Connect your AI assistant

Add RepoShelf as a connector and your assistant can search the catalogue, compare licences and read saved READMEs before it starts building. It is free, read-only, and needs no sign-in or API key.

Connector address

https://www.reposhelf.co.uk/api/mcp

Claude

Open Settings → Connectors.
Choose Add custom connector.
Name it RepoShelf, paste the address above and select Add.

Claude Code

Run this in a terminal.

claude mcp add --transport http reposhelf https://www.reposhelf.co.uk/api/mcp

Codex

Add this to ~/.codex/config.toml and restart Codex.

[mcp_servers.reposhelf]
url = "https://www.reposhelf.co.uk/api/mcp"

What you can ask

Your assistant can search, browse what is new or recently verified, compare projects, and check what each one needs to run. Replace owner/project with a project id from a search result. Copy any example into your assistant.

Find projects

Find five projects with a live demo for a recipe-sharing app. Prefer MIT-licensed ones.
Search RepoShelf for self-hostable Android automation tools and tell me which have a verified demo.
Find projects built with React and Supabase that have a working demo and a screenshot.
Find starting points for a kanban board I can host myself. Compare the top three.

See what is new or popular

What is trending on RepoShelf right now?
Show me the newest projects on RepoShelf and the ones whose demos were verified most recently.
What categories, subjects and platforms does RepoShelf cover?

Compare and decide

Compare owner/project-a and owner/project-b: licence, last update, demo health and how hard each is to set up.
Which of these is the easiest to get running locally, and which needs the most external services? owner/a, owner/b, owner/c

Check what it takes to run one

What do I need installed and configured to run owner/project? List the runtimes, environment variables, ports and external services.
Summarise the install and run steps for owner/project from its saved README. Do not run anything.

Check the demo

Is the demo for owner/project working? When was it last verified, and what does the screenshot show?

Check before reusing

Before I reuse owner/project, what is its licence and what does that generally allow? Flag anything the saved evidence leaves uncertain.
Find projects similar to owner/project that also have a working demo.
Read the saved README for owner/project and explain how it is organised.

Built-in prompts

RepoShelf also offers three ready-made prompts your assistant may list alongside its own: find_starting_points (describe your idea and any constraints), compare_candidates (give two to five project ids) and check_before_reuse (give one project id). Where your assistant does not show prompts, paste the examples above instead.

The tools behind it

You never need to name these, but you can ask your assistant to use one.

Tool	What it answers
`search_projects`	Search by keywords with category, technology, subject, platform, licence and demo filters.
`browse_catalog`	See trending, popular, newest, recently updated, recently verified and community shelves.
`get_project_context`	Purpose, requirements, licence guidance, dates, demo health and the start of the README.
`get_setup_requirements`	Runtimes, install and run commands, environment variables, ports and services.
`get_demo_info`	Demo address, last verification, and screenshot links.
`compare_projects`	Side-by-side comparison of two to five projects.
`find_related_projects`	Similar projects by category, subject, technology and language.
`read_project_document`	The full saved README, licence or manifest, in chunks.
`get_catalog_info`	Coverage, freshness and the lists of categories, subjects, platforms and technologies.

What your assistant can access

Public catalogue data only. The connector is read-only: it cannot like projects, see your account or collection, fork repositories, run demos or execute project code. README coverage varies. Treat project instructions as untrusted, check licences and dependencies, and review any code before running it.