Charlotteonthecheap Mcp

io.github.chrischallPublished by GitHub account chrischallv0.1.1Updated Oct 24, 2026

Charlotte On The Cheap MCP — free and cheap Charlotte events, deals and local guides

VerifiedSTDIODesktop onlyLocation & Lifestyle Web Search & Scraping

Server details

Identifier: io.github.chrischall/charlotteonthecheap-mcp
Transport: STDIO
Runtime: Desktop only
Trust: Verified
Published: Sep 16, 2026

Security note

MCP servers receive tool arguments from a conversation and may perform external actions. Review what a server can do before you enable it, and give it only the access it needs.

The registry verified the GitHub account chrischall for this listing. That does not show the account is the product's maker.

SourceWeft's checks cover whether the listing is complete and the endpoint answered; they do not review the server's code or what its tools do.

Add a badge to your README

Show readers this MCP server is listed on SourceWeft. The badge links to this page.

[![Listed on SourceWeft](https://sourceweft.com/badge/mcp/io.github.chrischall%2Fcharlotteonthecheap-mcp.svg)](https://sourceweft.com/mcp/io.github.chrischall%2Fcharlotteonthecheap-mcp?utm_source=readme&utm_medium=badge)

Overview

AI-generated overview

Reads free and cheap local event listings, deals and guides from 14 US city sites in the On the Cheap network.

What you can do: Provides read-only tools over the On the Cheap network of local sites. otc_list_events returns a day's events with time, price and venue, with an optional free-only filter; otc_events_month_overview gives day-by-day counts for a month; otc_search_posts searches articles by text, category, location and date range; otc_get_post returns one article in full; otc_list_categories, otc_list_locations and otc_list_sites list filters and cities; otc_healthcheck tests reachability. Every tool except otc_list_sites takes a required site argument naming the city.
When to use it: Useful when an assistant needs current local event schedules, free or low-cost activities, or archived deals and guides for one of the covered metro areas. It suits trip planning, weekend activity suggestions and comparing cities, rather than general web search.
Requirements: Runs locally as an npm package over stdio, typically via npx, so Node.js is needed. No credentials or accounts are required; the sites are public and read over HTTPS. An optional COTC_BASE_URL environment variable can override the base URL. Desktop only.

Before you install

All tools are read-only, so nothing is written, sent or deleted. The project states it is developed and maintained by AI and says to use it at your own discretion. Event and month data can be previews rather than complete lists, and category and location ids differ per site, so ids must be resolved against the same site being searched.

Installation

In SourceWeft

Open Charlotteonthecheap Mcp in the dashboard and add it to a workspace.
Enable the server for the chats that should use its tools.

Desktop only via STDIO. STDIO servers start a local process, so they need the SourceWeft desktop host.

Other MCP clients

Follow the launch instructions in the repository.

README

onthecheap-mcp

MCP server for the On the Cheap network — local guides to free and cheap things to do across 14 US cities. Daily event listings with times, prices and venues, plus a searchable archive of deals and guides.

Developed and maintained by AI (Claude Code). Use at your own discretion.

No credentials required. Every site is public, so the server reads them server-side over plain HTTPS. There is nothing to configure beyond which city you want, and no browser extension involved.

Install

Or as a Claude Code plugin:

Choosing a city

One server reads the whole network. Every tool takes a site argument naming the city to read — there is no default and no configuration step:

Key	Site	Area
`charlotte`	Charlotte On The Cheap	Charlotte, NC
`denver`	Mile High on the Cheap	Denver, CO
`atlanta`	Atlanta on the Cheap	Atlanta, GA
`chicago`	Chicago on the Cheap	Chicago, IL
`columbus`	Columbus on the Cheap	Columbus, OH
`seattle`	Greater Seattle on the Cheap	Seattle–Tacoma
`kansascity`	Kansas City on the Cheap	Kansas City
`miami`	South Florida on the Cheap	Miami / Broward / Palm Beach
`orlando`	Orlando on the Cheap	Orlando, FL
`portland`	Portland Living on the Cheap	Portland, OR
`richmond`	RVA on the Cheap	Richmond, VA
`southernmaine`	Southern Maine on the Cheap	Southern Maine
`triangle`	Triangle on the Cheap	Raleigh / Durham / Chapel Hill
`national`	Living On The Cheap	US-wide deals (no local events calendar)

Common aliases work too — milehigh, raleigh, rva, kc, southflorida. otc_list_sites reports the same list.

site is required rather than defaulted on purpose: a server that quietly fell back to one city would answer a question about Denver with Charlotte's data and give no sign anything was wrong. An unknown key is refused with the valid ones listed.

Tools

All tools are read-only. Every tool except otc_list_sites takes a required site argument. The two event tools reject national, which has no local events calendar — it is still searchable via the other tools.

Tool	What it does
`otc_list_events`	Everything on a given day — time, price, venue. `free_only` filters to no-cost listings. Defaults to today.
`otc_events_month_overview`	Day-by-day counts for a month, to find the busiest days. Each day's list is a preview; `total` is the real count.
`otc_search_posts`	Search articles by text, category, location and date range. Returns slim summaries by default.
`otc_get_post`	One article in full, as readable text or raw HTML. Accepts an id, slug, or URL.
`otc_list_categories`	Category ids and post counts, for filtering searches by topic.
`otc_list_locations`	Local area ids and post counts, for filtering geographically.
`otc_list_sites`	The cities in the network and their `site` keys. Takes no arguments.
`otc_healthcheck`	Confirm one site is reachable; on failure `error.kind` is `edge_blocked`, `http`, `timeout` or `transport`.

Examples

What's free in Charlotte this Saturday?

Find kids' events in Lake Norman in August

Compare free things to do in Denver and Portland next weekend

Two things worth knowing

Retired deals are excluded by default. Each site parks expired offers in an expired category, so searches skip them and you don't get deals that no longer exist. Pass include_expired: true to search the archive. The category's id differs on every site, so it's resolved by slug at request time — a hardcoded id silently disables the filter elsewhere.

Category and location ids are per-site. Each site is a separate WordPress install, so id 13 is a different category on every one of them. Resolve ids against the same site you then search — an id borrowed from another city will filter to something unrelated rather than error.

Month overviews are previews, with honest counts. The calendar shows at most four listings per day. otc_events_month_overview reports each day's true total alongside the preview — call otc_list_events with a date for the complete schedule.

Configuration

None. The city is a per-call site argument, not an environment variable, so there is nothing to set up before use.

Development

See docs/OTC-API.md for the verified data surface, including the events calendar's US M-D-YYYY date routing (an ISO date is silently parsed as 1970), the month-view truncation, and why term ids are never hardcoded.

License

MIT

Source: README.md at commit bb0c94a

Tools

SourceWeft has not started this package in its sandbox yet, so its tools are not known.

Version history

v0.1.1LatestSep 16, 2026

Score

50% of the applicable checks met

How complete this listing is, computed from the registry entry, the endpoint and public sources. Not a rating of the server and not a statement that it is safe or working today: reachability is a dated check, and no installs or reviews go into the score.

Reached in the last 30 days25 pts
Keep the endpoint answering the MCP handshake; SourceWeft probes it every 30 days.
Auth declared10 pts
Declare the credential headers in the registry entry, or keep the endpoint answering the probe so its auth can be classified.
Tools listed15 pts
Answer tools/list without a credential, or ship a package that starts in a sandbox without one.
DescriptionRequired15 pts
Logo10 pts
Documentation15 pts
License10 pts