Before the Lot is answering right now. Last checked 9 min ago. It exposes 16 tools.
Car-buying math and state rules: out-the-door prices, quote checks, leases and trade-ins
Uptime history
11 days of history
11 days agonow
100.0%
Uptime 24h
91 of 91 checks
16
Tools
read from the server
277 ms
Response time
average over 24h
open, no key
Access
streamable-http
What changed 21
Every tool that appeared, vanished or quietly changed what it asks for. Recorded since 2 November 2026. No other catalogue keeps this.
2 Nov
12 tool descriptions were rewritten
compare_quotes, dealer_email, desk_script and 9 more
2 Nov
9 tools changed the parameters they ask for
check_quote, compare_quotes, dealer_email and 6 more
Nothing serious here today
Today is the operative word: we check Before the Lot every 15 minutes and re-read its code on every release. Watch it and you find out the day that stops being true.
Connect this server
Endpoint below is the one we actually reach during checks — not the one copied from a README. Last verified 9 min ago.
run in your terminal
claude mcp add before-the-lot --transport http https://beforethelot.com/mcpSettings → Connectors → Add custom connector, then paste this address
https://beforethelot.com/mcp~/.codex/config.toml
[mcp_servers.before-the-lot]
url = "https://beforethelot.com/mcp".cursor/mcp.json
{
"mcpServers": {
"before-the-lot": {
"url": "https://beforethelot.com/mcp"
}
}
}.vscode/mcp.json
{
"servers": {
"before-the-lot": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://beforethelot.com/mcp"
}
}
}Available tools 16
Read directly from the server with tools/list, grouped by what they act on.
If a tool disappears, we record the date.
compare
compare_quotes
Ranks two to ten itemized dealer quotes for the same car by out-the-door total, with each one's gap to the lowest and to the walk line, and (with a state) each doc fee against the state's cap. Use it once several dealers have quoted; to read one quote line by line, use check_quote. Returns the ranking and a planner link with the quotes filled in.
dealer
dealer_email
Drafts an email to a dealer or lender from one of six Before the Lot templates: request an itemized out-the-door quote, make an offer, share a competing quote, confirm the deal, decline, or give a lender the deal's numbers. Returns a subject and body for the person to review and send from their own inbox; nothing is sent. Details are numbers and short labels; contact details are refused, and an offer over the walk line given isn't drafted.
desk
desk_script
A short line a buyer can say at a moment in the dealership's sales or finance office, such as being asked for a monthly payment, a credit check before a price, or a pitch for an add-on, with when it applies and why it works. Use it when someone describes what's happening at the desk. Pass a script id (monthly-payment, trade-first, down-payment, credit-check, numbers-changed, preinstalled-add-ons, initial-worksheet, decide-today, beat-my-rate, fi-product, only-a-month, paint-or-markup, below-invoice, trade-below-offer, leaving) or a short description; returns the one or two lines that fit, or the list of situations on file when none does.
lease
lease_check
Works a lease quote from the MSRP, selling price, residual and money factor (or the lease's APR): the depreciation and rent charges, the monthly payment with the state's lease tax, the money factor as an APR, and the total cost, including any tax charged once at the start (Texas, Ohio and others). With a loan APR and term, it also compares leasing with buying the same car over the lease's months. Use it to check a lease offer's numbers; for buying, use out_the_door.
loan
loan_payment
The monthly payment, total interest and total paid on a car loan from the amount financed, APR and term, with what a term over 60 months adds in interest compared with 60. Use it for a loan on its own; out_the_door works the payment from a car price, and refinance_check compares a new loan with an existing one.
method
get_method
The Before the Lot method for buying a car: an overview and its seven stages, from setting the budget at home to signing. Each stage says what to collect, what it produces, which guides, tools and email templates apply, and when it's done. Use it to plan a purchase step by step or to see where a step fits; pass a stage id for that stage alone. Returns text with a link to the method's page.
offers
offers_page
The address of a car maker's own page of current offers (rebates, special APRs, lease deals), and of a model's page where one can be built, with whether the maker lists national offers at all and when the address was checked. Use it to point someone to the maker's official offers before comparing a rebate with a special APR (rebate_vs_apr). Returns links only, not the offers themselves, which change often and can vary by region.
out
out_the_door
Itemizes the out-the-door price of a car from its selling price: rebates, doc fee, add-ons, sales tax with the state's rules and, given a city or county, its local rate (7,000+ places in 23 states), and title and registration. Optionally adds a trade-in (and the tax it saves where the state credits it), a down payment and a loan payment, and compares the doc fee with the state's cap and the total with a walk line. Use it for the total cost of a price; for a dealer's quote, use check_quote. Returns each line, the total and a planner link.
payoff
payoff_plan
A payoff plan for a car loan, for paying it off early with an extra payment each month: the months and total interest at the regular payment, and with an extra amount toward principal each month (optionally for only the first so many months, or skipping some), with the months and interest the extra saves and the payoff month each way. Give the balance, the APR, and the months left or the regular payment. Lenders differ in how they apply extra payments, and some charge a prepayment penalty.
plan
plan_link
Builds a link to the free Before the Lot planner that opens with the numbers given already filled in, so the person can carry on in the web planner with their trade-in, loan, budget and quotes. Use it after working out numbers in the chat. The plan travels in the link itself, so nothing is stored. Numbers and short labels only; names, phone numbers and emails are refused.
quote
check_quote
Reads a dealer's out-the-door quote, pasted as text (up to 8 KB) or given as line items, and checks it line by line: the out-the-door total, the doc fee against the state's cap (and capped service fees such as Ohio's $50 convenience fee), the tax line against the state's rate, finance-office add-ons with typical prices, the trade allowance against written trade-in offers, the trade equity and amount financed, and the walk line. Lines with an email address or phone number are removed before reading and never returned. Nothing is stored.
rebate
rebate_vs_apr
Compares a maker's cash rebate taken with the person's own loan against the maker's special APR (with any cash that combines with it): each side's payment, interest and total, the difference, the own-loan rate where the two cost the same, and the sales tax a rebate saves in states that tax the price after it. Give the amount financed before the rebate, or a vehicle price to work it out.
refinance
refinance_check
Compares a car loan as it stands with a new loan at a quoted rate, by default over the same months left so a lower payment cannot hide a longer loan, with any fees counted: the new payment, the monthly difference and the total interest saved or added.
state
state_rules
A state's car-buying rules: the dealer doc-fee cap or rule, sales tax (state rate, local add-on range, any cap), whether a trade-in lowers the taxed price, how a maker's rebate is taxed, and cancellation rights where on file. Each comes with its source, as-of date and confidence, plus the link to the state's page. Use it for the rules themselves; for a price with a city's local tax, use out_the_door.
trade
trade_in_position
Sizes up a trade-in from written offers (CarMax, Carvana, dealers) and what's still owed: the best offer still open, which is the floor a dealer's trade number is compared with, the equity or negative equity, and, with a state and vehicle price, the sales tax the trade saves where the state credits it. Use it before visiting dealers; check_quote compares a quote's trade allowance with these offers.
what
what_can_i_afford
Works out a car budget from the monthly payment someone is comfortable with: the most that can be financed, the highest out-the-door price after the trade-in tax credit, that ceiling as dealers quote it (before the credit), and the vehicle price it leaves after the state's tax and typical fees. With a fair price from research, it also gives an opening offer and a walk line. Use it before shopping, when the starting point is a payment rather than a price. Numbers only; nothing is stored.
Endpoints
| URL | Transport | State | Latency | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| https://beforethelot.com/mcp | streamable-http | answering | 347 ms | 9 min ago |
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Before the Lot — questions
Answers built from our own checks of this server.
What can Before the Lot do?
It exposes 16 tools, read directly from the server on our last check. Among them: check_quote, compare_quotes, dealer_email, desk_script, get_method, lease_check and 10 more. The full list with descriptions is on this page — we take it from the server itself via tools/list, not from a README.
How MCP servers expose tools in the first place →
Is Before the Lot working right now?
We send a real MCP handshake every 15 minutes. Over the last 24 hours 91 of 91 checks got a reply (100.0%), average response time 277 ms. The bar chart above shows every period we have measured.
How do I connect Before the Lot?
Copy the ready config from this page. We generate it for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor and VS Code, each in the form that client actually reads. It is a remote server, so there is nothing to install — the client connects to the address.
Does Before the Lot need an API key?
No. Before the Lot completed a full MCP handshake with us as an anonymous client and listed its tools without asking for anything. All 16 of them are readable on this page. This is what we observed, not what the docs claim.
How fast is Before the Lot?
It answers our handshake in 277 ms on average, which is faster than 51% of all working MCP servers we measure. The comparison comes from our own checks across the whole registry, every 15 minutes.