Priceminder MCP Server           │
│  ┌────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │  Tool Registry (8 tools)      │  │
│  │  - get_monitor_list           │  │
│  │  - get_price_summary          │  │
│  │  - get_price_history          │  │
│  │  - get_alerts                 │  │
│  │  - add_monitor                │  │
│  │  - get_crawl_health           │  │
│  │  - get_monitor_overview       │  │
│  └──────────────┬─────────────────┘  │
│                 │ HTTP + Token Auth
│  ┌──────────────▼─────────────────┐  │
│  │  API Client (httpx)           │  │
│  └──────────────┬─────────────────┘  │
└─────────────────┼────────────────────┘
                  │ HTTPS
┌─────────────────▼────────────────────┐
│     Priceminder REST API             │
│  (User Mgmt / Monitor / Price / Alert)│
└─────────────────┬────────────────────┘
                  │
┌─────────────────▼────────────────────┐
│     PostgreSQL 16                    │
│  (Price History / Users / Alerts)    │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘

Data Flow

① User selects products to monitor via extension
      │
      ▼
② Backend fetches real-time prices via paid third-party API data services → PostgreSQL
      │
      ▼
③ MCP Server reads via API
      │
      ▼
④ AI client queries via MCP protocol

Key point: Data flows one way — user selects products → backend fetches via paid APIs → MCP reads. The extension only tells the system which products to watch.

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🔧 Configuration

Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Default
SENTINEL_API_BASE	Backend API base URL	https://priceminder.online/shopee
SENTINEL_TOKEN	Your authentication token	(required)
SENTINEL_TIMEOUT	HTTP request timeout (s)	30
MCP_MODE	Run mode: stdio or http	stdio
MCP_HOST	HTTP server bind address	127.0.0.1
MCP_PORT	HTTP server port	8082
LOG_LEVEL	Log level	INFO

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📡 API Reference

Authentication

All API calls require these headers:

X-Api-Key: sentinel-mvp-2026
X-Sentinel-Token: YOUR_TOKEN

Generate MCP Key

curl -X POST https://priceminder.online/shopee/mcp/generate-key \
  -H "X-Api-Key: sentinel-mvp-2026" \
  -H "X-Sentinel-Token: YOUR_TOKEN"

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🆓 Free vs Pro

Feature	Free	Pro
Active monitors	5 max	Unlimited
Price history	3 days	90 days
Price summary	3 days	90 days
Call rate	60/hour	Unlimited
Real-time alerts	—	✅
Priority support	—	✅

Upgrade now 👉 priceminder.online

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🛠️ Development

git clone https://github.com/haidrau/sentinel-mcp-server.git
cd sentinel-mcp-server

# Install dev dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run tests
python -m pytest tests/

# Start in dev mode
export SENTINEL_TOKEN=your-test-token
python -m sentinel_mcp.server

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📄 License

MIT License — see LICENSE for details.

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to:

• Open issues for bugs or feature requests
• Submit PRs for new tools or improvements
• Ask questions in the discussions

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🌐 Links

• Website: priceminder.online ← Sign up free
• Official Docs: priceminder.online/docs
• Quick Start: priceminder.online/docs/quick-start
• MCP Tools Overview: priceminder.online/docs/tools/overview
• GitHub: github.com/haidrau/sentinel-mcp-server
• Gitee: gitee.com/haidrau/sentinel-mcp-server