hackshop-mcp

Hardware-literate AI scout for tinkerers. Idea-to-hardware mapping via MCP.

You describe a project. The agent surfaces 3-5 hackable hardware options you wouldn't have thought of, with brick risk, firmware links, and a suggested eBay search query. Compose with ebay-mcp for live listings.

Why

A tinkerer has an idea. The idea would be cooler with the right piece of hardware attached: an old screen, an abandoned smart speaker, a bricked frame, a hackable handheld. The tinkerer doesn't know what hardware exists, what's hackable, or what would creatively fit the idea. So the idea stays purely software, or gets paired with a Raspberry Pi.

This is a hardware-knowledge layer on top of LLMs. Two tools, 27 hand-vetted devices, one closed-set tag vocabulary, and a brick-risk safety rule that won't let the agent fabricate a score for hardware classes where bricks are unrecoverable.

Status

V0.0.2 — published on npm. Install with npx hackshop-mcp or add to your MCP client config.

Install in 30 seconds

Add to your MCP client config (Claude Desktop / Claude Code / Cursor):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hackshop": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "hackshop-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "sk-ant-..."
      }
    }
  }
}

The ANTHROPIC_API_KEY env var is optional but recommended. The server first tries sampling/createMessage (host-delegated reasoning, no key needed). If your host doesn't support that — many don't yet — the server falls back to a direct Anthropic API call when this key is set. Without it, you'll get raw catalog matches in degraded mode.

Tools

propose_hardware(idea, budget_usd?, constraints?)

Returns 3-5 hardware proposals, each with:

• name and category
• why_this_fits — one sentence referencing your idea explicitly
• hack_difficulty (1-5)
• brick_risk — numeric score, OR null + "unknown" label for hard-to-recover categories with LLM-inferred risk
• brick_risk_disclaimer — present when llm-inferred but score retained
• firmware_links — github repos, hackaday articles
• community_size — tiny | small | active | thriving
• ebay_query_suggestion — pass to ebay-mcp's search tool for live listings

assess_hackability(device_name)

Lookup by id, exact name, or substring. Returns the same shape as a single proposal. Use when you have a device in mind and want to verify hackability before searching for one to buy.

Architecture

• TypeScript + @modelcontextprotocol/sdk
• LLM reasoning delegated to the host via sampling/createMessage (no Anthropic SDK bundled, no BYO key)
• Catalog stored as catalog.json in the repo (JSON, version-controllable, 27 devices in V0.0.2 — growing)
• Tag vocabulary in tags.md, validated at boot — server refuses to start on tag drift
• eBay integration is not in this server. Compose with ebay-mcp at the host level.

Install (local dev)

git clone <this-repo>
cd hackshop-mcp
npm install
npm run validate   # verifies catalog + tags
npm test           # safety + schema + lookup tests
npm run build      # tsc -> dist/

Day-0 Smoke Test (REQUIRED before scaffolding more)

This server depends on sampling/createMessage. Some MCP hosts don't support it. Verify yours does first.

npm install

Add this to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hackshop-smoke": {
      "command": "tsx",
      "args": ["/Users/YOU/hackshop-mcp/scripts/smoke.ts"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. Ask Claude to call the smoke_check tool. If it returns "Smoke OK," your architecture works. If it fails, stop here — hackshop-mcp won't work in this host.

Install (target host)

After dev is done and smoke passes, add to your MCP client config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hackshop": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/Users/YOU/hackshop-mcp/dist/server.js"]
    }
  }
}

For idea-to-hardware-to-listings flow, also install ebay-mcp from YosefHayim/ebay-mcp.

The Story

The founder had an Electric Objects EO1 picture frame. The company shut down; the device bricked. He revived it with Claude, ~6 hours of firmware reverse-engineering. Wondered: "what if an agent already knew this stuff?" That's hackshop-mcp.

Safety Rule (P0)

Bricking unrecoverable hardware is the single failure mode that ends this product. The catalog tracks brick-risk provenance: founder-verified | community-reported | llm-inferred. For categories where bricks are unrecoverable (handheld, sbc), the server refuses to surface LLM-inferred brick-risk scores. It returns "brick-risk unknown — research before flashing" instead. This is a tested release gate. See src/safety.ts and test/safety.test.ts.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. New devices come in via PR; tag changes require a tags.md edit; community-reported is the default provenance for community contributions.

License

MIT.