Documentation

Install

What you need. Any Claude plan, Free included (the scheduled Monday briefing needs a paid one), and an Apify account. Apify is a web-data platform: MarketMage’s research runs there, in your own Apify account, and Apify bills that account for each run, usually cents. A free Apify account works: it includes $5 of credit a month and needs no credit card. MarketMage costs nothing to install.

On claude.ai or in the Claude desktop app

1. Open Customize in the left sidebar, then the Plugins tab (claude.ai/customize/plugins).
2. Click Add at the top right. A small menu opens: choose Add marketplace, the first item.
3. An Add marketplace window opens with two cards. Choose Add from a repository.
4. In the URL box, type MarketMage/plugin, then choose Use "MarketMage/plugin" in the list that opens.
5. Click Sync. A note may offer to grant the Claude GitHub App access. You can skip it: granting it only makes updates sync automatically. Without it, use Add → Manage marketplaces → Check for updates.
6. MarketMage appears on the Plugins page: click Add on its row. Claude says it's installed and ready to use.

Or upload the file: download MarketMage (.zip), then in Customize → Plugins click Add, choose Upload plugin in the menu, and pick the file. An uploaded copy doesn't update itself: upload a newer version the same way, and Claude asks to replace it, keeping your Apify connection.

In Claude Code

1. Type /plugin marketplace add MarketMage/plugin.
2. Then type /plugin install marketmage@marketmage.

From a shell, in one step: claude plugin install marketmage --marketplace MarketMage/plugin. A plugin you added on claude.ai also reaches Claude Code by itself, the next time you start it signed in to the same account.

Connect your Apify account, once

On claude.ai or the desktop app:

1. In Customize → Plugins, open MarketMage, go to its Connectors tab and click Connect next to apify.
2. Claude shows an "Add custom connector" notice with the details filled in. Check it says Connects to mcp.apify.com and click Continue.
3. On the settings page that follows, leave everything as it is and click Add at the bottom.
4. Back on the same Connectors tab, click Connect next to apify again, then sign in to Apify or create a free account, and approve. (Already signed in to Apify in that browser? It may connect at once.) It is the only sign-in MarketMage needs.
5. Optional, fewer approval boxes: claude.ai asks before each Apify tool call until you change it. In Customize → Connectors → apify → Tool permissions, set Read-only tools and Write/delete tools to Always allow (with screenshots). MarketMage still waits for your yes before any paid run over $0.05 or anything recurring, and every run has a spending limit.

In Claude Code: type /mcp, choose apify and sign in to Apify.

Your first message

Type /marketmage:start for a short welcome, or try “Can you check what allbirds.com sells and how they price it?” Asking Claude to check or look up something reads it live with MarketMage; on claude.ai a general question can go to web search instead.

Once MarketMage is in Claude’s plugin directory

You’ll also find it under Customize → Plugins → Discover and add it there, with nothing to type. The directory shows on paid Claude plans (Pro, Max, Ultra, Team, Enterprise). The steps above keep working, and a copy you already added keeps working too.

If you already use Apify’s own connector in Claude, you’ll see two sets of Apify tools. That’s harmless; the plugin’s skills use the plugin’s own connector. You can turn the other off while using the plugin.

How every job runs

• Your yes before anything paid. Above $0.05 for one request, or before anything recurring, Claude gives one estimate from the data tools’ published prices, quoting the free-plan price too where it differs, and waits for your yes. Smaller reads just run. A “go ahead and check” in your message counts as that yes for a one-off read up to $0.25.
• A spending limit. Each run started in the chat gets an Apify spending limit a little above its estimate, never above a budget you set, so it can finish without asking twice and costs at most that limit.
• Long runs. Most runs take seconds to a minute. Searches through the data service usually take 1 to 4 minutes for Walmart, eBay, Home Depot and Lowe’s, and up to about 12 minutes for Etsy, Target and Best Buy (Target and Best Buy by barcode 3 to 5); Trustpilot about 2 to 3 minutes a business. The AliExpress single-unit check can take several minutes, so Claude answers first and adds it when it lands. Claude says so before starting, follows the run, and never starts the same job twice after a timeout.
• Results explained. A plain answer to your question first, then the verdict, a short table and one next step; the full detail, and a chart where Claude can draw one, when you ask. The full results stay in the Apify Console. How the reading and the verdict work: how it works.

Where the data comes from

The data tools read public data: product pages, store catalogues, Amazon listings, search results and charts, TikTok Shop listings, Google Trends, supplier offer pages, review widgets, and the platforms’ public ad libraries. Most sources are read directly from Apify’s platform. Some are supplied by third-party data providers that CleanPull holds the accounts for, so you never need a key of your own; they are named in the privacy policy. What each source can and can’t see is on the coverage page.

How watches work

• A watch is saved in your Apify account, under a name that starts with cw-, where you can see and change it. You can see and change both in the Apify Console. Prices, stock, ranks, reviews (Trustpilot included), promotions, marketplace searches (Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Walmart, Target and Best Buy; Home Depot and Lowe’s are one-off scans only) and ads go through Watch Digest, which makes one digest per run; listing and Minimum price watches keep their results in Apify, and the watchlists skill reads them.
• The first run reads everything and records a baseline; changes are reported from the next run.
• Limits. Each watch’s settings carry a maximum cost per run (a little above its estimate), because scheduled runs have no Apify spending limit of their own. Scheduled exports carry a row limit instead.
• Managing them. Ask “What am I watching?” to list them with their monthly cost, or ask to pause, change or stop one. Any change that alters the cost shows the new monthly cost first. See Watchlists.

Delivery

• Your briefing in Claude. Every digest is stored in your Apify account. Ask “Catch me up” and the briefing reads them for free and turns what changed into at most five decisions, naming any watch that failed or didn’t run on schedule.
• Every Monday, if you like. After your first briefing, Claude offers to run it every Monday as a Claude scheduled task: Claude’s own feature, on paid Claude plans (on Team and Enterprise an admin may need to turn Cowork on). It runs even when your computer is asleep, costs about $0.0002 on Apify when the notebook is on (one notebook read; nothing otherwise), and only reads: anything it suggests waits for your yes in a chat.
• Slack, Discord, Teams or email, only when you ask. Claude gives you the link to the watch’s page in the Apify Console, and you add the setting there: the channel address, or your own email provider’s key or SMTP login. Apify stores it encrypted.
• Google Sheets. A sheet kept up to date by an export can email you itself when it changes: in the sheet, Tools, then Notification settings, then Edit notifications.

Costs

Installing the plugin costs nothing. Apify bills runs to your account at each tool’s published price; prices are lower on Apify’s Silver and Gold plans. A daily digest of 50 unchanged store products: digest $0.005, 50 items × $0.00025, 50 checks × $0.0005, about $0.043 a run or $1.30 a month, within Apify’s free $5. Every typical cost and every per-result price is on the pricing page.

When something goes wrong

The common cases and their fixes are on the troubleshooting page. Still stuck? See support: we answer within one business day.