The TradeBasis MCP guide

TradeBasis requires no subscriber login, subscription or caller API key for these public tools. Choose no authentication in your host. Your host account, plan, rollout and administrator permissions are separate requirements.

curl -s 'https://tradebasis.net/mcp/appraisal' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list"}'

Setup instructions checked against official host guidance on October 5, 2026. Separately, the authoritative registry checked on October 12, 2026 (2026-10-12) reports active records for the separate net.tradebasis/market-appraisal and general net.tradebasis/automotive-appraisal servers, with unchanged remote URLs. Registry publication is not Claude or ChatGPT directory approval; no host-directory approval is claimed.

Connect an appraisal profile and use appraise_vehicle. Every appraisal needs manually supplied odometerMiles AND either a VIN OR year, make, model and trim. A VIN, ZIP code or precise personal location is not required for the manual year/make/model/trim path. Mileage is never inferred from a VIN.

Estimate the TradeBasis market average for a 2024 Toyota 4Runner SR5 with 40,000 miles. I don't have a VIN.

{"year":2024,"make":"Toyota","model":"4Runner","trim":"SR5","odometerMiles":40000}

Optional market: pass market as a US state name or code, such as California or CA. Omit it for a nationwide US search.

VIN-assisted input: provide a valid 17-character VIN plus manually supplied odometerMiles. If trim, powertrain or body details are missing, ambiguous or conflict with other input, the assistant should ask you to confirm them rather than guess. Never guess vehicle identity or silently resolve a conflict.

The separate tradebasis_vin_decode tool identifies a vehicle only. It does not produce a price, and the legacy profiles cannot run this appraisal request.

For general research, connect /mcp and use tradebasis_research_library. Its product and pricing tools explain TradeBasis, not a vehicle’s value.

Use TradeBasis research to explain the latest buy-here-pay-here benchmarks and macro index. Cite the source dates and distinguish research from a vehicle appraisal.

For identification alone, use tradebasis_vin_decode on /mcp or the dedicated /mcp/chatgpt profile. VIN-only decoding does not require mileage and never returns an appraisal.

Decode VIN 1HGCM82633A004352 with tradebasis_vin_decode. Report only supported vehicle identity details; do not guess missing trim or provide a price.

{"vin":"1HGCM82633A004352"}

If the tool asks for clarification, confirm the missing details and resend all vehicle arguments, including manual mileage, confirmed identity and any optional market. The server does not remember the earlier vehicle arguments.

A caller may return result._meta["net.tradebasis/monitoring"].interaction_id via params._meta["net.tradebasis/monitoring"].interaction_id on the next tools/call. Put it in the call’s metadata, not in vehicle arguments.

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 2,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "appraise_vehicle",
    "arguments": {
      "year": 2024,
      "make": "Toyota",
      "model": "4Runner",
      "trim": "SR5",
      "odometerMiles": 40000
    },
    "_meta": {
      "net.tradebasis/monitoring": {
        "interaction_id": "<returned opaque interaction_id>"
      }
    }
  }
}

The opaque ID is correlation only, not authorization, a saved vehicle, saved state or permission to retrieve earlier input. Do not invent an ID; if none is available, submit the complete vehicle arguments without it.

Hosts may not expose or pass this metadata. Absent IDs do not mean abandonment. Hosted ChatGPT/Claude metadata and clarification behavior remain unverified; an assistant may need to ask for and resend the full input itself.

A successful appraisal is an explainable summary derived from matched asking prices, not a black-box offer. The result includes:

• The derived base market average.
• A separately labelled mileage adjustment and mileage-adjusted market average, when available; unavailable adjustment is not a zero adjustment.
• The valid matched-evidence count and actual evidence geography. Search may expand beyond a requested state; read the actual market, not only your requested market.
• The calculation timestamp. Prices are in USD; odometers are in miles.

The base calculation uses source, year, distance and state weighting across filtered, local-first matches. Review the free MCP methodology for how the average and separate mileage adjustment are derived.

Text and structured results are always returned. Compatible hosts may also show an optional MCP Apps card. Actual Claude and ChatGPT rendering remains unverified; the card is not required to read the result.

This is not a trade-in offer, wholesale value, completed-sale price, condition assessment or accident-history report. Raw listings and dealer, customer or account data are not exposed.

This is a limited public pilot, not guaranteed appraisal availability.

• At least 5 valid price-bearing matches are required for any numeric valuation; at most 20 selected matches enter the calculation.
• 100 paid upstream attempts per UTC day, shared across all MCP users — not a per-person allowance and not 100 completed appraisals.
• Up to 3 attempts per appraisal. Failed paid attempts count toward both the per-appraisal and shared daily allowances.
• Only one active appraisal at a time, with a 20-second deadline.

These outcomes return no numeric valuation:

Clarification or conflicting input

Confirm missing or ambiguous identity details, or resolve conflicting vehicle information.

No matches or insufficient evidence

No suitable evidence was found, or fewer than five valid price-bearing matches were available.

Busy or disabled

Another appraisal is active, or the pilot is not enabled.

Timeout or provider failure

The deadline expired or the upstream provider could not supply usable evidence.

Allowance-limited

The shared daily allowance or per-appraisal attempt limit was reached, or the allowance meter is unavailable.

Report the returned reason instead of inventing a price. Do not automatically retry unsuccessful appraisals; any supplied retry timing is information, not a guarantee of availability.