# Lantern Works — GPU price comparison for agents, checked daily

**Lantern Works** tracks hourly GPU rental prices (H100, A100, RTX 4090 and more) across cloud providers, re-read every day from each vendor's own pricing page, with the quote, source link and check date for every rate, plus daily price history (since 2026-10-27). Agents get it through the `compare_gpu_prices` MCP tool (`include_history=true` for price history) or plain JSON. "Cheapest" always means cheapest among tracked providers. It also keeps a directory of work-stack deals (scraping/unblock, email, search, hosting), ranked by customer value (price, free tier, fit), never by affiliate status. Some result links are referral links.

- **GPU prices:** [thelanternworks.com](https://thelanternworks.com/) · [/gpu/](https://thelanternworks.com/gpu/) · JSON [api/v1/gpu-prices.json](https://thelanternworks.com/api/v1/gpu-prices.json) · history [api/v1/gpu-prices/history.json](https://thelanternworks.com/api/v1/gpu-prices/history.json) · what moved since yesterday [api/v1/gpu-price-changes.json](https://thelanternworks.com/api/v1/gpu-price-changes.json) ([RSS](https://thelanternworks.com/api/v1/gpu-price-changes.xml))
- **Deals directory:** [thelanternworks.com/deals/](https://thelanternworks.com/deals/) · [About](https://thelanternworks.com/lanternworks/)
- **Agent feed (JSON, no auth):** [thelanternworks.com/api/v1/deals.json](https://thelanternworks.com/api/v1/deals.json) (same bytes as `/deals.json`) · mirror: [gist](https://gist.githubusercontent.com/connormatthewdouglas/ab5c3a8dceaf396d8f0c631913433a5e/raw/deals.json)
- **Stack pricing:** [api/v1/stack-pricing.json](https://thelanternworks.com/api/v1/stack-pricing.json)
- **Query CLI:** `python3 query_deals.py --category unblock --max-price 20` (filter contract: [USAGE.md](USAGE.md))

Contact: [lanternworks@agentmail.to](mailto:lanternworks@agentmail.to)

## MCP server (v0.3.16, read-only, stdio)

Free, read-only, no API key. Package [`lantern-works-deals-mcp`](https://pypi.org/project/lantern-works-deals-mcp/) on PyPI; MCP Registry name `io.github.connormatthewdouglas/lantern-works-deals`. Built on the official Python MCP SDK.

### Tools

| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| `compare_gpu_prices` | Hourly rental prices for a GPU model (e.g. `H100`, `A100 SXM`, `RTX 4090`) across tracked providers, cheapest first, each with `source_url` and `checked_at`. "Cheapest" means cheapest among tracked providers, not the whole market. `include_history=true` adds each rate's price history and recent price changes (daily snapshots since 2026-10-27). Each rate has `tier_class` (on-demand, community, marketplace, interruptible, reserved, dedicated-monthly; also in the public JSON feed); `on_demand_only=true` keeps on-demand rates only. `reserved` = reservation/commitment "starting from" prices (e.g. Hyperstack reservations): they need a term contract, so they are left out of results and never called "cheapest" unless you pass `include_reserved=true` (even then they sort after pay-as-you-go rates). |
| `get_price_changes` | GPU price moves among tracked providers, newest first: old and new hourly price, `change_pct`, direction and the vendor `source_url`. `since` (`YYYY-MM-DD`) returns every move on or after that date; without it, the latest day's moves. Optional `gpu` filter. |
| `optimize_stack` | Given monthly usage (pages scraped, proxy GB, emails, search queries, GPU hours/model), pick the cheapest tracked plan per line and total the monthly cost, with the calculation, sources and alternatives; unpublished prices are reported as `unknown`. |
| `optimize_agent_stack` | Describe the agent in plain text (e.g. "scrapes 20k JS pages via 5 GB proxies, 3k searches, summarizes with an LLM, budget $300/mo"); a deterministic keyword parse (no LLM) maps it to components and returns the cheapest cited option per component with the math, `source_url`, `verified_at` and a referral disclosure where applicable. Components with no cited price say "no sourced price tracked". |
| `search_deals` | Search the deals feed by text, `category`, `offer_type`, `max_price` and `tags`; paginated summaries (`limit` 1-25, `cursor`). |
| `compare_deals` | Compare 2-5 deals by id side by side, best customer value first. |
| `get_deal` | Return the full public record for one deal id. |

### Install

```bash
uvx lantern-works-deals-mcp
```

Quickstart: ask for `compare_gpu_prices(gpu="H100")`, then the next day call `get_price_changes(since="<data_checked_at date>")` to see what moved. Prices refresh daily at about 10:23 UTC; `compare_gpu_prices` and `optimize_agent_stack` return `data_checked_at` and `next_refresh_utc`.

Claude Code:

```bash
claude mcp add lantern-works-deals -- uvx lantern-works-deals-mcp
```

Cursor (`.cursor/mcp.json`) and Cline (`cline_mcp_settings.json`, via MCP Servers → Configure) use the same entry:

```json
{ "mcpServers": { "lantern-works-deals": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["lantern-works-deals-mcp"] } } }
```

Docker: `docker build -t lantern-works-deals-mcp . && docker run -i --rm lantern-works-deals-mcp` (the root [`Dockerfile`](Dockerfile) installs the pinned PyPI release and runs the stdio server). Without uv: `pip install lantern-works-deals-mcp`, then use `"command": "lantern-works-deals-mcp"`. Other clients: https://thelanternworks.com/install/ · Skill: `npx skills add connormatthewdouglas/agent-work-stack-deals`.

Telemetry is **off by default**. `LANTERN_TELEMETRY=1` opts in to an anonymous daily count of tool calls: tool name, version, day and count only. No arguments, IDs or IPs are sent or stored. See [PRIVACY.md](PRIVACY.md).

![Terminal demo: cheapest H100 for 100 hours via compare_gpu_prices](docs/demo/cheapest-h100-100h.gif)

Demo (live data, 2026-10-28): the MCP server answers "cheapest H100 for 100 hours?". It shows 100-hour totals for the cheapest, next and most expensive tracked rates, each with its source and check time, and labels referral links. Recording: [docs/demo/cheapest-h100-100h.cast](docs/demo/cheapest-h100-100h.cast) · script: [docs/demo/demo.py](docs/demo/demo.py).

Framework examples: [LangGraph](examples/langgraph-cheapest-h100/) (cheapest H100), [CrewAI](examples/crewai-cheapest-gpu/) and [OpenAI Agents SDK](examples/openai-agents-cheapest-gpu/) (cheapest GPU for a described job), [Stack optimizer](examples/stack-optimizer/) (describe your agent, get the cheapest cited stack via `optimize_agent_stack`), [GPU price watcher](examples/gpu-price-watcher/) (what moved since a date via `get_price_changes`, cron-ready), [GPU price monitor](examples/gpu-price-monitor/) (price-drop alerts from the history API). All examples: [examples/](examples/). Some tool results include referral links (`affiliate: true`).

Arguments, errors, data sources and tests: [mcp_server/README.md](mcp_server/README.md).

### Hosted endpoint (no install)

Streamable HTTP, same read-only tools: `https://lantern-works-mcp.lantern-works.workers.dev/mcp?ref=github-readme`
(`claude mcp add --transport http lantern-works-deals https://lantern-works-mcp.lantern-works.workers.dev/mcp?ref=github-readme`). Free Cloudflare Worker; it stores only anonymous call counts per tool per day (no IPs, user agents or arguments), public at https://lantern-works-mcp.lantern-works.workers.dev/stats. `?ref=` only tags which link was used.

## Feed contract, validation and deploy gate

- **Schema:** [`schema.json`](https://thelanternworks.com/schema.json) (JSON Schema 2020-12). `deals.json` carries `schema_version`; prices are nullable (`null` = unknown, `0` = free tier), with explicit `currency`, `unit`, `billing_period`, `verified_at`, `updated_at`.
- **Stable feed:** `https://thelanternworks.com/api/v1/deals.json` is byte-identical to `/deals.json` (both written by `scripts/generate_seo_pages.py`). The gist is a byte-identical mirror.
- **Private data:** commission, payout and compliance data live only in a private file outside this repo (path set by `LANTERN_PRIVATE_FIELDS`). The generator reads it only for local sanity checks and leak detection and fails the build if any private key or commission-like text reaches public output.
- **Validation:** `pip install jsonschema && python3 scripts/validate_feed.py --gist --links` checks schema, private-leak scan, api/v1 parity, sitemap host, old-host hardcodes, gist parity and redeem URLs (403/429/timeouts warn; 404/410/DNS/persistent 5xx fail, exit 1).
- **Deploy gate:** GitHub Actions runs schema validation, the test suite, a clean PyPI install check and a Docker build/stdio check; Pages deploys only after they pass, then live checks run.
- **Migration test:** `python3 scripts/test_url_migration.py` checks old GitHub Pages project URLs 301 to the new domain, key pages return 200, and the feeds match.
- **Compliance gate:** when the private registry (path set by `LANTERN_COMPLIANCE_REGISTRY`) is present, the generator publishes only deals whose status is `approved`; others move to a private held file and come back automatically once approved. Absent registry (CI) = feed published as-is.
- **For agents:** https://thelanternworks.com/for-agents/ documents endpoints, schema and offer types.