Northstar Ask

Demo scope. The deployed Lambda keeps follow-up conversation state in process memory (a warm container), so it is demo-only: a cold start or a second container forgets earlier turns. Python dependency pin: mcp>=1.23,<2.

A voice business analyst you can talk to like a colleague, built for the 2026 Amazon Developer Hackathon (primary track: Alexa+; mini challenge: AWS Builder).

Northstar Ask is a self-hosted MCP server (MCP spec version 2025-11-25 over Streamable HTTP) plus a simulated Alexa+ web experience. It answers questions over the fictional Northstar Outdoor Co. retail dataset. All demo data is fictional; no real customer data is used anywhere.

Answers are produced by 3Dogs Nexus, powered by our proprietary Discovery model and proprietary Evolution module. The answering service is hosted by 3Dogs Nexus and reached at NORTHSTAR_ENDPOINT; this repository contains only the end-product surface: the MCP server, a thin HTTPS client, the simulator, a fictional data generator, a deployment template, tests and docs.

Judge Access

Track: primary track Alexa+; mini challenge AWS Builder.

Hosted endpoint (nothing to install): https://rkko3li742dagcpa3f4os6zf640yuitu.lambda-url.us-east-1.on.aws/mcp is the Streamable HTTP MCP endpoint, deployed on AWS Lambda in recorded-sample mode (fictional data), available until 20 Nov 2026. Connect any MCP client (for example MCP Inspector), initialize, and call ask_northstar with a question from "Try it" below.

No account or token is needed to run it yourself either: recorded-sample mode runs entirely from this repository. After the install step in the Quickstart below:

# Simulated Alexa+ experience in recorded-sample mode
SAMPLE_MODE=true python web_sim/bridge.py
#     then open http://127.0.0.1:8765/

# Or the MCP server itself (endpoint: http://127.0.0.1:8080/mcp)
SAMPLE_MODE=true uvicorn mcp_server.server:asgi_app --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8080

Type the questions listed under "Try it" exactly as written; every spoken reply in sample mode is prefixed "Recorded sample:".

Related MCP server: agentic-ops-builder

What it does

• Multi-turn Q&A. Follow-ups such as "And last quarter?" ride on the conversation's session id (the Mcp-Session-Id the client receives at initialize), so "explain that" and "correct me" refer to the right answer.

• Echo Show-style cards. Every answer is spoken text plus a structured card (title, columns, rows, chart hint, sources, confidence).

• Weekly business brief. One call asks the service for a spoken summary with several cards. The MCP prompt weekly-business-brief drives it.

• "Correct me" turn. correct_last_answer sends a correction about the previous answer to the service. A later answer may come back marked "Improved from your feedback".

• Honest low-confidence answers. When the data cannot support a question, the answer says so.

Two ways to run it

Sample mode replays a small fixed set of recordings, matched to the question by wording. Use the exact questions listed under "Try it" below. It does not learn from corrections: the "improved" reply is itself a recording.

Quickstart (about 5 minutes)

Requires Python 3.12 and git.

# 1. Create an environment and install
python3.12 -m venv .venv
. .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

# 2. Run the tests (each prints its own OK token, takes under a minute in total
#    except test_client, which waits out a 7 second timeout on purpose)
for t in tests/test_*.py; do python "$t" || break; done

# 3a. Start the simulated Alexa+ experience in recorded-sample mode
SAMPLE_MODE=true python web_sim/bridge.py
#     then open http://127.0.0.1:8765/

# 3b. Or start the MCP server (endpoint: http://127.0.0.1:8080/mcp)
SAMPLE_MODE=true uvicorn mcp_server.server:asgi_app --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8080

For live answers drop SAMPLE_MODE=true and export NORTHSTAR_ENDPOINT and NORTHSTAR_TOKEN first.

Try it (sample mode, type these exactly)

1. "Which region sold the most tents this year?"

2. "And last quarter?"

3. "Break that down by sales channel."

4. Click Weekly brief.

5. Click Correct me, type a correction, then ask "Which region sold the most sleeping bags last quarter?" The recorded reply is marked "Improved from your feedback".

6. "Are returns hurting our margins in the Central region?" shows the low-confidence case.

Tools and prompt

Configuration

The client enforces a 7 second total budget per call, at most one retry on a 5xx and only if 2 seconds remain, and a 256 KB response cap.

Deploying to AWS

deploy/template.yaml is an AWS SAM template (Lambda plus a Function URL). See deploy/README.md for the full steps. It is deployed as the hosted endpoint above (stack northstar-dev, us-east-1, SampleMode=true). To deploy your own copy, run it from the deploy/ directory, where the template lives, in your own account:

cd deploy
sam build && sam deploy --guided

Repository layout

Tests

License

MIT. See LICENSE. This repository holds the Northstar Ask MCP server, the simulator, the fictional demo data and the tests; the private answering service it can call in live mode is not part of it.