Strider Instacart Connector

MCP server that gives AI agents the ability to search products, manage cart, and place grocery orders on Instacart.

Built by Strider Labs — building the action layer for AI agents.

Features

• 🔍 Search Products — Find products across Instacart with prices and availability
• 🛒 Cart Management — Add items, view cart, clear cart
• 📦 Place Orders — Preview and place orders with delivery time selection
• 🔐 Session Persistence — Cookies saved locally for seamless re-authentication
• 🛡️ Order Safety — Requires explicit confirmation before placing orders

Installation

npm install @striderlabs/mcp-instacart

Prerequisites

This package requires Playwright browsers:

npx playwright install chromium

MCP Configuration

Add to your Claude Desktop or MCP client config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "instacart": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@striderlabs/mcp-instacart"]
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

Authentication

Shopping

Cart

Orders

Usage Examples

Search for Products

User: Find organic bananas on Instacart
Agent: [calls instacart_search with query="organic bananas"]
→ Returns list of products with prices and availability

Build a Shopping List

User: Add milk, eggs, and bread to my Instacart cart
Agent: 
  [calls instacart_add_to_cart with product="milk"]
  [calls instacart_add_to_cart with product="eggs"]
  [calls instacart_add_to_cart with product="bread"]
→ Items added to cart with confirmation

View Cart and Place Order

User: What's in my cart and how much is it?
Agent: [calls instacart_view_cart]
→ Returns items, quantities, subtotal, fees, total

User: Place the order
Agent: [calls instacart_place_order with confirm=false]
→ Returns preview for confirmation
User: Yes, confirm it
Agent: [calls instacart_place_order with confirm=true]
→ Order placed successfully

Authentication Flow

Instacart requires browser-based login:

1. Call instacart_login — returns a login URL
2. User opens URL and logs in manually
3. Cookies are automatically saved to ~/.strider/instacart/
4. Future sessions use saved cookies until they expire

Order Safety

The instacart_place_order tool has a built-in safety mechanism:

• Without confirm=true: Returns a preview, does not place order
• With confirm=true: Actually places the order

Agents should ALWAYS show the preview and get explicit user confirmation before calling with confirm=true.

Error Handling

Links

• npm: https://npmjs.com/package/@striderlabs/mcp-instacart
• GitHub: https://github.com/markswendsen-code/mcp-instacart
• Strider Labs: https://striderlabs.ai
• MCP Protocol: https://modelcontextprotocol.io