Channel3 Shopping

Shopping search across 100M+ products, with every retailer's offer and live price in one place — an MCP server with an interactive storefront UI on hosts that support it.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/59508319-aa1f-4462-afbe-52b64638ece3

• Transport: Streamable HTTP (protocol revision 2026-07-28, stateless)

• Endpoint: https://mcp.trychannel3.com/

• Tools: search_products, get_products

• Prompts: find-gift, price-check, find-dupes

• UI: results render in an interactive storefront (MCP Apps) on hosts that support it

Connect

One URL, no API key and no OAuth:

https://mcp.trychannel3.com/

Limits on the free tier are generous and sized for personal use. For unlimited usage and affiliate attribution, add an API key.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http --scope user Channel3 https://mcp.trychannel3.com/

Claude web, Desktop, and mobile

Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, then paste the endpoint URL. Claude connects from its own servers, so one connector covers every Claude surface including mobile.

Don't use claude_desktop_config.json for this: it only accepts stdio servers, and an entry with a url field is silently dropped along with the rest of mcpServers.

ChatGPT

Turn on developer mode under Settings → Security and login, then create an app under Settings → Plugins pointing at the endpoint URL, with authentication set to none.

Codex

codex mcp add Channel3 --url https://mcp.trychannel3.com/

Cursor and VS Code by hand

~/.cursor/mcp.json, or .cursor/mcp.json to scope it to one project:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "Channel3": {
      "url": "https://mcp.trychannel3.com/"
    }
  }
}

.vscode/mcp.json, or code --add-mcp '{"name":"Channel3","type":"http","url":"https://mcp.trychannel3.com/"}' for the user profile:

{
  "servers": {
    "Channel3": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.trychannel3.com/"
    }
  }
}

Any other client

Register the endpoint as a Streamable HTTP server; there is no SSE endpoint. It's stateless, so there's no session to keep alive, and clients on the 2026-07-28 revision can skip the initialize handshake entirely.

Related MCP server: Universal Shopping Agent MCP Server

Free Tier and API Keys

Create an account at trychannel3.com, copy a key from the dashboard, and send it as an X-API-Key header. That lifts the free-tier rate limit and attributes affiliate clicks to your account.

• Cursor / VS Code: add "headers": { "X-API-Key": "<your-api-key>" } alongside url.

• Claude Code: append --header "X-API-Key: <your-api-key>" to the claude mcp add command.

• Claude connectors: enter the key under Request headers in the Add custom connector dialog. That section is a beta still rolling out.

• ChatGPT: developer-mode apps accept OAuth or no auth only, so there's no header field.

• OpenAI hosted MCP (Responses API mcp tool, HostedMCPTool): put the key in the tool's authorization field — the server accepts it as a bearer token.

• Codex: map the header to an env var in ~/.codex/config.toml so the key stays out of the file:

[mcp_servers.Channel3]
url = "https://mcp.trychannel3.com/"
env_http_headers = { "X-API-Key" = "CHANNEL3_API_KEY" }