The Front Desk Review MCP Server

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answering

The Front Desk Review is answering right now. Last checked 5 min ago. It exposes 19 tools. Last commit 17 Sep 2026.

4,764 products, 626 categories: sourced prices, dated price history, independent-test coverage.

Uptime history 47 days of history

47 days agonow

100.0%

Uptime 24h

92 of 92 checks

Tools

read from the server

186 ms

Response time

average over 24h

Stars

last commit 17 Sep 2026

What changed 18

Every tool that appeared, vanished or quietly changed what it asks for. Recorded since 5 September 2026. No other catalogue keeps this.

10 Sep 6 tools changed the parameters they ask for compare, find_best, get_benchmark and 3 more

10 Sep 2 tool descriptions were rewritten list_coverage, list_sections

8 Sep a tool description was rewritten whats_changed

8 Sep a tool changed version

5 Sep 6 tools changed the parameters they ask for compare, find_best, get_benchmark and 3 more

5 Sep 2 tool descriptions were rewritten list_coverage, list_sections

Nothing serious here today

Today is the operative word: we check The Front Desk Review 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 5 min ago.

Claude Code Claude Desktop Codex Cursor VS Code

run in your terminal

claude mcp add front-desk-review-data --transport http https://mcp.frontdeskreview.com/mcp

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "front-desk-review-data": {
      "url": "https://mcp.frontdeskreview.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

~/.codex/config.toml

[mcp_servers.front-desk-review-data]
url = "https://mcp.frontdeskreview.com/mcp"

.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "front-desk-review-data": {
      "url": "https://mcp.frontdeskreview.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

.vscode/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "front-desk-review-data": {
      "url": "https://mcp.frontdeskreview.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Available tools 19

Read directly from the server with tools/list, grouped by what they act on. If a tool disappears, we record the date.

compare

compare

Compare specific vendors side by side by slug within any theme (e.g. ['goodcall','rosie','smith-ai'] in ai-receptionists, or ['nordvpn','expressvpn'] in vpn-services). Set `section` to the theme slug from list_sections. Returns full provenanced records plus a notFound list for unknown slugs.

compare_products

Compare specific products side by side by slug within a category (e.g. ['apple-iphone-16-pro','samsung-galaxy-s25-ultra'] in 'smartphones'). Returns full provenanced spec records plus a notFound list and the category's comparable specKeys, so an agent can line up the same attributes across products.

cost

get_cost_decoder

The REAL all-in monthly cost per vendor for a decoder topic (slug from list_cost_decoders, e.g. 'ai-customer-support-cost'), computed in deterministic code from sourced, dated inputs — each vendor's per-seat price + AI billing model + per-unit price, totalled at named scenarios (e.g. 5 agents at 1,000 and 5,000 AI resolutions/mo) with the arithmetic shown. Quote-only inputs return a null total, never a fabricated number. Optionally pass agents + resolutions for a custom scenario. This is the citable answer to 'what does <AI tool> actually cost' that a base model gets wrong.

list_cost_decoders

List the 'real cost' decoders — topics where the advertised sticker price hides the true bill (e.g. AI customer support billed per resolution, where a $29/mo seat price becomes hundreds/mo at volume). Each entry carries the question it answers, the scenarios it computes, the vendor count and the data's as-of date. Pass a topic slug to get_cost_decoder.

price

get_price_history

The full dated price series for ONE product or vendor (by slug), plus derived stats: first-tracked date, current/low/high, number of recorded changes, net % since tracked, the largest single move, and the last change. This is the citable answer to 'how much did X cost', 'did X's price drop', and price-trend questions — grounded on a real, append-only series, not a model's guess. Returns found:false (never a fabricated series) for an unknown slug.

price_movers

Recorded price MOVES across the index within a recency window (default 90 days), newest-and-largest first — each a dated before→after change of a tracked entity. Optionally filter by kind ('hw'/'sw') or category/theme slug. The freshness a base model structurally cannot have. Returns an empty list with a clear note when nothing moved in the window (a quiet window is honestly quiet).

products

find_products

Answer 'best <category> under $N' and 'which <category> has the most <spec>' directly: filter a category by maxPriceUsd and/or brand, then rank by a field — 'priceUsd' (default, cheapest first), 'releaseDate', or any of the category's spec keys (set descending:true for biggest-first, e.g. sortBy:'battery_mah' descending:true). Returns provenanced product records; products missing the sort value sort last. Never infers a spec it has not verified.

search_products

Search one product category by free-text query across product name, brand, and spec values (e.g. 'snapdragon 5000mah', 'oled 120hz'). Set `category` to a slug from list_product_categories. Returns full provenanced product records (every spec + price carries source url + accessedAt). Empty query returns all products in the category.

benchmark

get_benchmark

Per-vendor benchmark card by slug within any theme: full provenanced record plus dataset-derived indicators (entry price, normalized cost at 100 and 500 calls/mo where call-volume applies, billing models, free-tier presence, compliance, integration breadth). Set `section` to the theme slug from list_sections. All values trace to plan sources; no synthetic scores.

best

find_best

Answer 'best <theme> for <use case>' and 'cheapest <theme>' directly: returns the theme's vendors ranked by entry price (cheapest first, quote-only last), each with its verified compliance facts (HIPAA/SOC 2/GDPR), free-tier flag, best-for tags and the entry plan's source. Conjunctive fact filters narrow it to what this index has actually CONFIRMED — requireHipaa / requireSoc2 / requireGdpr / requireFreeTier (e.g. 'best CRM for HIPAA' = section 'crm-software' + requireHipaa:true). Omit all filters to rank the whole theme by price. Set `section` to the theme slug from list_sections. Never infers a fact it has not verified.

coverage

list_coverage

What this index actually covers, so a miss reads as out-of-scope rather than broken. Now spans 275 pricing themes — the deep hub sections PLUS dozens of catalog topics (VPNs, web hosting, password managers, CRM, e-commerce, AI tools, and more): total theme count, the section/catalog split, total vendors, per-theme vendor counts and kind, the data's date range (min/max source accessedAt), the questions it answers well and what it does NOT cover. Derived from every theme's dataset.

independent

get_independent_test_coverage

The independent-testing provenance for ONE product (by category + slug) — a COUNT of evidence, never a quality score. Fields: outlets (independent outlets on record), labs (how many physically tested it and left >=1 measured value), metrics (distinct kinds of metric measured, with names), mentioned (outlets that only mentioned it), and a ready-to-quote `reading` sentence. Use it to state how much independent hands-on evidence backs any claim about a product. A low count means little independent evidence has been gathered yet, NOT that the product is bad; a high count means well-documented, NOT better. Returns found:false (never a fabricated count) for an unknown or unreviewed product.

most

most_volatile_in_category

Within one category/theme, the entities whose prices have moved the most (ranked by volatility score), plus the category price baseline (count, median current, low/high). Entities without enough recorded movement are omitted from the ranking but counted in the baseline. Answers 'which X changes price most' for a market.

normalized

get_normalized_pricing

Effective monthly cost per vendor in any theme at a chosen call volume, normalizing flat, per-minute and per-call billing to one comparable number. For non-telephony catalog themes (per-seat / flat plans with no call quota) this returns each plan's base monthly price — the meaningful figure there. Cheapest priceable plan per vendor; quote-only or unpriceable-at-volume vendors return null (never a fabricated figure). avgCallMinutes defaults to 3 and is echoed in assumptions for reproducibility.

product

list_product_categories

Enumerate the spec-driven PRODUCT categories this index covers (physical goods like smartphones, laptops, GPUs — distinct from the software/subscription pricing themes). Each entry carries its slug, product count, the comparable spec keys, and the brands present. Pass a category slug to search_products / compare_products / find_products.

sections

list_sections

Enumerate ALL 275 pricing themes this index covers: the deep hub sections (e.g. ai-receptionists, call-tracking) plus dozens of catalog topics (e.g. vpn-services, web-hosting, password-managers, crm-software). Each entry carries its slug, display label, vertical, tagline, vendor count and kind ('section' or 'catalog'). Pass any of these slugs as the `section` arg to the other tools to query that theme.

vendors

search_vendors

Search any theme's data index by free-text query across vendor name, domain, integrations, plan notes, and capabilities (e.g. 'hipaa restaurant', 'google ads zapier'). Works for every theme — hub sections and catalog topics alike (set `section` to the theme slug from list_sections). Returns full provenanced vendor records (each plan carries source url + accessedAt). Empty query returns all vendors in the theme.

volatility

volatility_for_entity

How volatile ONE product or vendor's price has been: a 0-100 volatility score derived from its recorded moves (frequency × average move size), plus change count, net % and last change. Honest gate: below a minimum recorded-change threshold it returns sufficient:false with a note, never a score invented from a single point.

whats

whats_changed

Recent dated price-change capsules, newest first — the freshness a base model cannot have. Each capsule is a movement of a vendor's published price (vendor, plan, before→after, date, sources), cleared against two witnesses on two different hosts: the page the figure was read from, plus either an independent second source or a dated archive capture of that same page — and when the archive is the only second witness, that first page must be the vendor's own. Optionally filter to changes on/after a date or within one section. Returns an empty list with a clear note when nothing qualifying has been recorded yet.

Endpoints

URL	Transport	State	Latency	Checked
https://mcp.frontdeskreview.com/mcp	streamable-http	answering	211 ms	5 min ago

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The Front Desk Review — questions

Answers built from our own checks of this server.

What can The Front Desk Review do?

It exposes 19 tools, read directly from the server on our last check. Among them: compare, compare_products, find_best, find_products, get_benchmark, get_cost_decoder and 13 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 →

What is The Front Desk Review mostly used for?

Its tools cluster around compare, cost and products. That is what this server is built to work with — the grouping comes from the actual tool names, not from a category we assigned.

Is The Front Desk Review working right now?

We send a real MCP handshake every 15 minutes. Over the last 24 hours 92 of 92 checks got a reply (100.0%), average response time 186 ms. The bar chart above shows every period we have measured.

How do I connect The Front Desk Review?

Copy the ready config from this page — we generate it for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor and VS Code, each with the file path that client actually reads. It is a remote server, so there is nothing to install — the client connects to the address.

Does The Front Desk Review need an API key?

No. The Front Desk Review completed a full MCP handshake with us as an anonymous client and listed its tools without asking for anything. All 19 of them are readable on this page. This is what we observed, not what the docs claim.

How fast is The Front Desk Review?

It answers our handshake in 186 ms on average, which is faster than 69% of all working MCP servers we measure. The comparison comes from our own checks across the whole registry, every 15 minutes.

Is The Front Desk Review open source?

We cannot say either way: written in JavaScript and 0 stars on GitHub, but we could not determine the licence, and without one the code is not open source by default.