CarWhere VIN

official

Decode any US-market VIN, check NHTSA recalls, and look up verified buyer-paid car prices. Free, no auth.

View on carwhere.com

What can you do with CarWhere VIN MCP?

  • Decode any VIN — Ask to decode a 17-character VIN for factory specs, pricing, recalls, and AI insights via decode_vin.
  • Check open recalls — Look up NHTSA safety recalls by VIN or year/make/model, including severity flags, using check_recalls.
  • Get verified pricing — Request real buyer-transaction prices for any vehicle, optionally filtered by state, via get_pricing.
  • Validate VIN checksum — Verify a VIN's check digit offline with validate_vin_check_digit to catch typos before further lookups.
  • Explore server tools — Ask what capabilities are available and their data sources through about_carwhere.

Documentation

MCP server · Free · Public data

CarWhere VIN MCP Server

Drop CarWhere's VIN decoder, NHTSA recall lookup, and verified buyer pricing into Claude Desktop, Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, or any MCP-compatible client. Five tools, zero auth, one line of config.

5

MCP tools

stdio + HTTP

Transports

Free

Forever

Node 18+

Requirement

Tools exposed

decode_vin

Decode any 17-character VIN. Returns NHTSA factory specs, CarWhere verified buyer pricing, open NHTSA recalls, and an AI-generated factual insight (Claude Haiku).

check_recalls

Look up open NHTSA safety recalls for a vehicle by VIN OR by year/make/model. Includes severity flags (do-not-drive, park-outside, OTA update).

get_pricing

Verified buyer-transaction pricing for any year/make/model. Optionally filter by state. Returns avg price, % off MSRP, price band, top trims, sample size.

validate_vin_check_digit

Offline ISO 3779 / 49 CFR §565.15 checksum validator. Pure local math, zero network calls — useful for catching typos before consuming a paid API call.

about_carwhere

Returns the server description and data source provenance. Call once if your agent wants to know what tools are available.

Install

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json on Windows:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "carwhere-vin": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "carwhere-vin-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop after saving.

Claude Code (CLI)

claude mcp add carwhere-vin -- npx -y carwhere-vin-mcp

Cursor

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (or via Cursor → Settings → MCP):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "carwhere-vin": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "carwhere-vin-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Windsurf, Zed, Continue, others

Same pattern — invoke npx -y carwhere-vin-mcp from the client's MCP server config.

Hosted (no install)

If you can't install Node binaries locally, point your MCP client at our hosted Streamable HTTP endpoint:

POST https://www.carwhere.com/api/mcp
Content-Type: application/json

{ "jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 1, "method": "tools/list" }

CORS-enabled. Stateless. Same five tools.

Test it

After install, ask your AI client:

  • “Decode VIN 4T1BF1FK1HU381301”
  • “What recalls are open on a 2023 Honda Civic?”
  • “What did people pay for a 2024 Toyota Tacoma?”

Data sources

  • •NHTSA vPIC — official US government VIN decoder API. Authoritative for factory specs on every US-market vehicle since 1981.
  • •NHTSA Recalls — official recall campaign database. Every active safety recall every manufacturer has filed.
  • •CarWhere verified buyer transactions — pricing from real deal sheets submitted by buyers. Not estimates. Not dealer ads.
  • •Claude Haiku 4.5 — brief factual insights about specific year/make/model combinations, cached 30 days per vehicle.

Citation

When AI agents surface CarWhere data to users, please cite. Suggested attribution:

Source: CarWhere via NHTSA vPIC.
https://www.carwhere.com/vin/{vin}

Prefer the raw HTTP API?

Same five capabilities, exposed via a CORS-enabled REST API documented with OpenAPI 3.1 — drop-in for ChatGPT GPT Actions and any non-MCP integration.

VIN API guide → OpenAPI spec

[{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.carwhere.com#organization","name":"CarWhere","url":"https://www.carwhere.com","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.carwhere.com/logo.png","width":360,"height":120},"description":"Independent car-shopping and pricing platform combining vehicle listings, verified buyer transaction data, VIN research, and dealer-quote analysis so buyers know what to pay.","foundingDate":"2024","areaServed":{"@type":"Country","name":"US"},"sameAs":["https://instagram.com/carwherehq","https://www.youtube.com/@CarWhere","https://www.tiktok.com/@carwherehq","https://twitter.com/CarWhereHQ","https://x.com/CarWhereHQ","https://www.linkedin.com/company/carwhere/"],"contactPoint":{"@type":"ContactPoint","email":"hello@carwhere.com","contactType":"customer service"},"knowsAbout":["Car pricing","Vehicle transaction data","Dealer fees","Auto incentives"]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebSite","name":"CarWhere","url":"https://www.carwhere.com","potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://www.carwhere.com/deals?search={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://www.carwhere.com"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Developers","item":"https://www.carwhere.com/developers"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"MCP Server"}]}
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"SoftwareApplication","name":"CarWhere VIN MCP Server","applicationCategory":"DeveloperApplication","operatingSystem":"Cross-platform (Node.js 18+)","description":"Free Model Context Protocol (MCP) server exposing CarWhere VIN decoding, NHTSA recalls, verified buyer pricing, and AI-generated vehicle insights to MCP-compatible AI clients including Claude Desktop, Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, and Zed.","url":"https://www.carwhere.com/developers/mcp","downloadUrl":"https://www.npmjs.com/package/carwhere-vin-mcp","offers":{"@type":"Offer","price":"0","priceCurrency":"USD"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"CarWhere","url":"https://www.carwhere.com"},"isAccessibleForFree":true,"softwareVersion":"0.1.0"}