rfd-mcp

rfd-mcp is a standalone local stdio MCP server for searching and monitoring RedFlagDeals topics.

It has no source or package dependency on the RFD frontend repository. It references RFD only through the cached JSON feed configured with RFD_TOPICS_URL or RFD_TOPICS_FILE. By default it reads the deployed rfd-fyi feed at:

https://github.com/carteakey/rfd

The default data endpoint is:

https://rfd-fyi.pages.dev/topics.json

For local development, set RFD_TOPICS_FILE to a JSON file or set RFD_TOPICS_URL to a local Pages/Wrangler endpoint.

Install and build

From this repository root:

npm ci
npm run build

The compiled server is dist/index.js.

Configure an MCP client

For Claude Code:

claude mcp add rfd -- node /absolute/path/to/rfd-mcp/dist/index.js

Or add an entry like this to an MCP client configuration. The environment variables are optional.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rfd": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/rfd-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "RFD_TOPICS_URL": "https://rfd-fyi.pages.dev/topics.json",
        "RFD_MCP_DATA_DIR": "/absolute/path/to/rfd-mcp-data"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tools

• search_deals searches topic titles and retailer names. It supports additional filter chips, /regular expression/ filters, retailer filtering, score bounds, the same six sort keys as the frontend, and a result limit.
• get_deal returns the complete cached topic record plus the forum and direct-offer links for a topic_id.
• monitor_search saves a search and keeps the latest 500 seen topic IDs.
• check_monitors checks one or all saved searches and returns only unseen deals.
• list_monitors lists saved searches and their last-check state.
• delete_monitor removes a saved search.

RFD's cached topic schema does not contain Marketplace-style location, price, or category fields. Those filters are intentionally not exposed; the server uses the fields the RFD scraper actually stores.

Configuration

Variable	Default	Purpose
RFD_TOPICS_URL	https://rfd-fyi.pages.dev/topics.json	Cached topics endpoint
RFD_TOPICS_FILE	unset	Read topics from a local JSON file instead of HTTP
RFD_FORUM_BASE_URL	https://forums.redflagdeals.com	Base URL for thread links
RFD_MCP_CACHE_TTL_MS	30000	In-memory topics cache lifetime
RFD_MCP_DATA_DIR	~/.rfd-mcp	Directory for monitor state
RFD_MCP_MONITORS_FILE	$RFD_MCP_DATA_DIR/monitors.json	Exact monitor state path

Tests

npm test
npm run build

The server uses MCP stdio transport, so stdout is reserved for protocol traffic. Diagnostics are returned as tool errors or written by dependencies to stderr.