Yes, Onthecheap is free to use.

How do I install Onthecheap?

Onthecheap is a local plugin. Install it using npm package: onthecheap-mcp and add the generated configuration snippet to your AI app's MCP config file. Then restart your AI app.

Is Onthecheap safe to use?

Onthecheap scored 7/10 (moderate risk) in MCP Marketplace's automated security scan. It has 1 high or critical finding to review. It's listed, but review the security report on this page before installing.

What credentials does Onthecheap need?

Onthecheap requires the following credentials or environment variables: OTC_SITE, OTC_BASE_URL. You can find setup instructions on the server detail page.

What AI apps work with Onthecheap?

Onthecheap uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and works with any MCP-compatible AI app, including Claude, ChatGPT / Codex, Gemini, Copilot, Cursor, and more.

Back to Browse

Onthecheap MCP Server

by Chris Hall

Developer ToolsModerate7.0LocalNew

Free

On the Cheap MCP — free and cheap events, deals and local guides across 14 US cities

About

On the Cheap MCP — free and cheap events, deals and local guides across 14 US cities

Security Report

7.0

Moderate7.0Moderate Risk

This is a well-constructed MCP server for reading public event and deal listings from the "On the Cheap" network. Authentication is appropriately absent (all target sites are public), code quality is high with proper error handling and input validation, and permissions align with the server's read-only purpose. Minor code quality observations exist but do not indicate security concerns. Supply chain analysis found 2 known vulnerabilities in dependencies (0 critical, 1 high severity). Package verification found 1 issue.

7 files analyzed · 6 issues found

Security scores are indicators to help you make informed decisions, not guarantees. Always review permissions before connecting any MCP server.

Permissions Required

This plugin requests these system permissions. Most are normal for its category.

HTTP Network Access

Connects to external APIs or services over the internet.

env_vars

Check that this permission is expected for this type of plugin.

What You'll Need

Set these up before or after installing:

Which On the Cheap city to read (e.g. charlotte, denver, triangle). Defaults to charlotte.Optional

Environment variable: OTC_SITE

Explicit site URL, overriding OTC_SITE. The sites are public; no credentials are required.Optional

Environment variable: OTC_BASE_URL

How to Install

Add this to your MCP configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "io-github-chrischall-onthecheap-mcp": {
      "env": {
        "OTC_SITE": "your-otc-site-here",
        "OTC_BASE_URL": "your-otc-base-url-here"
      },
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "onthecheap-mcp"
      ],
      "command": "npx"
    }
  }
}

Documentation

View on GitHub

From the project's GitHub 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

npx onthecheap-mcp

Or as a Claude Code plugin:

/plugin marketplace add chrischall/onthecheap-mcp
/plugin install onthecheap-mcp

Choosing a city

One server reads one site. Set OTC_SITE to a city key — it defaults to charlotte:

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 and which site is active.

Tools

All tools are read-only and act on the configured site. The two event tools are not registered for national, which has no local events calendar.

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 which one is active.
`otc_healthcheck`	Confirm the configured site is reachable.

Examples

What's free in Charlotte this Saturday?

Find kids' events in Lake Norman in August

Any free museum days coming up?

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.

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

Env var	Purpose
`OTC_SITE`	Which city to read (default `charlotte`).
`OTC_BASE_URL`	Advanced: an explicit site URL, overriding `OTC_SITE`.

Hosted connector (optional)

The same tools can run as a Cloudflare Worker, making them reachable from claude.ai on the web, desktop and mobile rather than only from a machine with this package installed. Because the sites are public, connecting asks for nothing — the login page is a single "Authorize" button and no credentials are stored. One Worker serves one city.

It's a manual deploy into your own Cloudflare account: see docs/DEPLOY-CONNECTOR.md.

Development

npm install
npm test          # node suite
npm run worker:test   # Workers-runtime suite
npm run build

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.