AI assistants

Near Fine in your assistant

Connect Near Fine to Claude, ChatGPT or another AI assistant, then ask for a book in your own words. It searches the same booksellers you can on Near Fine and brings back the offers, with links. Searching is free, with no account or API key. To set alerts from a chat, you sign in to Near Fine once.

Connect it

Claude desktop app or claude.ai

1. Open Customize › Connectors, then + Add › Add custom connector.
2. Name it Near Fine, paste the URL and select Continue.
3. Under Authentication, choose Sign in when needed, and under OAuth client, Register automatically. Then Add.
4. In a chat, turn Near Fine on from + › Connectors.

Works on every plan, including Free, which allows one custom connector. Added it before with No sign in? Searching works as it did. To set alerts too, remove it and add it again.

ChatGPT

1. Open Settings › Apps and choose to add a custom MCP server. On some plans this sits behind Developer mode, under Advanced settings.
2. Name it Near Fine, paste the URL and set authentication to mixed, so searching needs no sign-in.
3. In a chat, pick Near Fine from the + menu.

Needs a paid plan. On Business and Enterprise, an admin has to allow custom connectors first.

Claude Code

To set alerts, run /mcp in Claude Code and sign in to Near Fine when it asks.

Other assistants

Any assistant that connects to remote MCP servers over Streamable HTTP can search with the same URL, with no sign-in. Setting alerts needs one that can sign in with OAuth.

What to ask

• “Find a good used copy of Middlemarch that ships to the UK, under £10.”
• “Is there a signed first edition of Wolf Hall with its dust jacket?”
• “Which editions of The Remains of the Day are for sale, and what do first editions go for?”
• “I’m in the Netherlands. Who has Stoner in paperback, and what does shipping cost?”
• “Find the ebook of Piranesi, and the audiobook.”
• “Nobody has a signed Wolf Hall under £300? Let me know when one turns up.”

Say which country you’re in, since that decides the booksellers, the shipping and the currency. Otherwise your assistant may search as if you were in the United States.

What comes back

Every offer that can reach you, cheapest first: the title, the seller, the condition, the price and shipping in your currency, and a link to buy. A decision model has read each listing, so your assistant can tell the book you asked for from a study guide or a sequel, and see whether a listing really claims the first edition or signature you asked for. It also learns which booksellers didn’t answer in time.

Alerts from your assistant

Ask your assistant to keep looking for a book, with anything you want, such as a price cap or a first edition. The first time, it shows a Connect button. Choose it, enter your email, and type in the six-digit code we email you. Your assistant then sets the alert, and we email you when a new listing turns up that has it all.

Later, it can list your alerts, say what they found and cancel them. Five alerts are free, and plans have more. Your account page shows the assistants you connected and disconnects them.

Tools

search_books

Searches every bookseller serving the buyer’s country for an ISBN, or a title and author, with any price cap, edition or format the query asks for.

list_sources

Lists the booksellers Near Fine searches and the countries each one serves.

set_alert

Sets an alert on a search, which emails you once when a new listing turns up with everything it asks for.

list_alerts

Lists your alerts and what each found.

cancel_alert

Cancels one of your alerts.

For developers

The docs cover the MCP server and the JSON API, with every field an offer carries. llms.txt sums them up for agents.